Letter: REINS act would overturn health and safety protections
As one of his first acts in the new Congress, Rep. Dan Newhouse plans to vote for the REINS Act, a dangerous bill that will overturn health and safety protections for our community and directly subvert our Constitution.
We depend on a public, transparent process for creating legal safeguards for our food supply, consumer products, clean air and water, financial practices and workplace safety. If Rep. Newhouse votes for the REINS Act, he will replace that transparent process with backroom deal-making by members of Congress and corporate lobbyists.
Today, federal agencies must follow a lengthy and open process to set legal safeguards. If Congress does not agree with the results, both houses must vote to change the standard.
Rep. Newhouse wants to change that by giving unprecedented and unconstitutional powers to a single group of lawmakers in only one branch of Congress. We cannot afford such a dangerous subversion of our Constitutional process.
If Rep. Newhouse truly wants to protect our Constitution, he must oppose the REINS Act, and we must hold him accountable if he does not.
Elinor Kasza, Richland
This story was originally published January 8, 2017 at 4:34 AM with the headline "Letter: REINS act would overturn health and safety protections."