the e.p.a. to regulate greenhouse gas emissions across the entire economy on the grounds that global warming is hazardous to human health. from the start the obama team has wielded the e.p.a. action as a club, warning congress that it did not cop up with -- if it did not come up with cap-and-trade legislation, the e.p.a. would act on its own. and in a far more blunt fashion than congress preferred, now as one anonymous administration official menaced again this week -- quote -- "if congress doesn't pass this legislation, the e.p.a. is going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty." the thing about threats, thoerbgs is that at some point -- though, is at some point you have to act on them. the e.p.a. has been sitting on this finding for months much to the agitation of the environmental groups that have been upping the pressure for action. president obama having failed to get climate legislation, didn't want to show up the cope hagan clim

the e.p.a. had to make was not a teenage to the world, but a danger to the united states of america. that scientific email was summarily rejected by dick cheney because once they accepted it, they would have the political and moral responsibility to ensure that something had to be done about it. so there was no open and free discussion inside the bush administration on that. there was no round table with dick cheney sitting in the middle of it say, let's debate the science. oh, no, no,. no free and open discussion of science. no free and open discussion of how the vice president is going to reject out of hand the consensus of the entire e.p.a. of his administration in the eighth year of the -- of the bush administration. wasn't as though there were a bunch of clinton holdovers at this point. there was a decision made by the bush administration, its e.p.a. rejected without any debate by dick cheney and the white house. all of this, unfortunately, is being covered by the media as though there's an

the e.p.a.'s regulations ripple and rake their way across our economy. in the wake of the majority's decision to block my effort to establish a one-year time-out for this process, we now find ourselves in -- in a bit of a bind. even though congress is working on climate legislation, the e.p.a. is proceeding with a tremendously expensive regulatory scheme. it appears increasingly likely that the e.p.a. will finalize its regulations before congress has an opportunity to complete debate on climate legislation. and that, mr. president, -- that outcome is simply unacceptable our nation struggles to regain its economic footing. so today, mr. president, i've come to the floor to announce that i intend to file a disapproval resolution under the provisions of the congressional review act related to the e.p.a.'s endangerment finding. i have this resolution drafted and i will introduce it as soon as the e.p.a. formally submits its rule to congress or publishes it in the federal register as is required by la

i think the e.p.a. conducted a faulty, almost sue per fluse endangerment protocol. i don't think that they've really done due diligence. i think it's laughable if you read the suppressed report by dr. carlen his little group within the e.p.a. is supposed to serve as something as a watch dog and a fact checker. his executive summary, he says there are eight or nine reasons that it falls on its face. if any one of these reasons is right. and yet, he was not allowed to put that in the record. he wasn't allowed to present that to the decision makers at the white house. in fact, he was told to shut up and stop working on it. that's not proper procedures, the regular order. so i was here when the clean air act eamts were passed in the early 90s. we were very clear in that legislation that we were regulating certain criteria pollutants. we talked about co 2 and decided that was not something that should be covered by the clean air act. it's not designed to. the limits in the clean air act don't apply to co 2. and, again, it's odor less, colorless, tasteless, it's not a thre

the e.p.a. has found one site where conditions are so severe and the contamination is so pervasive that it warranted the declaration of a public health emergency. that declaration occurred on june 17th of this year. the e.p.a. administration jackson found a public health emergency exists at the superfund site in libby, montana. libby, montana is a beautiful town, small town, surrounded by millions of akers of federal -- acres of land. it is an idyllic spot where families -- it is also a town that's gone through lots of stress -- lots of economic difficulties of the -- the timber industry has virtually shut down, mining there is not quite what it used to be in years past. people have worked together, they love libby. it is almost isolated in the northeast of montana. most people have not been to libby, but they have a wonderful sense of community in their hometown. however, liberty is also a superfund site. it is the home after big mine. it is a place where hundreds of people have grown sick and h

on monday, the e.p.a. ruled that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a danger to health and the environment. this means the e.p.a. can impose greenhouse gas regulations without the pir mission of congress. we must defeat cap and trade in the senate and put an ento the faulty interpretation of the clean air act of the -- by the e.p. ample. the e.p.a. must be stopped from making decisions that are not spored by science or curn law. at a time when so many americans are without work, the president needs to focus on ways to create jobs and improve the economy. the cap and trade bill, e.p.a. regulations or others on the holiday wish list would be devastating to the u.s. economy. that's a holiday gift no american can afford. passage of cap and trade and agreement in copenhagen, clean air findings by the e.a.p.a. we can just as soon leave those presents urn the tree unopen. president obama and speaker pelosi, don't be the grinch that steal ours christmas. i hope that's not just the way it is. i yield

this is not the e.p.a. pushing us aside, which is in and of itself contrary to what america is all about. this is about centralizing power into the hands of a government. that's what the radical environmentalists. wake up, america. we still have time to turn this around. we must fight the globalist clique that is trying to shackle future generation americans to a debt. there are chains that are hard to break, but we must have the strength and the commitment to do so. we will not give up our freedom. and we are not powerless. we will stand together. americans of every race and religion, of every ethnic group and social status, we will fight as united pates and we will win -- patriots and we will win. members of congress need to hear from angry constituents, and i predict they will. we need to overcome this power grab and need to overcome this alliance between radical environmentalists and the globalists. but most of all, in order to win, we need to overcome apathy among the american people. when the american

and the e.p.a., the environmental protection agency, which now is claiming the ability to regulate co2, they got a 33% increase in spending. e.p.a. got a 33% increasing in spending. we've never seen those kind of numbers before. look. look at these expenditure growth items over the last number of years. you know, when president bush was in, everybody said, he was a spend thrift. president bush put us in debt. democrats said we're not doing anything. this is just the way bush, it's all his fault. he was a big spender. i criticized him some for overspending. a lot of republicans have. look at the interior, environment and appropriations. averaging over from 2001 to 2009, 1%. he was holding the line. he had some 5% years, 5.6, 5.6. but some negative years too. so the average was a modest 1%. a 16% growth in spending at a time when inflation is zero. another example of that, let's just take the ag, agriculture bill, i believe in agriculture. i tried to support most of these bills. i worried sometimes we were spending too much in agriculture. but i can't vote for this. we've already moved t

the calendar. so it is possible that e.p.a. ould issue these rules before they get around to voting on the climate change bill? >> well, i certainly have heard thership -- the leadership in the senate say they do intend to move to legislation. we see very promising engagement by a number of senators. for example, when they turn to those rules, they'll have the benefit of an emissions reporting inventory that's now set in rules that e.p.a. has already adopted because we did that under different authority. this is not an eernlg/or. i have not laid out a timeline. i will make sure that we are watching and working with congress in their legislative effort. so they are independent in timeline. we don't have a timeline that looks at the senate. but i certainly hope to see them move quickly. >> a couple of questions on the phone. >> we need the best available technology. >> ok. while we wait on that, we'll take other questions from the audience. >> [question inaudible] >> the vast body of scientific evidence not only remains, it's grow

the e.p.a. administer yesterday announced that endangerment finding. yes, co-2 is now a pollutant. that means everyone in this chamber, anyone out there who might be hearing us, you are now polluters. with every breath you take you emit co-2. this was never ever conceived by congress when it passed the clean air act. we now have a situation in which administrators are going to effectively control the entire economy and the way in which we live and the way in which we breathe. this is not the idea of freedom. this is in fact not an endangerment finding about clean air. this is an endangerment finding about our freedom. our freedom took a vicious blow yesterday, and we as representatives of our people must act. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? mr. kucinich: good morning, madam speaker. i request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. mr.

by issuing the rule last week, the e.p.a. is attempting to gloss over the inconvenient truth that thousands of emails by climate researchers revealing ways they manipulated or hid evidence that disposes their theories of climate change, furthermore the ruling is an attempt to avoid the fact that the american people are opposed to this job killing cap and tax bill that has been stalled in the senate. inconveniently that leaves negotiators in copenhagen unable to broker an agreement. the e.p.a. is destroying the democratic process. while the american people support the administration's latest effort to regulate even more private companies out of business, i wouldn't hold my breath. yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from alabama. for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> i ask permission to speak to the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> madam chair i rise today to recognize an outstanding -- the outstanding

so when we talk about an endangerment finding coming out of the e.p.a., it really is just that. t endangers our economy. iten banks jobs, it endangers the competitiveness of those of us here in this country. so again, people are looking at this and saying well, what is going on in washington, d.c.? don't you realize that we need to be working to -- to save and create jobs. we need to be doing those positive things that are helping us as a nation and an economy, not those things regulatory or legislatively that would hurt us. and now, mr. president, we are in the midst of trying to move through a health care bill in the final days before -- before christmas a $2.5 trillion reform package that at this point in time we're not quite sure what's in it, but when it is revealed, it's possible that we will have about 36 hours to review this, to understand it, to appreciate the implications for us and our respective states, the impact to our economy. but again, one of the things we do know about this is that the framework that we're operating off of is one that will increase taxes on the

first it was expansion of the e.p.a. and cap and trade to deal with climate trade. a public option. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. frank: i yield my remaining time to the majority leader. the chair: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. hoyer: i'll take a minute. ladies and gentlemen of the house, i want to first of all thank mr. minnick. mr. minnick is an extraordinarily able member of this body and represents his district and our country well as a member of the congress of the united states. this amendment i think has brought up an important discussion on the perspectives that we all have. i am one of those that believes that previous administrations had two very deep failures. one was fiscal irresponsibility . we did not pay for what we bought. even at times when we said the economy was in good shape. we continued to borrow at record rates. taking a $5.6 trillion surplus and turning it into a $10 trillion deficit. the other major failure, i think, of

that is before the e.p.a. was created and turn the entrepreneurs loose to dig up the money up. that was his idea. i know he was sounding faseeshyuss. but give him a sense of humor and accuracy. we have dug holes and filled them back up. the americans want jobs? absolutely they do, madam speaker. here's what's taking place. day labor centers are now seeing natural-born americans, united states citizens, line up at the day labor centers right next to illegals competing for jobs that supposedly americans wouldn't do. "usa today" december 1, titled, unemployment day labor center and quotes a professor of usual and planning and he says, i quote, you had many, many unemployed construction workers who found themselves without stable work. some of them have gone on to seek employment by standing on street corners alongside immigrant workers. that is the professor at the university of california los angeles. and contractors and homeowners describe the jobs with pay on the spot just like illegals have. there are stories that come from tucson, arlington, los angeles. they say, citizens re

my bill would stop the e.p.a.. t will happen to small businesses and manufacturers hit with the skyrocketing energy bills especially when nations like i'd india and china don't agree to the mandatory emissions limits. with americans facing double digit unemployment, there could not be a worse time for unilaterally disarming our economic growth. small businesses are already feeling anxiety and holding off on hiring. due to the prospect of this national energy tax. government take over of healthcare and other costly policies democrats have in the works. these aren't issues president barack obama, houáq speaker nancy pelosi and democrats in congress will talk about in open copenhagen. but republicans will. also absent from the discussion in copenhagen is the climate gate scandal. recently leaked e-mails reveal climate scientist have along track record of manipulating data to hide scientific q+idence to contradict the global warmi'g establishment to bully citizens and lawmakers into law killing energy wasting job scheme

instead of a command and control approach, they left it up to the businesses how to control it, not the e.p.aor the department of environmental quality. energy producers could use any means they wanted to get under that cap. it was workable, it was simple, it was acceptable to both sides, it was one of the biggest environmental successes of recent decades. it resulted in a 40% reduction in carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions, and most importantly, by the time our little brother came along, our hometown beach was free of dead fish. so overcoming the tolstoy syndrome is all about listening. if we think we know the answer, we close off all these avenues of exploration. so now, let's go to the design stage. and let's go back a few years ago to something you all experienced here. the 1990's in california had a problem. some things, i guess, never change, but the economy was in a slump, and in part it was because of high energy prices. and governor wilson and the legislature had an idea. what if we replace public monopolies with a competitive market, and the goal -- innovation and cost savi

the e.p.a. anddrc agreement is very much of a framework.ising but again there's a lot of exchange that's gone on between, e.p.a. and the admin. industry of environment protection over the years in improving capacity to monitor and verify conventional pollutants so there's a lot of expertise demonstrated that could be applied further to co2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. just like the, m o 2 in july that was sign supply and demand much of a frame work and these agreements provide more detail. the next step would be to provide some sort of annex or partnership to put meat on the bone. third to really deepen and accelerate the cooperation, we believe that it's very important to make each of these agreement as public private partnership to utilize the expertise that exists in the private sector and business community but also at the state level in the u.s. that had let the way many years to also take into account research institutes. utilities and,ng o. the greater efforts to utilize the expertise and not to make just government to governm

the president what? that she said that? >> yeah. >> i don't think it's true. >> another subject. e.p.a. dioxide ruling, some businesses have expressed concerns about poor regulations maybe in terms of jobs. does the white house believe in any way that these regulations could have a positive benefit for jobs? >> there's no question. first of all, this was a process started not under this e.p.a. but under a previous e.p.a. based on a supreme court decision handed down in 2007 that required the e.p.a. to look into this. secondly i think as the president talked about, even yesterday, we have an ability through incentivizing a clean the energy -- clean the energy economy to create the type of demand that's necessary to create more and more clean energy jobs. somebody's going to bloo build, as i've said, somebody's going to build the wind turbines that power our homes. somebody's going to build those solar panels. the only question is, who's going to do it? by locating those manufacturing facilities here, it could be americans that build those rather than having us import them from somewhere e

further the e.p.a. should halt all carbon emissions regulations of the energy community until we learn the facts about climate change. honesty is a prerequisite for conclusions about climate change legislation. and now we learn that climate change is not a well settled scientific fact at all. whether the mad scientists at the university of anglia like that fact or not. and that's just the way it is. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: thank you, mr. poe. for what purpose does the gentlewoman rise? ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, yesterday on world aids day the administration announced its proposed five-year strategy for the president's emergency plan for aids relief otherwise known as petfar. the strategy is required by the tom lantos and henry j. hyde united states global leadership against hiv-aids, tuberculosis and malaria reauthorization act of 2008. that's a mighty long name. but it does so much good. and it begins to shift petfar from an emergency pr

first it was expansion of the e.p.a. and cap and trade to deal with climate trade. a public option. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. frank: i yield my remaining time to the majority leader. the chair: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. hoyer: i'll take a minute. ladies and gentlemen of the house, i want to first of all thank mr. minnick. mr. minnick is an extraordinarily able member of this body and represents his district and our country well as a member of the congress of the united states. this amendment i think has brought up an important discussion on the perspectives that we all have. i am one of those that believes that previous administrations had two very deep failures. one was fiscal irresponsibility . we did not pay for what we bought. even at times when we said the economy was in good shape. we continued to borrow at record rates. taking a $5.6 trillion surplus and turning it into a $10 trillion deficit. the other major failure, i think, of

come on >> ifill: still to come othe pbs newshour, the obma administration formally decres grnhouse gases a threat to public healt we interview e.p.a. administrator lisjackson. ray suarez begins "pahwork nation," our weeklongeries on thetate of the nation's conomy, tonight from philadelphia. nd jeffrey brown looks at whether grand opera s a grand future. >> lehrer: that's all aad. bu now, the day's other news, areported by the newest membe of our team, ri sreenivasan. he comes to us from cbsews, among otr journalistic places. 's in our newsroom now. welce, hari. >> tnks, jim. it's good to be here. ousands of anti-government ptesters clashed with secuty fors in iran's capital today. prests erupted in other cities as well. there was no word arrests, but web sites repoed at least one person s wounded. we have a repo narrated by jonhan rugman of independent television news. >> rorter: they burned a piure of the republic founde its supreme leader, and th the president. iran's protest movement back on the streets today, its anger at the regime aarently as fierst as eve. death to the dictator the students in tean shouted as the waved iria

the minority press release states, only $235 million out of the $6.4 billion for e.p.a. water, wastewater grants has left the treasury. the fact is 99% of that funding has already been provided to the states. so much for that strawman. let me, madam speaker, simply make this observation. we have before us a bill that determines to redirect $75 billion which had initially been directed to help wall street and we want to instead redirect that money to help main street. so we provide $27 billion, for instance, for highway infrastructure projects to put people back in construction. you are either for it or you're against it. we provided enough funding in this legislation to assist more than $670 communities address their growing backlog of water and sewer repairs and put people to work in the process. you are either for it or against it. we provided $27 billion to try -- from wall street to main street to try to stabilize public service jobs. we are trying to preserve $250,000 teaching jobs over the next two years, for instance. you are either for doing that or you are agains

the u.s. is getting serious: an e.p.a. declaration this week that carbon dioxide endangers human health, and must be regulated, even if congress doesn't act. it's what environmentalists had wanted for years. activist mike tidwell of the chesapeake climate action network say a tough deal is what's required. >> this is a nation of laws and if we want to change to change this nation, we must change laws, ala civil rights movement, >> reporter: tidwell has limited his own carbon footprint. he drives a hybrid car, gets electricity from solar panels and heat with a corn fueled stove. but he says that is not enough. >> individual changes count, they do raise awareness, but we will never solve the climate crisis one refrigerator at time, one household at a time. instead of wagging our finger at aunt betty to go buy more efficient light-bulbs, wouldn't it be great if the next time when she went to buy light bulbs there were only energy efficient light bulbs and you get there through policy and statutes. >> reporter: for that policy,

the minority press release states, only $235 million out of the $6.4 billion for e.p.a. r, wastewater grants has left the treasury. the fact is 99% of that funding has already been provided to the states. so much for that strawman. let me, madam speaker, simply make this observation. we have before us a bill that determines to redirect $75 billion which had initially been directed to help wall street and we want to instead redirect that money to help main street. so we provide $27 billion, for instance, for highway infrastructure projects to put people back in construction. you are either for it or you're against it. we provided enough funding in this legislation to assist more than $670 communities address their growing backlog of water and sewer repairs and put people to work in the process. you are either for it or against it. we provided $27 billion to try -- from wall street to main street to try to stabilize public service jobs. we are trying to preserve $250,000 teaching jobs over the next two years, for instance. you are either for doing that or you are against it

is all of that funding sq%ei the minority press release states only $235 million out of the $6.4 billion for e.p.aewater grants has left the treasury. the fact is 99% of that funding has already been provided to the states. so much for that strowman. -- strawman. let me madam speaker make this observation. we have before us a bill that determines to redirect $75 billion which had initially been directed to help wall street and we want to instead redirect that money to help main street. so we provide $27 billion for instance for highway infrastructure projects to put people back in construction. you're either for it or you're against it. we have provided enough funding in this legislation to assist more than 670 communities, address their growing backlog of water and sewer repairs and put people to work in the process. . process. you are either for it against it. we provided $27 billion to try -- from wall street to main street to try to stabilize public service jobs. we are trying to preserve $250,000 teaching jobs over the next two years, for instance. you are either for doing that or you are aga

an endanger finding could pave the way to emit carbon dioxide a dangerous to make costly changes in machinery to reduce emissions. e.p.a. action to regulate it could effect the u.s. economy more directly and quickly than any global deal inc.ed the danish capital. many groups are opposed to curb a gas as ambiguous about carbon dioxide. caller: good morning, c-span. how are you? i want to set the record straight that tarp was actually a bush plan. it was written by henry paulson and everyone and their uncle was against that plan and now we're finding out that it's paying off which is what the plan was supposed to do when it began. obama from that plan and now he's reaping the benefit for it. people in this party, on this side of the aisle are against obama because he's antifree market. stimulus had nothing to do with stimulating this market. taxing corporations who employ americans and legislation that out-sourcing american workers to say india is not doing the worker of america any favors and owner industries and autoand real estate doesn't help this economy either. he needs to lower taxes on companies. host: thanks for

that are impeding job growth and job creation, what i speak of there are some of the rules having to do -- coming out of e.p.a., the rules certainly that impact manufacturers right now. cap and trade is a legislative example of what these kind of rules will do. i don't think any of us want to promote anything but clean air, but we have got to have an eye towards the cost and the benefit and make sure we remember, it is really about jobs that people care about right now and if we want to get jobs created, we got to look to the small manufacturers just like the small restaurant owners and the small business users. in our bill is a clear attempt to say, look, relief the harm right now. you have done so much in terms of what you see the democratic majority push, whether it's cap and trade, whether it's car check, whether it is this spending hundreds of billions of dollars and incurring more debt, that has created such an environment of doubt and uncertainty as to what washington will do next. let's stop the harm. i think we can agree on some of these things without getting into their policy agenda, some of these

the supreme court. this finding will require e.p.a. to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the clean air act. monday's endangerment finding is a critical step in our country's effort to stop global warming, which not only poses a threat to public health and welfare but to our national security. i am proud of the strong, science-based actions taken by this administration to live up to its clean air obligations to protect our health. but i strongly believe that the best way for our country to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emissions is through comprehensive legislation enacted in the congress of the united states. legislation that invests in clean energy and new high-tech infrastructure will bring us to a long-sought goal of energy independence, good jobs for our citizens, and a healthy planet for our children and grandchildren. we are now closer to that kind of legislation than we have ever been. the house has passed a bill that puts a limit on pollution in our air. it dedicates funding to develop new domestic sources of clean energy. it invests in new infrastructure that is less dependen

i have been deeply impressed with the work of secretary ray lahood of transportation, housing secretary, shaun donovan, e.p.aadministrator lisa jackson, where the federal government is in the process of creating a new partnerships with our communities, businesses and families in terms of how the federal government does business and invests that money. but even with bold vision and with more value being extracted, we actually are going to need to invest more money. the chinese, for instance, are investing about nine times as much as the united states in their infrastructure needs. we are losing the race for global competitiveness while we see conditions deteriorate here at home. the society of civil engineers has graded american infrastructure at a d and suggest that it require at least $2.2 trillion in the next five years to bring things up to standard. if we act now, there are in fact areas of broad support for more investment, from business, local government and the american people, if this increased money goes to rebuild and renew our country. there is a danger that our current direction will not be as ef