REGULATIONS FROM THE EXECUTIVE IN NEED OF SCRUTINY ACT OF 2015

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the bill. The REINS Act would create new obstacles to the promulgation of regulations designed to protect American workers' health and safety and to protect the environment.

It would jeopardize the economy by impeding regulations for financial services and throw sand in the gears of government efforts to address growing inequality and prevent discrimination.

Congress already has the right to disapprove any rule through the Congressional Review Act or through appropriations bills or other legislation. This bill would essentially impose a procedural chokehold by requiring that any major rule receive affirmative House and Senate approval within 70 legislative days.

As an example of the effect of this bill, we note that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, is in the process of updating a nearly 70-year-old standard to keep workers from contracting a progressive and frequently fatal lung disease called chronic beryllium disease.

In the 1940s, workers at the Atomic Energy Commission plants were contracting acute beryllium poisoning. To deal with the problem, two of their scientists sitting in the back of a taxicab on the way to a meeting agreed to set the beryllium exposure limit at 2 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Established back in 1948, that standard is still in place today and is often called ``the taxicab standard'' because there was no data supporting that number.

In 1975, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health advised OSHA to issue a new, more stringent protective standard. That effort faltered. Now, one cost of inaction is an estimated loss of 100 lives per year each year this new standard is delayed.

Another is the fact that we have to pay over $300 million in Federal compensation to workers and their survivors who have contracted chronic beryllium disease and who are employed by the Energy Department's contractors and vendors.

Today, over 100,000 workers are exposed to beryllium, and workers in my district are not alone in asking the government to be on their side. There is substantial stakeholder support from beryllium producers and labor representatives to cut the standard exposure limit by 90 percent.

Over the last 17 years, OSHA has worked to update that standard, based on numerous scientific studies and expert recommendations, and now, the new standard is working its way slowly through the regulatory process; and under the present laws and procedures, it still might be another year or two before the final rule is promulgated.

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that this nearly 70-year-old standard fails to protect workers, there are still a few who object. By requiring a bicameral resolution of approval prior to the rule ever taking effect, this legislation will make it easier for a well-funded special interest group to block needed workplace protections.

The underlying bill does nothing but prioritize special interests above the protection of lives and limbs of American workers. I, therefore, urge a ``no'' vote on this bill.