In This Week's Edition of E-News…

Update on Bid to Save 911th

Legislation to Put The Brakes On EPA’s Regulatory Lead Foot

New Climate Change Regs Will Hit Coal Region Jobs

House Votes to Cut $5.3 Trillion in Spending

Update on Bid to Save 911th

Congressman Tim Murphy and other members of the PA congressional delegation met with top generals from the Air Force this week to review the Pentagon’s rationale behind the Administration’s attempt to close the 911th Airlift Wing in Moon Township. Murphy said lawmakers continue to press the Air Force for the data and analysis used in its decision-making process.

“This process must be transparent and up front. Too many lives depend on it and as taxpayers we demand it. Our military families who work at the 911th deserve nothing less,” said Rep. Murphy, who has outlined in letters to President Obama and the Secretary of the Air Force why the 911th is unique to national security – both in terms of mission support and cost-effectiveness (to read the letters, click here).

“We’re deeply concerned the Air Force hasn’t revealed to us the information used but have been assured they will be providing it,” said Murphy. “I plan on keeping them at their word.”

Meanwhile, local families, veterans and SWPA's greater military community are invited to participate in a Town Hall and Rally to save the 911th Airlift Wing and 171st Air National Guard, both of which are located in Congressman Murphy’s 18th Congressional district.

This special event, sponsored by Allegheny County Veterans Affairs, will be held at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland at 7PM on Tuesday, April 3rd. Congressman Murphy will give an update about his efforts to save the base and force the Administration to undertake a thorough and transparent review of the base’s attributes and unique contributions to national security. Local officials, veterans organizations and military affairs coalitions will be participating. Please save the date and show your support for saving the 911th Air Reserve Wing and the 171st Air Refueling Wing of the Pennsylvania National Guard. For more information call Congressman Murphy’s Mt. Lebanon office at 412.344.5583.

To share your thoughts on the 911th and 171st please click here.
 

Legislation to Put The Brakes On EPA’s Regulatory Lead Foot

EPA regulations have increased the price of home renovations by 30%

In the last two years, the regulatory reach of the Environmental Protection Agency has gone far beyond clean water or air to cover global matters like the effect of carbon dioxide emissions on the earth’s temperature to seemingly small-bore items like kitchen remodeling. As Vice Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment and Economy, Congressman Murphy has been examining the impact EPA’s actions have on jobs and economic growth.

This week, Mr. Murphy announced introduction of his legislation, along with Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK), to reform an EPA mandate called the “Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting (LRRP)” rule, which treats home renovation projects with the same cautionary standards and regulatory burdens as the removal of asbestos. Murphy’s legislation will likely be referred to his subcommittee where he will be in a position to move the bill quickly.

Rep. Murphy said the EPA lead paint rule makes it exorbitantly cost prohibitive for middle class families to renovate kitchens, game rooms, or repaint homes built prior to 1978. Some contractors in Southwestern Pennsylvania told Murphy project estimates have risen by thirty percent because of the rule and many local homeowners have stopped moving forward on renovations.

Under the EPA’s lead paint rule, home remodeling contractors are being forced to comply with mandates and employee training regimens without taking into account risks or costs. The rule states any home renovation — however minor — disturbing more than six square feet of a pre-1978 house, window, or door, must follow rigorous work practices like plastic sheathing and lead dust control, all supervised by an EPA-certified renovator. For instance, if exterior paint contains trace levels of lead, the entire house must be covered in plastic or tarps to prevent any lead dust from entering the air.

When the mandate was crafted in 2008, the EPA intended to allow homeowners without children under age 6 or pregnant women to opt-out of the new regulatory regime. But in conjunction with environmentalists, the Obama Administration’s EPA removed the opt-out provision and has now more doubled the number of homes — 80 million — subject to the lead rule.

Murphy’s bill will be modeled on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma to empower homeowners to make decisions about remodeling project costs and precautions instead of the EPA.

Contractors are spending hundreds of dollars on employee certification. Prices for repainting simple window frames have

New EPA rule treats paint like it is asbestos

increased by $50 apiece while the typical cost of renovation project has risen by $1,500 at a time when the housing industry is still trying to recover from the 2007-8 recession. Contractors must also keep and retain records for EPA inspection that document work practices, renovator certifications, proof of worker training, and pre-renovation testing for lead-based paint. Failure to do so could subject builders to fines in excess of $30,000 a day.

EPA’s internal figures peg compliance costs at more than $336 million per year. However, home remodeling contractors say the EPA is underestimating the true costs of compliance not to mention the new costs for homeowners.

To share your views on the EPA lead paint rule, please click here.
 

New Climate Change Regs Will Hit Coal Region Jobs

In what could be a death knell for coal-fired electricity, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday published regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants.

To hear how the new regulation would impact families making a living in the coal industry, Rep. Murphy this week sat down with employees at Robinson Township’s Eickoff Corporation, which manufactures shearing blades used in longwall mining equipment, and Rosebud Mining, which operates numerous coal mines in Armstrong and Somerset Counties. The proposed EPA mandate would make coal much more expensive as a power source, they said. Mine workers, boilermakers, and factory workers who produce equipment used in the mines would be affected – not to mention consumers like heavy manufacturers that would have to pay higher electric bills.

Rep. Murphy said the new regulations would harm heavy industry economies like Southwestern Pennsylvania that depend upon access to affordable electricity.

With global demand for energy projected to increase forty percent by 2030, largely in countries like China, fully leveraging our region’s coal resources will empower our region to truly be the energy capital of the world again.

The new EPA rule, coupled with the EPA’s recent regulations related to cross-state air emissions and mercury, will increase electricity rates for consumers in areas where coal is a large source of energy by thirty to forty percent. Southwestern Pennsylvania receives more than half of its electricity from coal-powered plants.

Pennsylvania is the fourth leading coal generating state in the country producing over 66 million tons in 2010. As the Chairman of the House Bipartisan Energy Working Group and vice-chair of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment and Economy, Rep. Murphy has been working to advance policies that promote coal, natural gas, and nuclear power rather than shutting down these industries.  

To share your views on climate change and the impact on coal please click here.

House Votes to Cut $5.3 Trillion in Spending

With the federal debt exceeding $15.5 trillion, the House of Representatives took an important step on the path toward a balanced budget by passing the Fiscal Year 2013 House Budget Committee proposal by a vote of 228-191. Congressman Tim Murphy supported the budget, which is titled, “The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for Renewal.” The budget is the first step for Congress in adopting tax and spending policies for the upcoming year.

The FY13 budget plan preserves benefits for veterans; makes $5.3 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years; initiates pro-growth reforms to the 70,000 page tax code intended to make it simpler, fairer, and more competitive; reduces the US corporate tax rate, which is the highest in the world, from 35 percent to 25 percent; and closes loopholes and limits deductions that are generally used by the wealthiest Americans to shelter income from taxation.

The proposal also repeals the 2010 healthcare law and the new Medicare price control and rationing board (Independent Payment Advisory Board), along with making meaningful reforms to retirement programs in an effort to preserve them for future generations. Medicare is a promise made to senior citizens, but if changes are not made, the health insurer for the nation’s senior citizens will be broke by 2016 according the Trust Fund’s actuary.

“There have been reports that this budget cuts programs for seniors,” said Rep. Murphy. “I read this budget and can affirm it does not. This plan does not cut Medicare and Social Security, it saves the program.”

Rep. Murphy, the author of the Social Security and Medicare Protection Act (H.R. 1630) to stop Congress from using deposits in the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds to pay for other programs, noted that this budget preserves the current Medicare system for those who have planned their lives around the existing model (55 and older). And beginning in 2023, seniors would be given options much like the choice of plans Members of Congress have. Most importantly, no senior will be denied coverage under the plan regardless of pre-existing conditions and wealthier seniors will assume responsibility for a greater share of their premiums.

In response to a “Key Vote Alert” survey that Congressman Murphy sent out on Monday, nearly twice as many constituents favored the House budget plan to cut spending than were opposed to it.

“This budget stops the overspending and puts us back onto sound fiscal footing,” said Rep. Murphy. “The agreement isn’t perfect and more spending cuts are still needed, but it’s a critical down payment towards stabilizing and controlling the debt.”

To share your thoughts on how to preserve and protect retirement programs, please click here.