WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate Floor regarding the EPA’s latest attempt at government overreach:

“Yesterday, the American people scored a victory in the ongoing battle against government overreach.

“They rose up, they spoke out, and they forced the Obama Administration to withdraw the latest gem from the department of terrible ideas over at the Environmental Protection Agency. 

“And they showed two things in the process: first, the need for constant vigilance when it comes to protecting our liberties – especially with the current crowd at the White House – and second, the impact ordinary citizens can have.

“The proposal in question was uniquely awful: the goal was for the EPA to grant itself the authority to garnish the wages of private citizens, without even giving them a day in court.

“Imagine: you receive a letter from the government accusing you of violating some obscure regulation – a regulation you’d probably never heard of, and didn’t even know you were violating.

“The government then hits you with massive fines — sometimes on the order of tens of thousands of dollars a day —as you weigh your legal options and whether to fight it in court.

“And if you can’t or won’t pay those fines in the meantime, too bad, bureaucrats in Washington will just take them out of your paycheck anyway.

“Without even the option of contesting the government’s actions in court beforehand.

“It’s government overreach at its worst.

“That’s why I joined Senators Thune, Vitter, and Barrasso in speaking out against it, and that’s why we developed a resolution of disproval to block it.

“But the real key to our success here was the action of the American people themselves. They got our help, but they didn’t sit back and wait. They let their outrage be known. They fought back against this brazen power grab.

“And thanks to all these efforts, the Administration finally threw in the towel yesterday.

“I was glad to see it. 

“But look: the fact that the Obama Administration’s EPA even introduced this rule in the first place should concern all of us. It’s outrageous.

“But it’s also not surprising.

“Because this is the same Administration that just proposed a so-called “Waters of the U.S.” regulation that would expand the government’s authority so broadly that the agency could regulate and fine almost every pothole and ditch in our backyards.

“And this is the same Administration that’s been waging a costly War on Coal Jobs in my state through similarly onerous and arbitrary regulations aimed at pleasing hard-core activists in Washington without any regard for real world consequences.

“It’s like these distant elites in Washington view their mission as ideological warfare.

“And they don’t seem the least bit concerned about the casualties they leave behind.

“I’ve tried to get some of these bureaucratic foot soldiers down to Kentucky to see the impact of their efforts first-hand.

“But they’re not interested. 

“They’re not interested in people like the 32-year old unemployed miner who walked into a Pikeville pregnancy center to ask for baby clothes. An employee at that center wrote to tell me what this miner said: ‘I don’t come from a family that has ever had to ask for help,’ he said. ‘I feel humiliated, but my baby is suffering.’

“That pregnancy center employee wrote that the look on his face broke her heart. ‘[But] this is the plight of many of our families in Eastern Kentucky,’ she wrote, ‘their livelihood is being taken away by the War on Coal.’

“These are the people that distant bureaucrats in Washington should be forced to meet with before they draft their rules.

“This guy just wants to put food on the table, to keep the lights on and give his kids a better life.

“But the War on Coal Jobs is taking away more than just his livelihood and that of so many others.

“It’s taking away his dignity too.

“Maybe that’s why the Administration doesn’t want to meet Kentuckians like him.

“Maybe that’s why they don’t want to look my constituents in the eye.

“It’s a big problem. And that’s why I’m so proud of the people who stood up to this latest ominous regulation.

“Yesterday, the EPA confirmed that it won’t hold a single hearing within hours of my state as it works to finalize national energy tax regulations that could devastate the lives of tens of thousands of Kentuckians.

“They don’t care. And they’re not listening.
 
“Well, I care. I see these folks when I go home. I hear their stories. And my heart breaks for them.
 
“And so I’m going to keep fighting this kind of thing.
 
“I’m going to keep fighting against the Obama Administration’s various power grabs and its regulatory overreach.
 
“I’m going to keep fighting against the national energy tax.

“And I’m going to keep fighting for practical ideas that aim to help struggling families for once, a marked departure from the Administration’s constant attacks against them.
 
“Ideas like the Coal Country Protection Act, and the Saving Coal Jobs Act.
 
“These proposals are just common-sense.

“And if the Majority Leader would stop blocking them, we could deliver some relief to middle-class families for once.

“So he should know that I’m not going to let up.

“And neither are the American people who won this important victory yesterday over the EPA’s latest power-grab.

“Because as we also saw with the Administration’s recent withdrawal of an IRS regulation aimed at restricting free speech, the people can still win with enough determination.

“Civic involvement works. And given the pattern of abuse we keep seeing from this Administration, it’s absolutely critical.”