What you don’t know can hurt you. Behind the smokescreen of President Trump’s high profile Executive Orders and public statements, he and Congress are undermining public health and safety, as well as government revenue. By undoing or weakening existing policies, they are allowing, among other things:
- Underpayment of royalties on fossil fuel extraction,
- Use of unsafe and inefficient private prisons,
- Dumping of coal mining wastes into streams, and
- Weakened background checks for gun purchases by people unable to manage their own affairs.
President Trump rescinded a rule that stopped corporations from paying royalties based on artificially low prices. When a corporation extracts oil, gas, and coal on public lands, it will (if it can) sell them to a subsidiary at an artificially low price that allows it to pay an artificially low royalty to the federal government. Its subsidiary then sells the extracted fossil fuel at a much higher, market price. The result is a windfall for the corporation and a rip-off of taxpayers. [1]
Trump’s Attorney General has rescinded the decision to eliminate the use of unsafe and inefficient private prisons. Last August, a Department of Justice Inspector General’s report found that the private prisons used by the Bureau of Prisons did not provide the same level of safety and security as government owned and operated prisons. Therefore, Obama’s Deputy Attorney General announced a decision to eliminate this use of private prisons. In her announcement, she also noted that the private prisons did not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources to prisoners as government-run prisons, and that they did not substantially reduce costs.
Despite this evidence, the Trump administration has decided that 13 private federal prisons, which hold 22,000 inmates, will continue to be run by private corporations. Thus, hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars will pay three corporations to run unsafe, substandard, inefficient prisons. (See my previous posts here and here for more details.) Perhaps not surprisingly, these three corporations have given significant amounts of money to politicians, including to President Trump. One of them, CoreCivic, formerly the Correction Corporation of America, gave $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural festivities. GEO Group, another one of the three private prison corporations, also gave $250,000 to Trump’s inaugural festivities, on top of the $275,000 it had given to a Super PAC that supported the Trump campaign. [2]
Congress has also taken steps to roll back regulations that are in the public interest. A measure to rescind a rule banning the dumping of coal mining debris into streams has passed the House and Senate. President Trump is expected to sign it. The House and Senate have also voted to rescind a regulation requiring oil and gas corporations to disclose payments to foreign governments for mining and drilling rights. The House has voted to overturn a rule that reduced the harmful atmospheric emissions from burning unused natural gas at drilling operations on federal lands. [3] The House has also passed a resolution weakening background checks for gun purchases by Social Security recipients who have been declared incompetent to manage their personal affairs. [4]
Republicans in Congress are employing a rarely used tool, the Congressional Review Act, to roll back rules issued in the final months of Obama’s presidency. The Act provides a temporary window in which a simple majority of both chambers can rescind a newly promulgated rule. Trump must sign these measures to complete the rescinding of the targeted rule. The Act also prevents the executive branch from enacting a substantially similar rule in the near future. [5]
Furthermore, Congress is considering two new laws that would make it even easier for it to exercise its political judgement and overrule science-based regulations. One of the new laws, dubbed the Midnight Rules Relief Act, is described as the Congressional Review Act on steroids and would, among other things, prohibit federal agencies from re-proposing a rejected regulation indefinitely. The other new law, called the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, would require any new regulation to be approved by Congress. If Congress failed to approve the regulation, it would not go into effect. Both of these laws are being pushed by corporate lobbyists who want to block the implementation of science-based standards for air and water quality, among other things. [6]
Behind the smokescreen of Trump’s high-profile actions, his administration and Congress are undermining public health and safety. It seems clear that the current Congress and administration are committed to benefiting corporate America and ignoring the well-being of every-day Americans. Furthermore, sweetheart deals for large corporations are providing them a financial windfall at the expense of every-day taxpayers.
I urge you to tell your Representative and Senators in Congress that you believe it is government’s job to protect the health and safety of the public, even if it is an inconvenience for big corporations. And that corporations should pay their fair share of taxes and government fees, because otherwise you and I and all the other individual taxpayers have to make up the difference. Tell your Congress men and women that our democracy is supposed to be of, by, and for the people, not large corporations.
[1] Sierra Club, 2/14/17, “Trump ends rule blocking corporate polluters from paying themselves,” Common Dreams (http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2017/02/24/trump-ends-rule-blocking-corporate-polluters-paying-themselves)
[2] Zapotosky, M., 2/23/17, “Justice Department will again use private prisons,” The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-will-again-use-private-prisons/2017/02/23/da395d02-fa0e-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.f631c1be57d2)
[3] Daly, M., 2/3/17, “House votes to overturn Obama rule on natural gas ‘flaring’,” Associated Press (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d84e8dd2a74042ed8d9e864fdb59d069/house-poised-overturn-obama-rule-natural-gas-flaring)
[4] Freking, K., & Daly, M., 2/2/17, “Congress scraps Obama rules on coal mining, guns,” Associated Press (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/bf29ce0c4ba84550b51f503e7618d901/house-gop-aims-scrap-obama-rule-gun-background-checks)
[5] Freking, K., & Daly, M., 2/2/17, see above
[6] Kothari, Y., 1/4/17, “Attacking science in week one: How Congress is trying to dismantle public protections,” Union of Concerned Scientists in Common Dreams (http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/01/04/attacking-science-week-one-how-congress-trying-dismantle-public-protections)
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