Defeat REINS Act

As one of its first acts when Congress returns on Jan. 3, the House of Representatives plans to vote on the REINS Act, a dangerous bill that will overturn health and safety protections for our community and directly subvert our Constitution.

We depend on a public, transparent process for creating legal safeguards for our food supply, consumer products, clean air and water, financial practices and workplace safety. If Cathy McMorris Rodgers and our other congressional representatives vote for the REINS Act, they will replace that transparent process with backroom deal-making by members of Congress and corporate lobbyists.

Today, federal agencies must follow a lengthy and open process to set legal safeguards. If Congress does not agree with the results, both houses must vote to change the standard.

Cathy McMorris Rodgers and the other representatives who support the REINS Act want to change that process by giving unprecedented and unconstitutional powers to a single group of lawmakers in only one branch of Congress. We cannot afford such a dangerous subversion of our constitutional process.

Congress must oppose the REINS Act, and we must hold each of our representatives accountable if they do not.

Karen Blaine

Spokane