The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018.

Mark Sumner

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday February 15, 2017 · 8:01 AM PST

2017/02/15 · 08:01

The seats for Democratic senators remain empty as a vote is held on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 2, 2017. / AFP / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) — A vote on the nomination of Scott Pruitt held without Democratic senators present

That’s H. R. 861. Not the title of H. R. 861, it’s the whole bill.

The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018.

The bill, introduced by Florida Republican Matt Gaetz and co-sponsored by Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, Mississippi’s Steven Palazzo, and Georgia’s Barry Loudermilk doesn’t bother with anything like wondering what happens to the data the agency collects, or the enforcement the agency carries out. It doesn’t sweat the details of employees or contracts. There’s nothing about what happens to the Clean Air Act, or the Clean Water Act, or the Endangered Species Act, or … anything at all.

Just ‘terminated.’

Of course, Republicans already have an alternative means of destroying the EPA in place. Under Scott Pruitt, the plan is already underway to subvert and pervert the agency’s mission, to make sure it is critically understaffed, to turn it into a prime example of a non-functional bureaucracy.

So it’s likely that Gaetz’s bill won’t get the support it needs. This time.

Remember how the Tea Party turned the tide against us back in 2010, by showing up at town halls and annoying Democratic members of Congress? Well, now it's time to return the favor.

The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018.

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