Republican Congressman on Push to Abolish the EPA
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on introducing a bill to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.
There have been reports that the Trump administration may look to make significant cuts to the EPA’s budget and staffing. But one Congressman is taking it a step further and wants to abolish the EPA. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) discussed the bill he is introducing to end the EPA.
“It’s not that I’m against conservation, I support conservation, I just don’t think the federal government’s any good at it,” Gaetz told the FOX Business Network’s Stuart Varney.
According to Gaetz, in his home state of Florida he’s seen the EPA get in the way of conservation projects instead of taking the lead.
“I’m from the state of Florida and time again we’ve seen the EPA and other federal agencies stand in the way of conservation projects.”
But Gaetz reassured that even without an EPA there would be environmental laws that the federal government would enforce.
“There are a number of federal environmental laws that we will still need to enforce, but my belief is the EPA in its current form cannot be reformed.”
Gaetz sees an end to the EPA as the only solution to improving environmental regulations and getting funding to local governments where it can do the most good.
“We ought to pull the EPA up from the weeds, we ought to start over with right-size regulations that will protect our environment and then to every extent possible, downstream the $8 billion that the EPA currently spends to our states and local governments where we can truly protect the environmental assets that are important to people in their states and in their local communities.”