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Washington, DC– This month, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), chairman of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee, has voted to roll back costly Obama-era regulations that hurt Kentucky businesses and violate Americans’ constitutional rights.

“Over the past eight years, countless unnecessary regulations have hurt families and businesses,” said Guthrie. “The Obama administration went after coal miners and farmers, trampled our senior citizens’ constitutional rights, and even allowed taxpayer money to go to abortion providers. If that wasn’t enough, they took control away from local schools and gave it to the federal government. House Republicans have been working hard to repeal these costly regulations, and I urge the Senate to vote on them soon so we can provide relief to the millions of Americans who are paying for them.”

The House voted this month for multiple resolutions under the authority of the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to roll back executive regulations. Among the House-passed resolutions was Guthrie’s H.J.Res. 58, which would repeal a rule finalized in October 2016 that significantly expands the federal government’s involvement in teacher preparation and may lead to fewer teachers serving some our nation’s most vulnerable children.

“Having the best and brightest teachers in our nation’s classrooms helps ensure that students receive the high-quality education they deserve. Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s misguided teacher preparation rule has the opposite effect,”said Guthrie. “This resolution would block the flawed rule, which hurts teachers and students across the country, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods. It also provides an opportunity to address teacher preparation responsibly in the context of a broader effort to strengthen the higher education system.”

In addition to H.J.Res. 58, the House passed the following resolutions to roll back Obama-era regulations:

·        H.J.Res. 36, to repeal the Bureau of Land Management Methane Rule, which duplicates existing Environmental Protection Agency and state regulations for oil and gas sources on federal land at a cost of over $1 billion and many energy industry jobs, with a negligible benefit to air quality.

·        H.J.Res. 38, to repeal the “Stream Protection Rule,” which has been estimated to cost over 68,000 coal mining jobs. This resolution has passed the Senate and been signed into law.

·        H.J.Res. 40, to repeal the Social Security rule that automatically lists certain senior citizens on a register that prevents them from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

·        H.J.Res. 42, to repeal the Department of Labor rule that limits state discretion when providing drug tests for unemployment insurance applicants.

·        H.J.Res. 43, to repeal a Department of Health and Human Services rule that allows Title X funding to go to abortion providers.

·        H.J.Res. 44, to repeal the Bureau of Land Management’s “2.0 Rule,” which dilutes state and local input on land management decisions.

·        H.J.Res. 66, to repeal a Department of Labor rule resulting in private-sector workers being forced into government-run IRAs managed by states.

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