Representative Jason Smith (R-MO) sponsored H.R. 998, the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act, which would jeopardize critical environmental safeguards that have been in place for decades and make it extremely difficult to develop new standards in response to threats to public health and the environment. Under the guise of regulatory reform, this legislation creates a regulatory review commission that would disregard the public benefits of environmental safeguards and only consider the costs to industries. This bill also creates a misguided “cut-go” system for safeguards, requiring any agency issuing a new safeguard to remove an existing safeguard of equal or greater cost, which would result in key public health protections being eliminated. On March 1, the House approved H.R. 998 by a vote of 240-185 (House roll call vote 114). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The Senate took no action on this legislation.