Hurt comments on House passage of farm-dust legislation

Congressman Robert Hurt (R-VA) released the following statement after the House voted Thursday to approve the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act (H.R. 1633), a bipartisan bill that he co-authored with Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD). H.R. 1633 was passed the House by a vote of 268-150 and will now be reported to the Senate:

“I am pleased to see the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act (H.R. 1633) was approved by the full House today with bipartisan support, and it is my hope that our colleagues in the Senate will recognize the importance of providing regulatory relief to our job creators and take action on this legislation to do so.

“Over the past three years, the American entrepreneurial spirit has been crippled by federal government regulations, resulting in millions of Americans out of work, and many businesses closing their doors. At a time when too many Central and Southside Virginians are struggling to find jobs, we must continue to promote policies that will remove the federal government as a barrier to job creation in order to foster an economic environment that both provides an opportunity for job creators to hire and incentivizes them to expand.

“The Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act gets to the root of this problem by removing the federal government from the business of over-regulating. This legislation provides us with a step forward to getting our economy back on track by providing immediate relief to farmers and rural areas through preventing more stringent, job-crushing dust standards from being implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By passing this legislation, the House has taken one more step toward our goal of creating certainty for our job creators, removing the roadblocks posed by excessive regulations, and getting our economy back on track so that our small business owners can get back to creating the jobs that Central and Southside Virginians and all Americans need and deserve.”