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Legislation has been introduced in the House to do away with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Introduced by Congressman Matt Gaetz, the bill (H.R. 861) would abolish the EPA effective December 31, 2018.

Gaetz said it is a necessary move because the functions of the agency are best left to state and local communities to determine what their local needs are and create regulations accordingly, whereas the EPA is not well poised to do so from afar.

According to Gaetz:

The American people are drowning in rules and regulations promulgated by unelected bureaucrats, and the Environmental Protection Agency has become an extraordinary offender. Our small businesses cannot afford to cover the costs associated with compliance, too often leading to closed doors and unemployed Americans. I would take the resources that we use to fund the bureaucracy at the EPA, and I would downstream those resources to states and local communities so that we are able to have people closest to environmental assets ascertain the importance of those assets, and then protect them appropriately and responsibly.

Gaetz said the effective date is set as it is to allow for local communities to have the time needed to develop any required regulations in the interim.

Gaetz has been taking heat on social media for proposing the legislation.

One person posted on his Facebook page, “This is outrageous! You are too young to remember when children could not go outside at recess due to smog alerts. We need the EPA !!”

Another said, “I am completely against your proposal to abolish the EPA. Some of us like clean air and water. Do not go forward with this – listen to the people.”

The EPA has become the poster child for excessive government regulation in the last week or so, and as such is being increasingly targeted by the new administration. Gaetz’s legislation follows recent news that the EPA’s workforce could be targeted for staffing cuts to the tune of 50%.