TRENTON — A coalition of 76 labor, health and environmental groups signed a petition in Trenton today, demanding the Legislation to kill a bill that would prevent New Jersey state agencies from adopting safety, conservation and health standards that are tougher than federal regulations. A bipartisan team of state senators and assemblymen pushing bills S1986 and A2486 contend unnecessary...
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A February 2010 file photo of a New Jersey Statehouse hearing.
A bipartisan team of state senators and assemblymen pushing bills S1986 and A2486 contend unnecessary overregulation is killing business and jobs in the state. They want any new standard to be approved by the Legislature, not state departments. But activists at the Statehouse said the law will give unbridled rein to industry, businesses and developers at the expense of the public health and safety.
"Is the government a force for good or not?" said Rick Engler of the New Jersey Work Environment Council. "We can have efficient government without abandoning safety protections. This essentially is a dismantling of a wide range of rules involving a wide range of protections from environment to health to the workplace."
Critics, such as the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 877 and the United Steelworkers called it a "race to the bottom," noting most state standards exceed federal requirements, from workplace protection to drinking water guidelines.
They said the legislation will shift responsibility for creating public protection regulations from the scientists and experts to the politicians, making the process more vulnerable to special interests and the influence of campaign contributions. But bill sponsors disputed that.
"Having a different regulation means additional costs. The bill does not say you can’t have higher standards, but that it has to be a standard required by law — that the Legislature has to debate the need for it and the Governor has to sign the higher standard into law," said Sen. Steven Oroho (R-Sussex), a primary Senate sponsor of the legislation with Sen. Jeff VanDrew (D-Cape May).
"Let’s make sure that if we have a higher standard, that it’s necessary and that everyone acknowledges the costs," he added.
The bill text says the law will not impact any rule already in effect or the re-adoption of those existing rules, which come up for review every five years. But critics said the law is murky in that regard, and that the law opens all agency-adopted regulations to future legal challenges.
