The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly floated a rule claiming authority to bypass the courts and unilaterally garnish paychecks of those accused of violating its rules, a power currently used by agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service. The EPA has been flexing its regulatory muscle under President Obama, collecting more fines each year and hitting individuals with costly penalties for violating environmental rules, including recently slapping a $75,000 fine on Wyoming homeowner Andy Johnson for building a pond on his rural property. SEE ALSO: EDITORIAL: The EPA’s outrage in the barnyard “The EPA has a history of overreaching its authority. It seems like once again the EPA is trying to take power it doesn’t have away from American citizens,” Sen. John Barrasso, Wyoming Republican, said when he learned of the EPA’s wage garnishment scheme. Others questioned why the EPA decided to strengthen its collection muscle at this time. Critics said the threat of garnishing wages would be a powerful incentive for people to agree to expensive settlements rather than fight EPA charges. Enlarge Photo EPA officials did not respond to repeated questions by The Washington Times about why they thought it was necessary to garnish people’s wages. The EPA announced the plan last week in a notice in the Federal Register, saying federal law allows it “to garnish non-Federal wages to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed the United States without first obtaining a court order.” The agency cited authority under the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 that centralized federal collection operations under the Treasury Department, which oversees garnishments of wages or tax refund checks. media.washtimes/media/image/2014/07/08/epa_s640x1393.jpg?468cf024fbb0c1987fa4d8dec021f27546359662 Read more: washingtontimes/news/2014/jul/8/power-grab-epa-wants-to-garnish-wages-of-polluters/#ixzz36yvVPU8w Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:30:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015