As one of his first acts when the new Congress met on Jan. 3, Rep. Dave Reichert planned to vote for the REINS Act — or Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny — a dangerous bill that will overturn health and safety protections for our community and directly subvert our Constitution.

We depend on a public, transparent process for creating legal safeguards for our food supply, consumer products, clean air and water, financial practices and workplace safety.

Today, federal agencies must follow a lengthy and open process to set legal safeguards. If Congress does not agree with the results, both houses must vote to change the standard.

Rep. Reichert wants to change that by giving a single group of lawmakers in only one branch of Congress unprecedented and unconstitutional powers.

We cannot afford such a dangerous subversion of our Constitutional process.

If Rep. Reichert votes for the REINS Act, he will replace our current transparent process with backroom deal-making by members of Congress and corporate lobbyists.

Rep. Reichert must oppose the REINS Act, and we must hold him accountable if he does not.

Robin Gitelman

Sammamish