Bachmann: Hit EPA regulations with ‘mother of all repeal bills’

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), the newly minted White House contender, used Monday night’s GOP debate to call for clipping the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) wings.

Bachmann called for limiting government’s scope by passing the “mother of all repeal bills” to target “job-killing regulations.”

“And I would begin with the EPA, because there is no other agency like the EPA. It should really be renamed the job-killing organization of America,” she said, according to a CNN transcript of the debate.

(Check out The Hill's homepage for much more debate coverage.)

Bachmann isn’t alone among GOP White House hopefuls in targeting the EPA.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) has said he wants to abolish the EPA and replace it with an “environmental solutions agency.”

The EPA was first established four decades ago under President Nixon, but is now a frequent target of Republicans.

House Republicans — led by those at the top of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee — are pushing plans to nix or soften several EPA rules that they call overreaching, as well as to cut funding. But the plans don’t include elimination of the agency outright.

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