The Fight Over Water Pressure Is a Fight Over Government Overreach

0:00 Speaker 1 I want to take a good shower. President Trump wants to take a good shower. Well, a lot of our showers and a lot of our cities and the hotels. Well, you can’t do it. So where is the problem? How do we solve it? Well with us today is Richard Stern and he’s a vice president with the Plymouth Institute

0:22 for Free Enterprise, which is part of the Advancing American Freedom. Well, Richard, you like good showers too.

0:33 Speaker 2 I absolutely do well, and thank you for having me on the talk about this. It is a critical topic and it’s just one of the many places where some people in government just don’t want you to be able to live your life and have a good time.

0:45 Speaker 1 Well, we haven’t run out of water in four billion years and water, you know, I keep telling people the planet Earth is a living entity. It recycles itself. And you tell us your thoughture what’s going on?

1:03 Speaker 3 I could not agree more.

1:04 Speaker 2 And you know, just as an interesting example on this, one of the states that makes it incredibly hard to have a good shower of high water flow rate and high pressure is California. Now, why is this interesting Because California, of course we know, has a lot of wildfires and both are for the same reason. They have politicians who

1:27 don’t appreciate what you just said, who don’t capture the water, who don’t build reservoirs, and actually have created drought situations in California, and that causes problems for agriculture, it causes problems for households and consumers, and it means that they have wildfires that are dangerous, that are deadly that they can deal with.

1:48 Speaker 3 But I digress.

1:49 Speaker 2 It’s just yet another example of the mismanagement of California. But it’s a lot of the states should imagine. It’s you know, Massachusetts, it’s New York, states like this that regulate shaf our water flow rate and water pressure more than even the federal statute that’s been around for a decade.

2:08 Speaker 1 So it’s just state laws that we have to worry about federal laws. How do we solve the problem.

2:15 Speaker 3 So it’s actually a mix of both.

2:17 Speaker 2 There’s a federal law that dates all the way back to nineteen ninety two that began regulating the water pressure and water flow out of showers, but it was a little nebulous on exactly how to put in the regulation.

2:32 Then about fifteen years ago or so, under Obama, they used rule making, which is a fancy way of saying unelected bureaucrats did it. That would allow state governments and city governments to go even further than what the federal regulation is now. Trump, when he was president the first time and now again, worked on setting it up so

2:59 that you could so the regulation of the federal level is ambiguous as to whether it’s regulating each shower head or the shower system. So he signed an order so that the limit is per shower head, so your shower itself can have a lot more water than the federal law would stipulate. But what he’s working on right now

3:21 as well is trying to reign in those states that since Obama have been able to regulate even further than the federal government does. So we need to reign in those states. We need to stop them from you know, abusing their residents of their own state. But then we really need reform of the federal law to get rid

3:39 of the regulation altogether.

3:42 Speaker 1 Understood and is there a positive move forward? Is this a bipartisan or is it somebody you know? Some people are really dead set against it because the normal person walking around doesn’t we need know. Exactly.

4:01 Speaker 2 Well, you know this, this tells you exactly how far looney left the left has gone on this one. There is a bill that actually passed to the House of Representatives earlier this year with some Democrats on it supporting it they would make this positive motion we’re talking about, so, you know, to be fair, the overwhelming majority of elected

4:20 Democrats voted against it.

4:22 Speaker 3 And this is mostly a left wing thing.

4:24 Speaker 2 Again, it’s you know, environmentalism and trying to preserve this and that they don’t appreciate your exceptionally valid point that we’re not going to run out of water. And if you’re running out of water in a locality, it’s probably because politicians, like I was saying in California, created drought conditions and don’t do what they’re supposed to do. But

4:43 it is tragically, while a little bipartisan, it is mostly you know, left wing politicians who who who fight against us.

4:53 Speaker 1 So where does a stand in Washington?

4:58 Speaker 2 So the pres and and the administration are continuing what’s called rulemaking, which is the try to do what they can at the executive order level again to free up the regulations to lessen their impact. Again, like I said, having the flow rate cap apply per head on a shower as opposed to the whole plumbing system, and they’re

5:21 trying to see what they can do about doing that to also reign and what state governments can do. But ultimately you would need the Senate to really act on the bill and to act on legislation that would completely free up the president’s hands.

5:33 Speaker 1 Now, for those of you can, it goes back to the sixty votes in the Senate.

5:38 Speaker 2 Bingo, And that’s that’s exactly where it’s going to go, is yeah. For for those of you keeping score home, you can’t. A simple majority in the Senate isn’t sufficient.

5:45 Speaker 3 So that’s where the hold up is at the moment.

5:48 Speaker 1 Understood, Well, would you keep us informed because we want to take a good shower. And I feel good when when that when that comes down, that shower comes down and massages my scalp, I feel good about it. And well, Richard Stern, thank you for much for filling us in and keeping us up to date, and we’ll catch up

6:10 with you again real soon.

6:12 Speaker 2 No, of course, and I couldn’t agree with you more and you know that’s part of what we’re here for. And again, it’s important to remember that a lot of times, government politicians, they’re just looking for ways to make your life harder so they can try to sell votes for it.

6:23 Speaker 3 So but thank you for having me on today talk about this.

6:26 Speaker 1 Thank you so much,