Imagine for a moment that you're in the last few weeks of your current job. Your final goal is to complete an important, long-term project that you've been working on for several years. Finishing this project will be a major milestone and will benefit people both inside and outside your organization. Suddenly, your employer makes a new policy: people aren't allowed to complete projects during their last few weeks with the organization. You'd probably be confused, even furious, and rightfully so, because all of your hard work would have been for nothing. A policy like that just wouldn't make sense, yet it's similar to what the House wants to do to those who have been working to develop and improve our nation's public protections.
April 28 marked 
Next week, members of Congress from both chambers will meet to negotiate a comprehensive federal transportation bill. They will have to hash out the differences between two disparate extension bills and address controversial, anti-environment policy riders in the House version. The House bill would force the approval of the full Keystone XL pipeline and includes an industry-backed amendment that would prevent the federal government from issuing uniform safeguards for potentially toxic coal ash waste. Environmental groups call the coal ash amendment a gift to Big Coal and are urging Senate conferees and the Obama administration to ensure that it is not included in the final transportation bill.
