Salazar Demands Explanation for Biden Admin’s Regulatory Overreach on Miami Dry Cleaners

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) joined her colleagues on the House Small Business Committee in a letter demanding that EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan provide an explanation on how a proposed rule will affect dry cleaner businesses in Miami.

“Our small businesses are suffering from overregulation, and the Biden Administration seems to not understand the pain,” said Rep. Salazar. “I’m proud to join my colleagues on the House Small Business Committee to demand answers for President Biden’s unruly EPA policies that are hurting Mom-and-Pop dry cleaners in Miami. Our federal agencies need to recognize how their regulations affect Main Street America.”

The Environmental Protect Agency proposed a rule that bans the manufacture and use of Perchloroethylene (PCE) in most industrial and commercial enterprises, establishes prescriptive workplace controls for PCE in laboratory uses, and creates a 10-year PCE phaseout plan for dry cleaning and spot cleaning businesses.

The rule would force thousands of small businesses to buy new machines and products that do not use PCE—which the EPA estimates may cost each business up to $10.4 million. This cost can impose severe hardship on Miami small business owners who are already seeing their livelihoods driven down by inflation, supply chain issues, and burdensome regulation.

Representative Salazar represents tens of thousands of small businesses in Florida’s 27th District, the majority of which only employ between one and four people. Mom-and-Pop dry cleaners make up a historic and important part of the Miami business sector.

Read the full letter here.

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