House of Representatives votes to stop plastic straw ban at national parks

Washington — The debate over what's a bigger environmental menace — the plastic straw or the paper straw — reached the floor of Congress on Nov. 2, with lawmakers adopting a Republican measure that would bar President Joe Biden's administration from banning plastic straws in national parks.

In a late-night vote, Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a budget amendment blocking the Interior Department from spending money to implement a small part of larger plans it first announced last year to reduce single-use plastics on its public lands.

"The plastic straw ban being implemented by the Interior Department is fundamentally and fatally flawed," said Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., who sponsored the amendment. "Numerous studies have cast serious doubt as to whether paper straws are more environmentally friendly than plastic straws."

The House passed the measure in a voice vote, as it was considering amendments to the Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency budgets. It's not clear if the measure will pass the Senate or be included in final budget plans.

Still, Rose took to the House floor noting an academic study and news reports that many paper straws have PFAS per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as coatings and that they can be a source of human exposure to the so-called forever chemicals.

"Why is the Department of Interior rushing to ban plastic straws in national parks when it is far from clear whether or not there is any environmental benefit to switching to paper straws," he said. "Additionally paper straws are absolutely despised by many Americans because they start to become soggy almost immediately when you put them into a drink."

A House Democrat active on plastics issues, however, questioned lawmakers debating straws with the country facing complicated wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and climate change challenges.

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, defended the Biden administration's focus on cutting back on single-use plastics.

"I understand it's complicated, what is the best kind of straw to use: a reusable straw, a paper straw, a plastic straw," she said. "But this is because of a mandate to reduce the amount of single-use plastic.

"I don't know about you but I have an ocean border that's longer than any other border in the United States and one of the big challenges that we're dealing with right now is an excess amount of plastic in the ocean," Pingree said. "We have no good recycling in this country, we have excess amount of plastic in our landfills."

She closed her remarks by saying that she was "disappointed to see this amendment, to see that my colleague doesn't want to address the big challenges that we have with single-use plastics and the difficult issues that have to be dealt with."

Rose, however, framed it as the federal government being too involved in packaging choices.

"It's time to get the government out of our drinks," he said. "I understand the concerns that my colleague expressed … but I would say that the best way to avoid the need for Congressional intervention would be for the administration to not be chasing its tail trying to force consumers to make choices that are absolutely not clear in terms of the environmental impact."