{"id":16618,"date":"2012-08-15T16:30:48","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T21:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=16618"},"modified":"2012-08-15T16:39:45","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T21:39:45","slug":"what-does-the-texas-attorney-general-do-for-fun-sue-the-obama-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/15\/what-does-the-texas-attorney-general-do-for-fun-sue-the-obama-administration\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the Texas Attorney General Do For Fun? &#8220;Sue the Obama Administration&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_16620\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/15\/what-does-the-texas-attorney-general-do-for-fun-sue-the-obama-administration\/house-holds-hearing-on-the-energy-tax-prevention-act-of-2011-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16620\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16620\" title=\"House Holds Hearing On The Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/108940510-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/108940510-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/108940510.jpg 594w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Brendan Smialowski\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has openly bragged about suing the federal government, despite a losing track record.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Speaking at a conference this morning in Houston, Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott talked a bit about what he likes to do for fun.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I really do for fun is I go into the office,&#8221; Abbott said at the Texas Hispanic Leadership Forum, &#8220;[and] I sue the Obama adminstration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Abbott has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yourhoustonnews.com\/courier\/news\/texas-ag-fire-president-obama\/article_c4a8a36a-5871-5abe-b153-cd15e89d97ce.html\">openly bragged<\/a> of his proclivity for suing the feds, with some 24 lawsuits at a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/texas-redistricting\/redistricting\/abbott-fights-feds-tax-dollars\/\">cost over $1.25 million<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/library\/about\/texas-versus-federal-government-lawsuits-interactive\/#rejection-of-texas-air-quality-regulations\">several of them<\/a> aimed at the\u00a0Environmental\u00a0Protection Agency, according to the <em>Texas Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>One of those lawsuits took a <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/14\/texas-claims-a-victory-against-epa-but-the-point-may-be-moot\/\">slight turn in Abbott&#8217;s favor this week<\/a>, when an appeals court found that the EPA hadn&#8217;t properly rejected a state permitting program for a small number of industrial facilities. But of the 140 facilities under the old permitting program, all but six have moved, or are moving to, EPA-approved standard permits, making the lawsuit something of a moot point.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And in another high-profile showdown with the EPA on greenhouse gas regulation, Abbott hasn&#8217;t fared well thus far, <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2012\/jun\/26\/business\/la-fi-epa-court-20120627\">losing an appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Suing the federal government isn&#8217;t all Abbott does for fun, though. After a long day of lawsuits, he heads home to\u00a0&#8220;raise a teenage daughter, which is a far taller task than suing the Obama administration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(Thanks to Joe Holley of the <em>Houston Chronicle<\/em> for confirming the quote. You can read his article on the forum, where Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio gave the main remarks, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chron.com\/default\/article\/Rubio-in-Houston-calls-Obama-a-painful-disaster-3790632.php\">here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<h4>Previously: <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/14\/whats-texas-losing-in-its-war-on-the-epa\/\">What&#8217;s Texas Losing in its War on the EPA?<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking at a conference this morning in Houston, Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott talked a bit about what he likes to do for fun. &#8220;What I really do for fun is I go into the office,&#8221; Abbott said at the Texas Hispanic Leadership Forum, &#8220;[and] I sue the Obama adminstration.&#8221; Abbott has openly bragged of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":16620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[96,39],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}