Fox News Op-Ed on Wildfire Smoke Omits Specific Bills, Dodges Blame

A Fox News opinion piece this week urges Congress to 'clear the air' as millions of Americans again wake up under air quality alerts from Canadian wildfire smoke — a crisis that has worsened under the Trump administration's rollback of climate regulations and the Carney government's fossil-fuel expansion in Canada. The piece correctly identifies the human toll: scratchy throats, hazy skies, and economic disruption across the Midwest and Northeast. But it conspicuously omits any mention of concrete legislative vehicles already in play — like the Wildfire Smoke Emergency Declaration Act (S. 4732), which would authorize the president to declare a smoke emergency and trigger federal relief; the Wildfire Smoke Relief Act (S. 2856), which would require EPA to set enforceable indoor air quality standards; or the Shielding Students from Wildfire Smoke Act (H.R. 4976), which would mandate air filtration in schools. By framing the problem as an abstract 'need to act' rather than naming the bills or the administrative action (EPA's exceptional-events rule, 40 CFR 50.14) that lets states ignore smoke pollution, the op-ed performs a political dodge: it demands a solution without admitting who blocked it. The real story is not that Congress must act — it's that the current administration and its allies have opposed every targeted bill, leaving communities defenseless against a predictable, climate-fueled disaster.