Congressional Republicans use obscure laws to roll back Biden-era regulations

As President Trump cut federal bureaucracy and moved unilaterally to support long-standing policies, Congressional Republicans embarked on a fuss about deregulation.

In recent weeks, the GOP has pushed a surge in law to cancel regulations on large and small issues. Surveillance of companies releasing toxic pollutants To the energy efficiency requirements of walk-in freezers and water heaters.

To do so, they have adopted the lesser known legislation of 1996, the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to overturn recently adopted federal regulations with a simple majority vote in both rooms. This is the strategy they used during Trump’s first term in 2017, leaning again when they stepped on democratic opposition and worked to find ways to make the most of the governance of the Senate, Senate and White House.

But now, Republicans are expanding their use significantly and testing the limitations of the law in ways that could undermine the filibuster.

It is the only part of the law that can avoid Senate filibusters, as resolutions that disapprove under the Congressional Review Act require only a majority vote. This allows them to avoid partisan burglars who get in the way of the most important bills.

So far, Trump has signed three such measures. One overturned Biden-era regulations on cryptocurrency brokers, repealing separate cancellation fees on methane emissions, as well as additional environmental assessments for future oil and gas developers. The other five, including one that eliminates the $5-dollar cap on banks overdraft fees, clears Congress and awaits Trump’s signature.

It’s a much slower pace than it was eight years ago Republicans have been erased 13 The Obama administration rules were Trump’s first 100 days in office. Before that, when President George W. Bush reversed, the law was only successful once. Ergonomic rules of the Clinton era.

Republicans are now trying to move the law further, including using it to effectively attack state regulations that are blessed by the federal government. This week’s house I’ve given 3 disapproved solutions That would eliminate California’s strictness Truck Air Pollution Standards A car that allowed them to take effect by refusing the exemption from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The move also forever prevents federal regulators from writing similar rules in the future. Both the government’s Accountability Office and the senator are in charge of enforcing the Chamber of Commerce rules, but said the EPA exemption does not constitute federal regulations. Therefore, it is not subject to the Parliamentary Review Act..

The pressure now rests on Sen. John Tune, a Republican of South Dakota, and the majority leader, deciding whether to proceed with the measures anyway, and avoiding lawmakers in a move that undermines the filibuster.

Thune’s decision is like a warm-up act for a more consequential showdown later this year as Republicans try to provide Trump’s agenda through the budget adjustment process. GOP Senator Already piloting around the council In early April, when they pushed a budget blueprint that viewed Trump’s continued tax cuts as costless, nonpartisan budget scorekeepers estimate that it would cost around $4 trillion over a decade.

Two Thune spokespersons did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment by phone or email regarding whether they would attempt to reject Congress in legislative measures or otherwise avoid them.

Democrats argue that Republicans’ efforts to kill EPA exemptions will be an illegal overhang on state rights. They say the drive could incorrectly submit many enforcement actions to Congressional review, including oil and gas fields lease rights and exemptions from the state Medicaid program.

“House Republicans will set a dangerous precedent,” said New Jersey president Frank Palone Jr., a top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. “That means countless enforcement actions taken throughout the federal government will be merciless by the political winds of a few voices in Congress.”

During this week’s debate over measures to cancel the EPA exemption, California Democratic leader Zoe Lofgren said, “Abusing Congressional review laws isn’t the slope you want to slip away.”

Meanwhile, Republicans argue that the scope of their review privilege should not be determined by unelected bureaucrats.

“It is the members of Congress who decide how to proceed under the CRA, not Congress, not Congress, but Congress,” Texas Republican Chip Roy said in a speech on the House floor.

In any case, experts warned that Republicans might come to regret reading the law very widely. Michael Sonning, director of Structural Democracy Project at the Center for Bipartisan Policy, a nonprofit think tank, said that doing so would give Democrats a powerful tool to undo regulations they dislike when they return to power one day.

“The more you stretch and expand these processes, the more you really weaken them and ultimately become meaningless if they end up being extreme,” Thorning said.

“At the end of the day, this is a council decision,” he added. “GAO and Congress are merely advisors, so members will have to be responsible for these decisions.”

When President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took office in 2021, Congressional Democrats got clues from Republicans. Revived the Obama-era cap with methane emissions What the Trump administration has spent years overturning it through executive action.

The Republican push to take a more positive attitude towards reversing federal regulations imposed by the Biden administration is because the party largely handed over the privileges of other legislative branches that control spending, trade and oversight to the Trump administration.

Some Democrats are using tactics to push back Trump’s enforcement actions, including his move to ullify the federal workforce, using Congressional review laws.

Senator Jeff Markley of Oregon and Rep. Maxine Waters of California are both Democrats, and have proposed legislation that would cut plans by staff at federal agencies.

The measure also requires agencies to justify the proposed staff reduction, quantify the impact on employee and agency operations, and to present alternatives that the agency considers. There is no realistic chance of survival in Republican-controlled Congress, and certainly will be rejected by Trump.

“The massive shooting is an attack on the separation of power,” Merckley said in an interview. “These have a huge impact on the provision of services to Americans, and Congress should have that voice.”

Merckley criticized Republicans for attempting to attack California’s EPA exemption using the review law, claiming that such a move constituted a “nuclear choice” aimed at carving out a whole new policy issue from the Senate filibuster.

“If Republicans want to expand Congressional Review Act, they should do so through the law, not through false reinterpretation,” Merckley said. “Want to expand your scope? I’ll suggest an invoice. That’s what I’m doing.”