CQ News: Schiff, Padilla object as Senate GOP mulls nullifying EPA waivers
By Hunter Savery
California lawmakers cried foul on the Senate floor Thursday over three joint resolutions that would curb the state’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions standards.
Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam B. Schiff spoke in opposition to three joint resolutions of disapproval (HJ Res 87, HJ Res 88, HJ Res 89) passed by the House last week — with Democratic support. The Senate hasn’t taken up the Congressional Review Act (PL 104-121) resolutions.
“They’re trying to change the rules of the Senate to please Donald Trump and the big oil lobby,” Padilla said.
The joint resolutions would mark the first time Congress has used the CRA to revoke EPA waivers. The Government Accountability Office, which has historically determined whether an agency rule is subject to congressional review, says waivers aren’t rules for the purposes of the CRA and the Senate parliamentarian affirmed that ruling.
“What the GAO did here is unprecedented, which is why we’re looking for how we might go about this in the future, and what kind of a precedent it sets for that,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Thursday. “The GAO historically has expanded the power of Congress. This restricts it.”
Thune stopped short of criticizing the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling and said the majority had no announcement regarding whether the resolutions would get a floor vote.
“It’s an unusual set of circumstances,” he said.
Schiff warned of the consequences of ignoring the parliamentarian.
“If the Senate goes nuclear, overruling the parliamentarian, there is no telling where the Congressional Review Act will be used in the future by Republicans or Democrats,” he said.
Agencies don’t typically send waivers to Congress. But EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who opposes the waivers, sent them to Congress, urging lawmakers to nullify them under the CRA.
Congress’ 60-day window to nullify Biden administration rules ends Thursday. But the Senate could have extra time because it is starting the 60-day count on Feb. 24, when the rules arrived from Zeldin. That would create an early June deadline.
Two California Democrats were among the supporters last week when the House passed the joint resolution that would reverse the waiver allowing the state to effectively ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and the ranking members of each Senate committee sent a letter on May 1 to Thune and Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., warning of “the far-reaching and likely irreversible consequences,” if the Senate overrules the parliamentarian regarding the California waiver resolutions.
“If the current Senate majority were to open this door, the CRA could be weaponized to retroactively invalidate decades of agency actions,” Schumer wrote.
The current Congress has used the CRA to nullify several Biden-administration environmental regulations, including refrigerator efficiency standards (HJ Res 75), the designation of long-fin smelt in the San Francisco Bay-Delta as an endangered species (HJ Res 78) and emissions standards for rubber processing in tire manufacturing (HJ Res 61), among others.
“This is what awaits us if we go down a road like this,” Schiff said, gesturing to a photo of a man standing on a street choked with smog.
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