Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

Senator Padilla: “The Trump Administration and the Republican majority plowed ahead with an unprecedented power grab at the expense of the health of millions of children and families in California and many other states”

Padilla releases memo outlining how Senate Republicans went nuclear on Senate rules, warns of future implications

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After Republicans shortsightedly revoked California’s clean air waivers, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, announced his intent to place a blanket hold on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominations, including proceeding with his objections to the four EPA nominations currently pending on the Senate’s Executive Calendar and holding three additional EPA nominations. In his Congressional Record Statement, Padilla stated he will maintain these seven holds until Republicans make appropriate accommodations so that California can protect its own environment and the health of its residents.

Padilla’s objections come in response to Republicans overruling the nonpartisan Senate Parliamentarian’s decision and going nuclear on the Senate rulebook in order to rescind California’s clean air waivers that allow the state to implement more protective air quality standards. The Senate Parliamentarian determined that any resolutions aimed at overturning California waivers would not be entitled to the Congressional Review Act’s (CRA) expedited procedures and would therefore require 60 votes to secure Senate passage. However, Senate Republicans bypassed the filibuster to rescind these waivers by overruling the Parliamentarian.

“The Senate’s constitutional role to Advise and Consent regarding executive branch nominations is an important check on agency leadership’s abuse and overreach, and raising these objections regarding EPA nominations is my duty on behalf of the people of the State of California,” wrote Senator Padilla. “I am objecting to expedited consideration of EPA nominees in response to the Trump Administration EPA’s abuse of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) by submitting three waivers issued to the State of California to Congress and claiming they are ‘rules’ under the CRA despite the Government Accountability Office’s clear determination they are not.”

Padilla stressed that revoking California’s waivers will cause disastrous public health and environmental impacts, highlighting California’s unique air quality challenges and critical efforts to reduce harmful emissions. He also emphasized that EPA’s reckless actions by abusing the CRA fly in the face of longstanding Senate procedures to target California’s waiver authority.

“The Trump Administration and the Republican majority plowed ahead with an unprecedented power grab at the expense of the health of millions of children and families in California and many other states,” continued Senator Padilla. “They took advantage of EPA’s abuse of the CRA to throw out the rulebook, first by overriding the procedural limits in the text of the CRA itself and then by overturning the Parliamentarian’s decision, all in their quest to take away California’s authority under the Clean Air Act.”

“This is unacceptable,” added Senator Padilla. “California has done nearly all it can do to reduce emissions from stationary sources of air pollution within its jurisdiction. Given our unique air quality challenges and the worsening impacts of climate change, it is essential for our state to reduce pollution from mobile sources such as cars and trucks if the federal government will not do so itself. That is why Congress has provided this waiver authority to our state for decades and it has been used over 100 times. But now, as a result of the Trump EPA and Senate Republicans’ abuse of the CRA, the people of California will be forced to breathe more toxic air pollution and suffer increasingly devastating impacts of climate change.”

The seven Senate-confirmable nominations Padilla is holding include four pending on the Senate floor and three working their way through the committee process.

Senator Padilla also circulated a memo to his Senate colleagues outlining the broad implications of Republicans going nuclear on the Senate rules, detailing that the Senate majority went nuclear by:

• Overriding the text of the CRA, which bars points of order (which they then raised) and
• Overruling the Parliamentarian’s determination by ignoring her and “submitting the question” to the Senate as opposed to overruling the Chair.

The memo makes clear that by defying their previous commitments and breaking 30 years of CRA precedent with the first successful use of the nuclear option on the legislative filibuster, the CRA is now open to being applied to any agency action that is submitted to Congress going back to 1996, opening up a large new window to force votes in the Senate. In addition, Senate Republicans have now permanently undermined the legislative filibuster that they have claimed to defend on the eve of budget reconciliation, where they are under pressure to overrule the Parliamentarian yet again to avoid a filibuster on legislation that would eliminate health care and nutrition assistance for millions of Americans to cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy.

Senator Padilla has been a leading voice in pushing back against Republican attacks on California’s Clean Air Act waivers. Over the last month, Padilla has spoken on the Senate floor repeatedly to sound the alarm on Senate Republicans’ revocations of these critical waivers. Padilla, along with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), also led Democratic Ranking Members in strongly warning Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) of the dangerous and irreparable consequences if Senate Republicans overrule the Senate Parliamentarian’s decision on California’s waivers. Many of his Democratic colleagues voiced similar opposition to Republicans’ unprecedented dismissal of the Senate rulebook.

In April, Padilla, Whitehouse, and Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) welcomed the Senate Parliamentarian’s decision that the waivers are not subject to the CRA. Padilla also joined Whitehouse and Schiff in blasting Trump and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s weaponization of the EPA after the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) similar finding. Padilla and Schiff previously slammed the Trump Administration’s intent to roll back dozens of the EPA’s regulations that protect California’s air and water.

Full text of Senator Padilla’s hold statement is available here.

###