Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin joined Republicans on Thursday in voting to block California’s electric vehicle mandate.
The 51-44 vote sends the legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk after 35 Democrats voted for it in the House earlier this month.
The Senate was planning to vote Thursday on two other Congressional Review Act resolutions to block other California vehicle emissions rules by scrapping Biden-era EPA waivers.
The action comes after Senate Republicans took procedural steps Wednesday to defy the chamber’s parliamentarian, who had agreed with the Government Accountability Office in saying the waivers were not rules to be repealed under the CRA.
Slotkin joined her Democratic colleagues in opposing the GOP’s procedural maneuvers but ended up voting against the most contentious of California’s transportation rules.
“Today, I voted to prevent California and the states that follow its standard from effectively banning gas-powered cars by 2035,” Slotkin said in a statement.
“Michigan is the auto capital of the world, and as Michigan’s U.S. Senator, I have a special responsibility to stand up for the more than one million Michiganders whose livelihoods depend on the U.S. auto industry.”
The Congressional Review Act allows lawmakers and the president to repeal newly issued rules by simple majority. The Trump EPA submitted the waivers as rules so Congress could repeal them.
The Clean Air Act gives California leeway to enact tougher emissions standards than the federal government, as long as they receive permission. Michigan’s other Democratic senator, Gary Peters, voted against the resolution.
Slotkin, a former House member, promised during her Senate campaign that she would oppose any EV mandate. “What you drive is your call,” she said in one ad.
Democrats have been urging Senate Republicans against defying GAO and the parliamentarian. They forced a series of protest votes Wednesday to thwart the GOP’s plans.
“What you’re really doing here is for the fossil fuel industry, going nuclear, overruling the Senate parliamentarian, to accomplish a legislative task to amend, basically, the Congressional Review Act,” said Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
“The fossil fuel industry hates this clean air standard because it sells less gasoline in the states where the clean air standard is there.”
Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) helped persuade colleagues — including GOP moderates concerned about defying the parliamentarian — to pull the trigger.
“The decision to limit consumer choice, increase car prices, and cost hundreds of thousands of jobs was made by California, and approved by a federal administration that had already been rejected by the American voters,” Capito said in a floor speech.
Reporter Mike Lee contributed.