Republicans have been sharpening their knives for Biden administration regulations on energy and the environment, but one of their leaders said Tuesday that some challenges remain.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said at an American Petroleum Institute event that lawmakers are “struggling right now to determine what is eligible for” the Congressional Review Act, a powerful tool that allows Congress to overturn recent regulations.
Nevertheless, he said, “We are looking for lots of opportunities in that space.”
The CRA was used extensively by Republicans in 2017, the last time they had unified control of Washington. The procedure allows Congress to overturn a regulation finalized within 60 legislative days while circumventing the filibuster in the Senate.
Thune explained congressional committees have been trying to find eligible regulations, but already, they’ve come across certain rules — like those for EPA tailpipe emissions — that don’t fit within the “lookback” period. According to the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen, that period began on Aug. 16, more than two weeks later than the date they initially thought.
Thune also said he’s looking at the Biden administration’s approval of what he dubbed California’s “radical overreach,” an apparent reference to its plan to phase out gas-powered cars by 2035. But he was vague about exactly how Republicans want to unwind it.
“We’re trying to figure out a way to roll that back,” he said. “Our committee chairs and our team are looking at how to fit that within the parameters of a CRA action that would enable us to do something about that, because that’s got to be fixed.”
The Government Accountability Office, responding to an inquiry from Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) in 2023 determined California waivers were not subject to CRA, but Republicans could find a workaround.
Some believe Congress can in fact use the CRA to void the waivers. “We would highly encourage you to look at that as an option for the CRA,” the president of API, Mike Sommers, told Thune at the event.
The CRA has been most effective at the beginning of a new administration, particularly when one party has a governing trifecta and aims to wipe out a past administration’s regulatory efforts. Republicans at the start of 2017 used the CRA to overturn 16 Obama regulations, including one related to coal stream protection. In 2021, Democrats and Biden repealed three Trump rules.
Exactly what else Republicans will try to scrap remains an open question. While CRA resolutions are fast-tracked, they still consume floor time. And Republicans might try to tie deregulation to the budget reconciliation process, which limits the amount of policies that can be included.
Republicans are also eyeing a rollback to a fee on methane waste emissions stemming from natural gas production. The fee, a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, would initially charge companies $900 for every excess ton of methane released. But even if the GOP targeted the EPA methane fee rule under the Congressional Review Act, they would still need to enact separate legislation to repeal it fully.
Other possible targets are Interior Department Resource Management Plans, which can depress oil and gas development on large swaths of land, said a Republican aide granted anonymity to speak freely. But aides are trying to figure out if such plans could be subject to the CRA.
Environmentalists are bracing for multiple different outcomes. Matthew Davis of the League of Conservation Voters said Republicans might decide not to spend a ton of time on CRA votes — given that the Trump administration could weaken the most salient new environmental rules.
“You can see them in the House side using CRA as filler, which they have done as recently as September,” he said. “It’s hard to know what sort of scenario we’ll be in.”
In interviews in recent days, Republican senators agreed that using the tool would be a priority, but they were vague about exactly which regulations were at the top of the list.
“Targets are important,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “Because we’re going to have to prioritize because we’re not going to get through them all given all these other things we’re doing.”