Undoing California’s de facto ban on new gas-powered cars seemed like an easy win for Republicans. Instead, it’s becoming a rare point of friction in the GOP-led Senate.
Republicans are grappling with whether they have the authority to rescind a waiver former President Joe Biden gave the Golden State for its electric vehicle mandate, one of many actions Congress has moved to repeal since the GOP retook unified control of Washington.
Forging ahead would mean sidestepping the Senate’s parliamentarian, a nonpartisan arbiter of chamber rules who will be crucial to greenlighting President Donald Trump’s broader legislative agenda.
“That subject is still being discussed [and is] under consideration,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) recently told reporters. “Our conference has had, and will continue to have, some substantive conversations about that.”
The GOP House passed resolutions under the Congressional Review Act, scrapping the Biden-era waivers for California, which has effectively moved to block the sale of gas cars by 2035 using stricter emissions standards.
However, the Government Accountability Office determined the waivers aren’t subject to repeal, and the Senate parliamentarian has deferred to the nonbinding legal opinion of the internal congressional watchdog.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), the second-ranking Republican and a senior Energy and Natural Resources Committee member, is determined to move ahead with a vote.
“It’s a rule that has come to the Senate by the [Environmental Protection Agency]. It’s a rule,” Barrasso told the Washington Examiner. “Rules are subject to the Congressional Review Act, and that’s what I’m pursuing.”
The saga presents a rare divide between Thune and his top deputies over an issue that affects the entire U.S. auto industry, given California’s market share. Trump terminated California’s waivers via executive order on his first day back in office, but those actions were challenged in court.
Rank-and-file Republicans also have mixed opinions on what the Senate should do.
“It had to fit someplace, and it has the effect of a rule, so we’re going to overturn it. I’m very comfortable with it,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said. “We’re going to follow the rules. We believe in the rules. We think we’re following the rule now. Reconciliation — same thing.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a centrist and chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, is among the undecided, citing a desire to consult with colleagues and parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough.
“I’m still looking at that issue,” Collins said. “I’m trying to get a better understanding of this because it came to us in such an odd way.”
Senate Republicans are in what is essentially a grey area about whether they’d overrule MacDonough, as they’ve previously been reluctant to do. Thune has not taken a position with members and is privately undecided, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Democrats also vowed retaliation for what they described as a precedent-setting “nuclear option” they could use once back in power. The move is controversial because if overruling MacDonough becomes routine, it will be viewed as a backdoor way to eliminate the filibuster.
The parliamentarian gets to decide what qualifies for the strict rules of reconciliation, a budget process that bypasses the 60-vote threshold. CRA resolutions are a second way to bypass the filibuster and only require a simple majority.
“Any future majority would have precedent to overrule the parliamentarian on legislative matters. There is no cabining such a decision. It is tantamount to eliminating the filibuster,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said in floor remarks as he brandished the popular children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. “If you give a mouse a cookie, it never ends.”
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said the parliamentarian’s rulings should be “the last and final word” and suggested Republicans could try to oust MacDonough, who was appointed to the role by the late Democratic Sen. Harry Reid. Thune has told the Washington Examiner and other outlets that such a move is out of the question.
Thune said it was “pretty rich” of Democrats to reference eliminating the filibuster, given their attempts to do so when they held the majority.
Republicans first grappled with sidestepping the parliamentarian last month, when they approved a budget framework for Trump’s tax, border, and energy agenda.
Republicans decided to use a novel accounting method to essentially zero out the cost of renewing Trump’s expiring tax cuts, a move that could face MacDonough’s scrutiny.
Leadership ultimately felt comfortable in quashing any objections from Democrats on the Senate floor without directly challenging her. Instead, Republicans maintain that Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), not MacDonough, has the power to set the accounting method.
Despite GAO’s legal guidance, the House has passed three CRA resolutions rolling back Clean Air Act waivers for California’s regulations on passenger vehicles and heavy-duty trucks, in addition to a waiver that limits smog-inducing emissions from other heavy-duty and off-road vehicles. Nearly three dozen Democrats voted with Republicans to repeal the regulation for passenger cars.
SENATE GOP WEIGHS SIDESTEPPING PARLIAMENTARIAN ON CONTROVERSIAL BUDGET TACTIC
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters during a press conference that he has “a lot of confidence” in Thune’s ability to manage his equally thin majority. He then blamed Democrats for the Senate not yet passing the resolutions.
“I suspect every Republican’s for that. But of course, he’s got to get about seven Democrats to come along and everything, and that’s the tough part,” Johnson said. “Leader Schumer over there and the Democrats have made very clear they don’t have much intention of getting anything done at all. They just want to stop all the progress.”
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
