The House on Wednesday voted to axe California’s clean truck rules — defying Congress’s own internal watchdog in doing so.
The House voted to nix the Biden administration’s approval of the California rules, which aim to cut pollution and planet-warming emissions from trucks, using a using a tool known as the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
One of the truck rules the House voted to overturn explicitly seeks to make more trucks electric, while the other seeks to limit emissions of nitrogen oxides, which can form smog and also contribute to asthma and respiratory infections.
The measures passed 231-191 and 225-196.
Thirteen Democrats voted with Republicans for the resolution on the first vote, and 10 did the same on the second vote. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) was the only Republican to vote with Democrats against the measures.
The CRA allows Congress, with just a simple majority in both chambers and presidential approval, to reverse recent regulations, evading the Senate filibuster’s 60-vote threshold. It’s sometimes used at the start of a new administration to eliminate regulations put forward by the previous one.
However, the votes come in defiance of the Government Accountability Office — a nonpartisan congressional watchdog that sometimes issues legal opinions.
That office has determined that because the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval came in the form of a waiver rather than a rule, it is not subject to the CRA.
By holding the votes anyway, House Republicans are demonstrating they are willing to carry out their agenda regardless of whether the nonpartisan arbiter deems them legal.
Rachel Weintraub, executive director of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, a group that supports environmental and other regulations, described the decision to defy the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as a violation of congressional norms.
“The system has been in place since [the] CRA was established,” she said. “The unprecedented nature of ignoring the GAO …is profound.”
Republicans, meanwhile, celebrated the vote.
“The Biden Administration left behind comply-or-die Green New Deal mandates that threaten to crush our trucking industry and drive up costs for hardworking Americans,” said Rep. John James (R-Mich.), who sponsored one of the resolutions, in a written statement.
Senate Republicans, who also want to go after California’s rules, are facing a similar challenge. The Senate parliamentarian, a rules authority for the upper chamber, has also said the waivers allowing the rules to go forward are not subject to the CRA.
Senate Republicans have signaled they could seek to defy the parliamentarian but have not yet said definitively whether they actually plan to do so.
If they do, they could be setting up a legal and procedural kerfuffle — especially as the parliamentarian also sets the rules for what provisions can go into a high-stakes budget package that also evades the filibuster.
Sean H. Donahue, an environmental lawyer with the firm Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, said a legal challenge could be expected if the resolution is ultimately signed into law.
“We’d be in uncharted territory, but I think you’d have an illegal action … I would expect that there would be pushback,” said Donahue, not to be confused with a Trump EPA appointee of the same name.
The House was initially slated to also vote to axe California’s phaseout of gas-powered cars, but postponed that vote until Thursday.
California is allowed to set its own vehicle pollution rules — with the approval from the EPA — because of a clause in the Clean Air Act that comes in response to historic smog problems in Los Angeles. That provision allows the EPA to waive laws that typically preempt states from setting regulations that go beyond the scope of those set at the federal level.
More than 10 percent of the U.S. population lives in California, giving it a significant share of the auto and trucking markets. And its rules are also adopted by some other states, making them even more impactful.
—Updated at 7:04 p.m. EDT
