The House voted Thursday to ax California’s electric vehicle mandate — defying Congress’s own internal watchdog for the second day in a row.
The House voted to undo the Biden administration’s approval of the California rule, which bans the sale of new gas-powered cars starting in 2035, using a tool known as the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
With a simple majority in both chambers and presidential approval, the CRA allows Congress 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 last one.
However, the 246-164 vote came in defiance of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional watchdog that also issues legal opinions.
That office has determined that because the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 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 that they are willing to carry out their agenda regardless of whether the nonpartisan arbiter deems them legal.
It similarly voted to ax EPA waivers allowing California clean truck rules Wednesday — similarly defying the GAO.
Senate Republicans, who also want to target California’s rules, are facing similar circumstances. The Senate parliamentarian, a rules authority for the upper chamber, has also determined that 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 conundrum — especially as the parliamentarian also sets the rules for what provisions can go into a high-stakes budget package that also evades the filibuster.
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 market on its own. But, other states can also adopt California’s rules — and 11 other states and Washington, D.C., have adopted its gas-car phaseout — making its rules even more impactful.