WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives took a trio of votes this week targeting California’s decades-old authority to enforce its own environmental standards, setting the stage for a significant standoff in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats say Republican leaders would have to defy long-standing congressional order to get the measures passed.
The votes called into question California’s waiver from the Clean Air Act of 1970, an authority that has allowed the state to set stricter pollution guidelines and empowered its leaders to set an alternative standard on car emissions to those of the federal government.
On Thursday, Republicans in the House, joined by a handful of Democrats, voted to prohibit California from banning gas-powered cars by 2035. The day before, the House voted along similar lines to end California’s ability to set emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks and to combat smog levels in the state.
For decades, automakers have bent their car production lines to meet California mileage standards, in part due to the size of the California market and in part because the industry has found it a safer bet — with changes in power so common in Washington — to be more stringent on fuel efficiency standards than the alternative.
But since President Trump took office, the Environmental Protection Agency has questioned whether that authority amounts to a technical “rule” that allows for the Senate to disapprove of the waiver with a simple majority vote, under the Congressional Review Act.
Over the last two months, two independent offices — the Senate parliamentarian and the Government Accountability Office, or GAO — have found that California’s waiver authority is not subject to review under the Congressional Review Act.
California’s waiver, the GAO said, is “not a rule” under the law, noting that the matter had been reviewed multiple times over the last 60 years. The “EPA’s recent submission is inconsistent with this caselaw,” the office found.
While those rulings were not enough to stop votes from proceeding in the House, it will fall to Senate Republican leadership, under Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), to decide how to proceed.
“Let me also be clear about process,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) in a statement. “The Senate parliamentarian has already upheld decades of precedent and determined these CRAs are not allowed by Senate rules. If Senate Republicans take up these measures under the Congressional Review Act, they will be going nuclear by overruling the Parliamentarian, all to baselessly attack California.”
California Sen. Adam Schiff’s office also said he would be urging others in the Senate to adhere to the GAO’s findings, noting that Thune had previously committed to following “regular order” on votes — which, traditionally, has meant heeding to the parliamentarian and GAO offices.
“Republicans have themselves admitted that the Congressional Review Act is not a tool at their disposal to ignore the law and overturn precedent, as has the Senate Parliamentarian,” Schiff said.
“We will fight this latest attack on California’s power to protect its own residents,” he added, “and I will urge my colleagues in the Senate to recognize the severe implications of proceeding with this violation of state’s rights, as well as the dangerous precedent it would set by flouting the unanimous opinion of Congress’ trusted arbiters.”