Since our last update (April 21), we have seen some important developments regarding Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions. So far, three resolutions have become law and four more have cleared both chambers. Although we have not received any information that these will be sent to the president’s desk in the coming days, we continue to monitor their status as they could soon be on the move.
The most consequential development is the announcement that House Republicans will press ahead and vote on three resolutions that target waivers granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the state of California to develop vehicle emissions guidelines. The implications of this move are profound, both for its potential impact on emissions from the transportation sector and for the precedent it will be setting regarding the role of the CRA in undoing policies that fall outside the scope of the law.
California’s vehicle emissions standards and the Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act’s special exemption for California (included in Section 117 of the law) provides the state the authority to set stricter standards for tailpipe emissions and allows other states to adopt California’s limits. Despite this provision, California still needs to request a waiver from the EPA whenever it seeks to make new rules for vehicle exhaust or change existing rules on the books. Since 1968 (when the federal government granted the first waiver), the state has received dozens of these exemptions.
So far, 17 states have adopted the state’s previous emissions rules. This means that California’s impact extends well beyond its borders. In a very real sense, rules from California can accelerate low-emission and electric vehicle adoption and associated cost and emissions reductions at the national level.
These benefits make the adoption of California’s standards critical for decarbonizing the transportation sector, especially with the current presidential administration committed to erasing every trace of climate policy developed during the Biden years. Unfortunately, California’s rules — and its ability to set its own standards — are currently under threat from the CRA.
CRA resolutions and California’s clean car rules
Despite clear disqualifying opinions from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Senate parliamentarian, Republican lawmakers in the House are moving forward with CRA resolutions for California’s Advanced Clean Cars II, Advanced Clean Trucks, and low nitrogen oxides standards. Senate Republicans have yet to decide if they are going to vote on the companion CRA resolutions that have been introduced in the Senate.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who plans the floor schedule, has three CRA resolutions on the docket for this week, targeting California waivers:
Additionally, there are two more resolutions on the docket that target endangered species and public lands management rules:
Final reminder: Building a People’s Regulatory Agenda
As we mentioned in our last update, the Center for Progressive Reform and the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards will host a webinar on Building a People’s Regulatory Agenda Through Rulemaking Petitions this Thursday, May 1. The webinar will explore the strategic value of a coordinated public campaign to leverage the federal Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) rulemaking petition process to respond to the Trump administration’s attacks on our system of regulatory safeguards. Please RSVP or sign up to receive a recording of the webinar here. Our panelists include:
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Federico Holm | April 28, 2025
Since our last update (April 21), we have seen some important developments regarding Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions. So far, three resolutions have become law and four more have cleared both chambers. Although we have not received any information that these will be sent to the president’s desk in the coming days, we continue to monitor their status as they could soon be on the move. The most consequential development is the announcement that House Republicans will press ahead and vote on three resolutions that target waivers granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the state of California to develop vehicle emissions guidelines.
Daniel Farber | April 24, 2025
It’s a tribute to the significance of state climate policies that President Donald Trump devoted an entire executive order to excoriating them as “fundamentally irreconcilable” with his own, fossil fuel-promoting energy policy. Yet, despite all the drama in DC, state governments have continued to make quiet progress in their efforts to expand clean energy and phase out fossil fuels. These states are focused on tangible steps forward, not on capturing online clicks, so their efforts may escape notice. But the cumulative effect of these month-by-month, smaller-scale initiatives is significant.
James Goodwin | April 23, 2025
On April 23, the Trump administration formally published a rulemaking proposal in the Federal Register that would lay the legal groundwork for creating a new category of civil service personnel called “Schedule Policy/Career” — better known as “Schedule F.” Long anticipated, this policy would strip civil service employees of century-old employment protections, effectively making them “at will” employees, much like a president’s political appointees.
Sophie Loeb | April 23, 2025
As North Carolinians continue to grapple with rolling blackouts, rising energy bills, and recovery from a once-in-a-generation hurricane event, another pending environmental catastrophe is developing in our backyards. On Monday, May 5, the North Carolina Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing to gather feedback on Duke Energy’s plans to build a second new methane gas power plant near its existing coal plant on Hyco Lake in Person County as part of the state’s decarbonization plan.
Federico Holm | April 21, 2025
Since our last update (April 7), we have seen some important developments regarding Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions. In addition to the two resolutions signed into law on March 15 (easing protections that will mostly benefit the fossil fuel industry), one more resolution has become law.
Bryan Dunning | April 16, 2025
On April 8, the Trump administration issued the “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach” executive order (EO), another in a blitz of orders and declarations focused on the energy sector. As with the other energy-related EOs, it contains numerous references to advancing so-called “energy dominance” — which is largely and ideologically focused on fossil fuel industries — despite the United States already being “dominant” in this sector.
Sophie Loeb | April 15, 2025
In the midst of countless federal deregulatory actions, it’s easy to lose track of what’s happening to undermine states’ climate regulations and laws. Here in North Carolina, we are facing the cascading consequences of federal deregulation layered on top of threats to our state’s carbon plan law.
James Goodwin | April 10, 2025
During the night of April 9, President Donald Trump continued his administration’s radical assault on our nation’s critical system of regulatory safeguards with three new executive orders and a separate memorandum. These actions build on several previous ones that target regulatory safeguards, and they traffic in a lot of the same false rhetoric about the essential role our regulatory system plays in our society. But what makes these actions different is the manner in which they trample on administrative law and the procedural protections that it is meant to uphold.
Daniel Farber | April 9, 2025
On April 8, flanked by a few coal miners in hard hats, President Donald Trump signed four executive orders to restore their industry to its past glory. Given that coal is now the most expensive way to generate power other than nuclear, that’s going to be a heavy lift. Like many of Trump’s orders, these four are full of threats and bluster but will have little immediate effect.