House Lawlessly Votes to Repeal California Clean Air Act Waivers

For Immediate Release: April 30, 2025
Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a brazen act of lawlessness, the House today passed Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions targeting California’s Clean Air Act waivers, which used the CRA in an unprecedented and improper fashion. The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards and 80 groups urged Congress to reject this unlawful and illegitimate use of the CRA.

The Government Accountability Office, the neutral arbiter in disputes over the CRA, twice determined that California’s waiver is not a “rule,” and is thus ineligible to be targeted using the CRA’s expedited procedures. That judgement was upheld and affirmed by the Senate parliamentarian in early April.

“In its rush to reward Big Polluters, the House has opened a Pandora’s Box of lawless abuses of the CRA,” said Rachel Weintraub, executive director of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards. “The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards condemns these flagrantly unlawful and illegitimate uses of the CRA in the strongest possible terms.”

The CRA allows Congress by simple majority vote in both chambers with limited debate, no possibility of a filibuster, and with the president’s signature, to overturn recently issued regulations. The agency that issued the rule is then prohibited from issuing a new one that is “substantially the same,” but the scope of this prohibition has never been tested in court. Importantly, the CRA includes a carryover period allowing a new Congress to strike down rules issued in the final months of the previous administration.

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards maintains a tracker of CRA resolutions, updated weekdays.