House Republicans are investigating the Government Accountability Office’s determination that Congress cannot quickly overturn EPA’s decision to allow California’s strict car emissions rules to take effect.
The chairs of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to GAO Tuesday demanding various records regarding its opinion last month that the Congressional Review Act does not apply to EPA’s waiver issued under President Joe Biden.
The GOP has been using the CRA to overturn numerous Biden regulations, since it requires only a simple majority vote in the Senate, not the 60 votes that are effectively needed for most legislation. Republicans had hoped the California Clean Air Act waivers would be eligible too.
“GAO’s decision to publish observations in this matter is inconsistent with its own plain language description of its role in monitoring ‘agency compliance’ with obligations to ‘submit major and non-major rules to Congress and GAO,’” Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) wrote in their Tuesday letter.
