Comer & Guthrie Review GAO’s Intervention in CRA Process to Dismantle California’s Electric Vehicle Mandate Rubberstamped by the Biden Administration

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Committee on Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) today announced a review of the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) decision to publish observations on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) submission of Clean Air Act (CAA) waivers as rules under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). In a letter to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, Chairmen Comer and Guthrie raise concerns about GAO’s decision, noting that it is inconsistent with GAO’s own plain language description of its role and undermines congressional authority. To ensure GAO adheres to its nonpartisan mission, the chairmen request documents and information pertaining to GAO’s observations.

 “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.’ In passing the CRA, Congress intended for GAO to help safeguard congressional authority through published observations on agency attempts to side-step CRA requirements. GAO’s decision to adversely opine on an agency’s efforts to comply with the CRA is a distortion of its role and could make agencies less likely to follow the intent of this important statute in the future,” wrote Chairmen Comer and Guthrie.

In 2022, California passed a law banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles and imposing an electric vehicle mandate by 2035. The state sought a waiver from federal pollution standards under the CAA, which required approval from the EPA. On December 26, 2023, the Biden EPA began reviewing California’s request. A year later, in December 2024, and less than a month before President Trump took office, the Biden EPA approved the state’s regulations. Notably, in its final days, the Biden Administration did not submit the California CAA waivers to Congress. On February 14, 2025, the Trump EPA reversed this decision and determined that the California CAA waivers should be treated as rules, making them subject to the CRA process. If the new EPA leadership had not reached this conclusion, GAO might have assessed whether the Biden EPA’s decision complied with the CRA. However, the Executive Branch’s classification of the decision as a rule should have prevented GAO’s intervention.

“[P]ursuant to a request by three members of the Senate minority, GAO issued a highly unusual adverse declaration after only a matter of weeks. The speed of GAO’s conclusion raises further questions about ideological bias as GAO has typically taken more than three months to study far more conventional questions of CRA compliance,” continued the chairmen. “In this case, GAO arguing that Congress cannot use the CRA to repeal the waivers goes well beyond GAO’s advisory role and raises questions about the process, motivations of those involved in the decision, and the institutional understanding of GAO’s role in the CRA process.”

Read the letter to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro here.