Congress

Our congressional section has the latest on energy, environmental and related legislation in the House and Senate, with must-read stories on upcoming bills, amendments, hearings and floor battles.

Topic Subtitle
Our congressional section has the latest on energy, environmental and related legislation in the House and Senate, with must-read stories on upcoming bills, amendments, hearings and floor battles.

House GOP Taps Rep. Palmer, LCRI Critic, To Lead Key Environment Panel

House Republicans have named Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), a strong critic of the Biden EPA’s rule requiring replacement of lead service lines, to lead the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that oversees the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and several other major environmental laws. Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), chairman of the full committee, July 3 announced Palmer’s appointment to lead the environment subcommittee following a leadership shuffle due to Rep. Buddy Carter’s (R-GA) resignation from another subcommittee chairmanship. Carter had chaired...

Senate Backs Reconciliation Bill Slashing Numerous Clean Energy Supports

The Senate has narrowly backed budget reconciliation legislation that rolls back numerous Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) clean energy tax credits and repeals numerous climate change programs, after making relatively modest changes to a prior June 28 draft of the bill including the deletion of a proposed new tax on wind and solar projects. The final bill , which cleared a 50-50 tie after a vote from Vice President J.D. Vance, tees up consideration of the plan in the House as...

Pentagon Readies Another Deadline Extension For Ending PFAS-Foam Use

Pentagon officials are briefing lawmakers on their plans to exercise a second one-year waiver for the military’s upcoming deadline to end use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam, citing various difficulties including the large number of assets that need to transition, a shift in Defense Department (DOD) priorities and disposal limitations. “Although the Department has made significant progress, it needs additional time to ensure a methodical and safe transition of over 1,000 facilities and over 6,000 mobile assets,” the Office of the...

Senate Takes Up New Attacks On Clean Energy As Budget Bill Nears Passage

The Senate is pushing to approve by as soon as June 30 its budget reconciliation bill that scuttles numerous Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) environmental grants and clean energy incentives -- after spurning draft language to soften some tax credit cuts -- setting up potential House enactment by July 4 despite harsh criticism from the clean energy sector. “We are slashing Biden’s Green New Deal spending and promoting America-First energy,” said Senate Finance Committee chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) in a June...

Environmentalists Strongly Oppose Push For Legislative TSCA Changes

Environmentalists are steadfastly opposing industry efforts to revise the 2016 reforms to TSCA, arguing not enough time has passed to know whether additional changes are needed and that administrative tweaks could address many of industry’s concerns while also questioning whether reauthorizing the fees program is necessary. Their position makes it even less likely that Senate Democrats, who were already downplaying prospects for a deal on TSCA reform, are likely to reach an agreement with Republicans. Daniel Rosenberg, director of federal...

Resisting Zeldin, Lawmakers Offer Bill To Codify Biden’s SDWA PFAS Rule

Two House lawmakers -- one Democrat, one Republican -- are pushing a bill to codify the Biden EPA rule regulating six PFAS in drinking water, an attempt to preserve the rule in the face of efforts by Administrator Lee Zeldin to rescind and reconsider standards for four contaminants and allow more time to comply with the remaining two. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, introduced H.R. 4168 , June 26,...

H.R. 4168

Letter To Zeldin


House Hearing Previews GOP, Industry Push To Roll Back EPA’s CCR Rule

Republican lawmakers and power industry officials used a House Energy and Commerce Committee (E&C) hearing on coal ash to preview their calls for how the Trump EPA should revise the Biden-era rule governing legacy coal combustion residuals (CCR) surface impoundments and CCR management units (CCRMU). During the June 26 hearing before the committee’s environment panel, GOP lawmakers pressed the agency to revise the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) rule to allow increased use of CCR. “It’s time to unleash...

States, Environmentalists File New Suits To Block Trump Grant Freezes

Democratic states, environmentalists, municipalities and tribes have filed a pair of new suits seeking to block EPA and other agencies’ efforts to freeze billions of dollars in Biden-era environmental justice (EJ), climate and other grants, launching the suits as courts continue to grapple with an earlier round of cases that sought to block the freezes. A coalition of environmental, municipalities and tribal groups June 25 filed a class action suit against EPA over its withholding of $3 billion in environmental...

House GOP Advances CWA Overhaul Bill, Raising Doubts On Senate Action

House Republicans have voted on party lines to move their legislation aimed at overhauling Clean Water Act (CWA) permitting provisions through the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee (T&I), prompting warnings from Democrats that the bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate even though it seeks to address “important issues.” During a June 25 markup, the full T&I committee voted 34-30 to approve H.R. 3898, with the final measure incorporating amendments pushed by GOP members of the committee, while rejecting those...

EPW’s Revised Reconciliation Draft Narrows Plan To Speed NEPA Reviews

Republicans on the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee (EPW) have released an updated draft of their portion of the party’s massive budget reconciliation bill, including a narrowed version of a proposal to allow developers to pay a fee in exchange for speedier environmental reviews of projects. The revised draft , released June 25, drops multiple provisions that the Senate parliamentarian had determined violate the chamber’s reconciliation rules allowing certain budget-related legislation to be adopted by a simple majority vote...

Trump signs CRA resolution scrapping air toxics reclassification rule

President Donald Trump has signed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution rescinding the Biden EPA’s rule that barred some “major” air toxics sources from reclassifying as more weakly regulated “area” sources, an action that appears likely to restore an earlier Trump rule that allowed such reclassification, though it still faces litigation. Trump signed the resolution , S.J. Res. 31, on June 20, after the House and Senate earlier approved the measure. The resolution rescinds the Biden EPA’s rule that limited...

EPA Expected To Target More California Waivers, Older Rules For Repeal

Following its successful effort to revoke some preemption waivers for California mobile source emissions rules, EPA is expected to seek to rescind additional waivers and some state officials are urging the agency to revisit other “burdensome” rules requiring vehicle inspection and maintenance (I/M) in areas out of attainment with ozone standards. The expectations come after President Donald Trump on June 12 signed three Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions rescinding California waivers for its Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) program...

House GOP Bill Would Subject EPA Rules To FERC Grid-Impact Reviews

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is poised to approve legislation that would block rules from EPA and other agencies that are deemed to undermine the reliability of the nation’s electricity grid, a move that reflects GOP and Trump administration priorities to elevate energy production above environmental regulatory requirements. The committee is slated to approve the bill, H.R. 3616 , as part of a package of bills slated for June 25 markup. As amended in subcommittee, the bill would revise...

House Democrats Seek To Scale Back Republican’s CWA Streamlining Bill

House Democrats on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee are proposing a series of amendments they plan to offer at an upcoming markup that seek to narrow or kill Republican legislative provisions aimed at overhauling key portions of the Clean Water Act (CWA), with some amendments testing potential bipartisan support on certain issues. The committee is scheduled to hold a June 25 markup of H.R. 3898 , a measure that compiles the dozens of bills that the committee’s Republicans issued on...

Parliamentarian Hampers Senate Budget Bill’s Personnel, Rules Provisions

The Senate parliamentarian has determined that key federal personnel and deregulatory provisions in Republicans’ pending budget reconciliation legislation are ineligible for fast-track passage, including measures that would expand the Trump administrations power to reorganize EPA and limit adoption of major rules, according to a top Democrat. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, announced in a June 22 press release that Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has determined several elements of the bill are not eligible for expedited...

Senate Parliamentarian Finds EPA Auto Repeal Ineligible For Budget Bill

Senate Democrats are stating that the chamber’s parliamentarian has determined that a proposal to rescind the Biden EPA’s multi-pollutant standards for passenger vehicles is ineligible for fast-track passage via Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill, a finding that could force Trump officials to engage in a complicated process to repeal the rule. The Capitol Hill maneuvering -- which for now leaves the legislative proposal to repeal EPA’s rule in limbo -- comes as industry sources say agency leadership appears to be leaning...

Senate Budget Bill Bolsters EPA Reorganization, Hikes Injunction Fees

Budget reconciliation legislation pending in the Senate would expand the Trump administration’s power to reorganize EPA, raise barriers to career EPA employees seeking relief from labor courts and impose steep costs on environmentalists and other plaintiffs requesting district court injunctions against EPA actions. Senators from the Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee (HSGAC) on June 12 released draft text as part of Republicans' aim to advance much of President Donald Trump’s legislative policy agenda. The HSGAC...

House GOP Bills To Overhaul Air Standards Seek To Codify Trump Deregulatory Goals

Draft legislation being pushed by House Republicans would overhaul EPA’s process for setting air quality standards in support of the Trump administration’s goal of eliminating perceived regulatory barriers to economic growth. The legislation was unveiled at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing last week where Republican lawmakers underscored the air quality progress made over the past decades under the Clean Air Act to argue for regulatory flexibility in setting new national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), which current law...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.