Senate Votes to Strike Down Biden's Aggressive Vehicle Emissions Rule as Several Democrats Jump Ship
An embattled Biden administration vehicle emissions rule that has already drawn the ire of the courts has received a thumbs down from the Senate, too.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 53-47 to strike down a rule that forces states to track vehicle emissions on parts of the federal highway system in their states and then set goals for those emissions, according to Politico.
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio joined Republicans, as did independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
The Biden administration’s @USDOTFHWA greenhouse gas emission rule places undue burdens on Americans, especially in rural states like South Dakota. Today I will vote for @SenKevinCramer’s common-sense CRA to end this reckless mandate. https://t.co/4VL0Iu53ee
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) April 10, 2024
“Few things are more frustrating in government than unelected bureaucrats asserting authority they don’t have and foisting federal mediocrity on the excellence of states,” resolution sponsor Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said Wednesday, according to Fox News.
He said the resolution “overturns the Biden administration’s obviously illegal rule that requires state departments of transportation to measure CO2 tailpipe emissions then set declining targets for vehicles traveling on the highway systems of their respective states.”
“The Biden administration should have never introduced this rule. But now we, the policymaking branch of government, must end it,” he said.
WATCH: The @USDOTFHWA‘s emissions rule is an unworkable, one-size-fits-all approach that would burden states with setting & enforcing declining emissions standards for travel on highways. That’s why I spoke on the Senate floor today in support of nullifying this rule. pic.twitter.com/Ch1beLID2X
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) April 10, 2024
The resolution next goes to the House, but President Joe Biden has already said, if it comes to his desk, he would veto it, according to Politico.
However, last month, U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, ruled for states objecting to the rule, according to Fox News.
“A federal administrative agency cannot act without congressional authorization,” Hendrix wrote in his ruling, adding, “the Court concludes that the rule was unauthorized.”
He said that regardless of the intentions of the rule, the Biden administration went about it all wrong.
“If the people, through Congress, believe that the states should spend the time and money necessary to measure and report GHG emissions and set declining emission targets, they may do so by amending Section 150 or passing a new law,” he wrote, referring to the section of law amended by the Biden administration and using an acronym for greenhouse gases.
The Biden administration’s FHWA emissions rule is not just arrogance, it’s arrogance on steroids. Earlier today, the Senate passed my bipartisan legislation to overturn it. https://t.co/HURhBO6xv3
— Sen. Kevin Cramer (@SenKevinCramer) April 10, 2024
“But an agency cannot make this decision for the people,” he wrote.
“An agency can only do what the people authorize it to do, and the plain language of Section 150(c)(3) and its related statutory provisions demonstrate the [Department of Transportation] was not authorized to enact the 2023 Rule.”
“[T]he statutory context consistently instructs the Court to reject the DOT’s expansive interpretation. Thus, the Court concludes that the DOT’s GHG emission measure is unauthorized by the statute,” he wrote.
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