GOP Aims to Use Congressional Review Act to Undo Obama Regulations
Republican lawmakers are aiming to use the Congressional Review Act as
their weapon to tackle regulations President Barack Obama has enacted.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte told The Hill that
using the CRA wasn't "possible ... in a divided Congress, but now that
it is, we certainly are interested in review regulations to make sure
they meet with congressional intent."
The CRA allows for Congress to review and disapprove rules submitted by
federal agencies before they go into effect. However, in order to
disapprove a rule, Congress has to pass a joint resolution in both the
House and Senate.
Even though the CRA has been in effect since 1996, Congress has only
disapproved of one rule, even though 43 resolutions in total have been
introduced by lawmakers.
"The CRA has been used sparingly in the past and some folks may say it's
too aggressive, but frankly the aggressive nature of this
administration's regulations demands an aggressive response," a senior
aide to Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe told The Hill.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell threatened to draft resolutions
last year to prevent the rule proposed by the Environmental Protection
Agency to cut carbon emissions by new power plants from going into
effect.
Inhofe, who is now the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is also honing in on the EPA.
"There is widespread agreement among Republicans and the business
community that the EPA under the Obama administration is out of control
and it's taking things to the extreme," Inhofe's aide added.
Lawmakers are only allowed to try to disapprove a new regulation within
60 days of when the rule takes effect, and a filibuster may not be used
to try to stop a resolution from passing.
Obama still has the ability to veto any CRA resolution, and it is
unlikely Republicans will garner enough Democratic support to overturn a
veto.
However, GOP lawmakers still believe it could be an effective strategy
to highlight what they think are Obama's "job-killing" regulations as
well as show they are trying to do something about them. And they argue
it will at least force the Democrats in Congress to go on the record
either supporting or opposing Obama administration rules.
"The desire of Democrats to distance themselves from the president is only beginning to grow," the senior Inhofe aide said.
"One of the best ways they can distance themselves is by voting to overturn bad regulations," he added.
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