Thune Says Senate Will Take Action To Overturn Biden Policy

A new front in America’s regulatory power struggle is opening in the U.S. Senate this week, and at the heart of the battle is not just a debate over cars and emissions—but the very architecture of executive authority and congressional oversight.

Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) announced that lawmakers will challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s waivers granted to California, which allowed the state to implement its controversial plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

These waivers, approved under the Clean Air Act, gave California the green light to enforce stricter vehicle emission standards than federal rules—a move that Thune says effectively outsources national energy policy to Sacramento. “It’s an improper expansion of a limited Clean Air Act authority,” Thune declared from the Senate floor, warning that it could jeopardize consumer choice, economic resilience, and America’s energy security.

At issue is whether these EPA waivers qualify as “rules” under the Congressional Review Act (CRA)—a law that lets Congress overturn agency regulations with a simple majority, bypassing the Senate filibuster.

The Senate Parliamentarian and Government Accountability Office (GAO) have maintained that the waivers are not rules under the CRA framework, meaning they wouldn’t be eligible for repeal via CRA resolution.

Thune strongly disagrees. Pointing to the EPA’s submission of the waivers to Congress as rules, he asserts that the CRA does apply, and the Senate has a duty to act. Reinforcing his argument is the House’s earlier vote to strike down the waivers, which passed with the support of 35 Democrats—and faced no objection from the House parliamentarian.

This brewing legislative showdown has also ignited a procedural clash. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) has fired back, accusing Republicans of attempting to weaponize the CRA to override long-standing environmental protections. In protest, Padilla has put a hold on EPA nominees, signaling a hardening of Democratic resistance.

“If Republicans open this door,” Padilla warned, “there would be no practical limit,” hinting at a slippery slope where nearly any agency action could be subject to reversal under CRA, even if not technically a rule.

But Thune isn’t backing down. In a rare move, he criticized the GAO itself, accusing the watchdog agency of overstepping its bounds by declaring that an agency-submitted rule was not, in fact, a rule. It’s an “extraordinary deviation from precedent,” Thune said, and a troubling development that he suggests threatens Congress’ own powers under the CRA.