No Cabining in the Woods

PRESENTED BY THE PURPLE GALLINULE

The Trump Congress is passing almost no legislation other than resolutions to kill Biden-era rules using the Congressional Review Act. Now they’re hoping to illegally expand the reach of the act to kill California’s climate policies, and it’s unclear if Senate Democrats are willing to stop them.

The CRA allows a simple majority (no filibusters allowed) to overturn recently enacted federal regulations. They’ve killed energy conservation standards for consumer gas-fired instantaneous water heaters; commercial refrigerators, freezers, and refrigerator-freezers; for walk-in coolers and walk-in freezers; and for an array of other appliances. They also killed rules protecting shipwrecks from undersea drilling and reducing methane leaks in the oil and gas industry. And today, with the help of Virginia’s Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, they overturned limits on hazardous air pollutants at rubber tire factories.

The GOP doesn’t need Democrats to pass these resolutions, but they are getting them anyway. (There was a lot of Democratic support on the resolution to overturn limits on anonymous crypto brokers—76 in the House and 17 in the Senate.)

Last week, 35 House Democrats joined the GOP on H.J. Res. 88, a resolution that purports to kill California's clean cars program, which will phase out climate-polluting cars by 2035. Twenty-nine of the Dirty-Car Democrats are members of the corporatist New Democratic Caucus, including California’s George Whitesides (Calif.-27) and Lou Correa (Calif.-46).¹

However, Congress’s Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian have said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Act waivers that permits California to enact stronger pollution standards than the federal rules are not subject to the Congressional Review Act. So that should be the end of it, right?

Not necessarily.

A day after the Senate parliamentarian ruling, Environment chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), and Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) introduced Senate versions of the resolutions to kill California’s various clean-cars policies. Senate Republicans are planning to ignore the Senate parliamentarian and bring the resolutions to a vote, despite complaints from Environment ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and California senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff.² Yesterday, Whitehouse, Padilla, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a sternly worded letter to Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) that ignoring the parliamentarian would be a “nuclear option” with “profound institutional consequences.” There would be “no cabining a decision to overrule the Parliamentarian.”

No cabining!!!

Republicans already called Schumer’s bluff on the continuing resolution, and he crumpled like a Cybertruck hitting a tree. So far, no Senate Democrat has promised to raise a point of order against the resolution if it comes to the floor for a vote.

Relying on emergency measures such as continuing resolutions, budget reconciliation, and the Congressional Review Act, Congressional Republicans are abandoning normal order and quietly eliminating the legislative filibuster. There are many critics of the filibuster on the left, but it should not be killed silently.

Hill Heat has requested comment from the California senators, Schumer, and climate hawks Whitehouse, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

Nazi-friendly Ed Martin’s reign of error as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia may be coming to an end, as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced today he can’t back a January 6th ally for the job. 114 people have been laid off from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. A militarized conspiracy theorist group believes radars are ‘weather weapons’ and is trying to destroy them. FEMA is ending door-to-door canvassing in disaster areas. Trump has DOGEd the USGS water science centers. The Hartford cancelled the Southern Adirondack Audubon Society’s insurance policy because they “operate as an environmental protection organization.” El Paso is having its dustiest year since the actual Dust Bowl. As England faces unprecedented heat and fossil-fueled drought, a wildfire destroys 1,230 acres of land on Dartmoor. Fossil-fueled floods swept a 10-year-girl to her death in Texas.

Natural Resources Republicans are conducting their committee’s budget reconciliation markup in silence today, a mute climate-denier spree of fossil fuels, mining, and timber interests. The bill would mandate increased oil and gas sales, long-term timber sales, and coal sales, all while cutting royalty rates and sidelining environmental reviews. Meanwhile, royalties on renewable projects are increased, and Inflation Reduction Act and other climate programs are eliminated, including funding for national parks, marine sanctuaries, coastal resilience, and the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which the Trump White House illegally shuttered. Not coincidentally Natural Resources chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) has been buying up oil and mining stocks lately.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins presented the USDA budget request with Senate appropriators led by Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.). The budget eviscerates USDA science and conservation initiatives including the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service and Research Statistical Agencies, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, Forest and Rangeland Research, and Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration, and State, Local, Tribal, and NGO Conservation Programs. Rural development programs are slashed, as is the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. Rollins implausibly claimed Farm Services Agency offices won’t be closed.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testified before House appropriators on current DHS activities. The DHS budget cuts over a billion dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency programs while increasing police-state spending by $44 billion.

Hearings on the Hill:

• 10 AM: House Appropriations Committee
     Homeland Security Subcommittee
  Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security

• 10:15 AM: House Natural Resources Committee
  Markup of 2025 Budget Reconciliation Resolution

• 10:30 AM: Senate Appropriations Committee
     Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee
  A Review of the President's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the Department of Agriculture

• 3 PM: Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
  S. 1462, The Timber-Industry Fix Our Forests Act

Climate Action Today:

• 8:15 AM: The Hill
  Energy & Environment Summit

• 9:45 AM: League of Conservation Voters
  House Committee Sit-In Against Oil & Gas Expansion

• 10 AM: Federal Workers Against DOGE
  Fork Off Coalition
  Terminated Worker Tuesday

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.

1  There are three related CRA resolutions purporting to overturn California climate rules—H. J. Res. 88 to kill Advanced Clean Cars, H. J. Res. 87 for Advanced Clean Trucks., and H. J. Res. 89 to kill heavy-duty smog limits, backed by 35, 13, and 10 House Democrats respectively.

2  Senate Republicans are also planning to ignore the parliamentarian in order to pass the budget-busting Trump billionaire tax cuts.