Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Republicans’ Historic Move To Go Nuclear By Overriding The Parliamentarian To Repeal California’s Clean Air Act Waivers And Appease Big Oil

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to condemn Republicans’ plan to go nuclear and hijack the Congressional Review Act to repeal three California vehicle emission waivers on a majority vote, a move that defies Parliamentarian guidance and the very institution Republicans claim to protect, all to appease the fossil fuel industry. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

One hundred twenty days into Donald Trump’s presidency, America is plagued with deep problems.

Donald Trump’s trade war is sending prices up and up. Republicans are on the brink of taking away people’s Medicaid. Trust in American leadership is in decline on the world stage.

But what are Senate Republicans focusing on today? Today, Republicans are going nuclear, to appease the fossil fuel industry and at the same time erode away the institution they profess to care about.

First, the facts.

This week, Senate Republicans want to use a measure known as the Congressional Review Act – CRA for short – to repeal three vehicle emission waivers from California. 

These waivers have been used for decades, and are vital for helping keep our air cleaner, our kids healthier, and to lessen our reliance on Big Oil.

Republicans have tried to get rid of California’s emission waivers for a very long time. The fossil fuel industry – which knows it is in decline, which knows that clean energy is not only the cleaner wave of the future but the less costly wave of the future – hates them. They hate that industry.

So, Donald Trump’s EPA tried to rescind the last iteration of one of these waivers during his first administration. But that effort fell short in the courts.

Now Republicans want to try again, this time by using the CRA to repeal these emissions waivers at a simple majority threshold.

But, as was made crystal clear yesterday on the Senate floor through parliamentary inquiries that I made to the Parliamentarian – that the Senate Parliamentarian has advised both sides, Democrats and Republicans – legislation to overturn these waivers does not qualify for expedited consideration under the Congressional Review Act. 

That means any legislation to repeal these waivers should be subject to a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

The Senate Parliamentarian, as we know, plays a vital role in keeping this institution whole. It is thankless work. The Parliamentarian’s advice and judgment on rules and procedures of this institution is indispensable to both parties.

So, Republicans face a choice: do they adhere to Senate precedent as they’ve long claimed to do, and find another way to pass their repeal?

Or are they going to plow ahead, overrule the Parliamentarian, do the bidding of Big Oil, and further eat away at the Senate in the process?

Well, today we have our answer. Senate Republicans are going nuclear.

Let’s be very clear: to override the Parliamentarian, and to use the CRA in the way that Republicans propose, is going nuclear. No ifs, ands, or buts.

And don’t take my word for it.

Let me read a quote from Leader Thune from just a few months ago.

When he was asked if he’d advise his party against moving to override the Parliamentarian, Leader Thune said this: “Yeah, and that’s totally akin to killing the filibuster. We can’t go there. People need to understand that.”

Again, Leader Thune himself said overruling the Parliamentarian is akin to killing the filibuster, and that is just what the Republicans are proposing to do today.

Just yesterday, Leader Thune admitted that this step could “create precedent for the future.” And what an awful precedent.

And in his first address as Republican Leader, Leader Thune stood right here in this chamber – I sat and listened – and promised that “one of my priorities as leader will be to ensure that the Senate stays the Senate.”

Well, what happened to all of that?

What happened to all the preaching we hear from the other side about norms and rules and precedent?

Apparently, when it suits them, Republicans will preach about protecting precedent.

But now that precedents are inconvenient, when they stand in the way of their ideological goals, Republicans say away with them.

Shameful. Shameful. Republicans don’t need to take the Senate down this road. They have other alternatives at their disposal. If they want to repeal these waivers, bring legislation to the floor, have a debate.

There's nothing that prohibits that. That's what should be done in the kind of regular order our Senate Republicans professed they were going to restore when they got the majority here in January.

Make no mistake, this is not a narrow assertion of Congressional authority, as Leader Thune claimed it was.  Today, Republicans set a new precedent that cannot likely be reversed.

Moving forward, Congressional Review Acts will be weaponized like never before.

Today, it’s all about California emission waivers.

Tomorrow, the CRA could be used to erase any policy from an agency that the Trump administration doesn’t like at a simple majority threshold.

They could eliminate healthcare innovation waivers that states use to get care to people through Medicaid and the ACA.

They could even use CRAs to make it even harder to form a union.

They could go after agency actions that protect access to reproductive care, like making it harder to access the medication mifepristone.

All of this and more could now be done at a simple majority threshold with an expanded CRA.

And all that would need to happen is for Donald Trump to choose an agency action or policy he doesn’t like, stamp it with the label “CRA,” send it over to the Congress, and Republicans will bow in obeisance and repeal it at a simple majority threshold.

This is, in other words, a backdoor strategy from Republicans to make Project 2025 a reality. And mark my words: many of our Republican colleagues are not going to like to have to vote on CRAs that Trump wants, and we will be able to get votes on them because of what the Republicans are attempting to do today.

This is the legislative branch ceding authority over to the executive.

And Republicans should tread carefully.

What goes around comes around.

If Republicans are willing to overrule the Parliamentarian and hijack the CRA in a way it has never been used before, they will not like it the next time they are in the minority, that's for sure.

So, this is a sad, shameful, disappointing day for the U.S. Senate. Republicans will come to regret the ill-considered step they take today. Mark my words.

And our country, and the health of our children, will be worse off because of what Republicans have done.

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