GOP Calls Senate Dems’ Bluff On ‘Newfound’ Filibuster Concern Now That EV Mandates Are On Chopping Block

Senate Republicans are going on offense against Democrats’ claims that reversing California’s de facto national electric vehicle (EV) mandate would undermine the filibuster, arguing that the Senate is reclaiming its constitutional authority from unelected bureaucrats to nix the Golden State’s “Green New Deal” rules.

Senate Democrats are accusing Senate GOP leadership of fundamentally eroding the “institutional character” of the upper chamber by proceeding with votes to overturn Biden-era waivers that allow California to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars within its borders and all states who choose to adopt the regulation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has dismissed Democrats’ messaging as a false attack, stating that Senate Republicans are focused on disputing a “politically motivated” decision by an unelected office in the federal bureaucracy and are committed to preserving the procedural rule that requires most legislation to obtain 60 votes. (RELATED: Senate GOP Eyes Vote To Nix California’s EV Mandate, But Swing Votes Could Pump Breaks On Effort)

“The fact of the matter is — this has nothing to do with the legislative filibuster,” Thune said Tuesday at the Senate GOP leadership press conference. “This is the Congress in the United States Senate submitting to the body the question of whether or not the Government Accountability Office — the GAO — ought to be able to determine for us what is and isn’t the rule.”

“The [Trump] administration says it’s a rule,” Thune continued. “The GAO has said it’s not. And the United States Senate is going to be heard from on this issue tomorrow.”

Thune announced on the Senate floor Tuesday morning that the Senate will vote this week on overturning the California waivers and the state’s de facto EV mandate, which the Biden administration allowed to effectively dictate national environmental policy.

He challenged the authority of GAO, a purportedly nonpartisan office tasked with auditing the federal government and providing analysis to Congress, to restrict Congress’ authority from making law by reversing the California waivers.

“For the first time ever, the Government Accountability Office has decided to insert itself into the process and affirmatively declare that an agency rule submitted to Congress as a rule is not a rule,” Thune said in his floor remarks. “It’s an extraordinary deviation from precedent for an agency that should be defending Congress’ power instead of constraining it.”

Gene Dodaro, the head of the GAO, notably could not list another example of when the office has determined that “a rule submitted by the executive branch for Congressional Review Act isn’t ineligible for review under the CRA”  during a House Appropriations Committee hearing in April.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chair Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia illustrated the far-reaching effects of the California waivers, which have been adopted in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

“The onerous quality of this rule is just beyond description,” Capito said Tuesday. “Not just the penalties forcing certain states and certain consumers to purchase a vehicle that they may not want or that they can’t find. It really eliminates what I think our country was built on, which is individual choice and making the decisions for yourselves.”

However, Senate Democrats are crying foul that the upper chamber’s GOP leadership is on the precipice of weakening the filibuster by ignoring the Senate parliamentarian who affirmed the GAO ruling that the California waivers are not subject to the Congressional Review Act.

“If a majority of the Senate votes to overrule the Parliamentarian’s determination regarding these three California waivers, it would be the first ever successful use of the so-called nuclear option to allow a bill to pass the Senate with a simple majority vote that otherwise would be subject to cloture,” California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla wrote in a memo sent to his Democratic colleagues Monday.

Thune has countered that that Senate Republicans’ dispute is with the GAO’s “unprecedented interference” and not the Senate parliamentarian while also reinforcing his commitment to preserving the filibuster.

He also noted the apparent irony of Democrats suddenly voicing concern about the very Senate procedure they tried to dismantle when a Democratic-trifecta controlled Washington.

“The only people that have attempted to get rid of legislative filibuster are Democrats,” Thune said Tuesday. “Every single one of them out there that’s popping off and spouting off has voted literally to get rid of legislative filibuster.”

He has criticized Senate Democrats for flip-flopping on the filibuster during a press conference, noting that Democrats have used the filibuster four times since January to block GOP-backed legislation.

“My colleagues’ newfound interest in defending Senate procedure is touching – if a touch surprising,” Thune said Tuesday.

Padilla, who led the letter purporting to defend the filibuster, joined 47 Senate Democrats in voting to weaken the procedural rule in January 2022.

Padilla also said the legislative filibuster should be eliminated to pass so-called voting rights legislation in a January 2021 interview with CNN. He also accused the Senate procedural rule of standing in the way of Democrats being able to pass legislation related to Democratic-policy wish lists, including climate change, gun control and government-run health care.

“I appreciate what the filibuster has represented in terms of history, but if we look at the last few years and what the practical impact of the filibuster has been … there’s been issue after issue that we haven’t been able to make progress on over the years, that the filibuster has stood in the way of,” Padilla told CNN’s John Berman.

Despite Democrats’ attempts to frame the California waivers as undermining Senate rules, GOP senators are largely dismissing the effort.

“Democrats want to portray it as a challenge to the parliamentarian,” Republican North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven told reporters Tuesday while disputing their framing of Senate Republicans’ decision to move forward with overturning the waivers.

He reiterated that Senate Republicans’ focus is on adjudicating the GAO decision determining the California waivers were not rules.

Barrasso has noted the bipartisan appeal of terminating California’s EV mandate, which 35 House Democrats voted for on May 1. He attributed Senate Democrats’ current opposition to reversing the waivers to the conference “clinging to the last pillar of the Green New Deal.”

“That’s a deal that lost in the elections in November,” Barrasso observed at the Senate GOP leadership press conference.

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