2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

Trump signed three CRA resolutions revoking California Clean Air Act waivers; GAO and Senate parliamentarian found CRA inapplicable

On June 12, 2025, President Trump signed H.J. Res. 87, 88, and 89 into law, revoking three EPA Clean Air Act waivers that authorized California to enforce stricter-than-federal vehicle emissions standards under its longstanding § 209(b) authority. Both the Government Accountability Office and the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian had issued findings that the Congressional Review Act does not legally apply to EPA waiver decisions. The three resolutions' enactment permanently bars EPA from issuing any "substantially similar" waiver, ending California's decades-long independent emissions authority without a statutory basis for the prospective ban.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On June 12, 2025, President Trump signed H.J. Res. 87, H.J. Res. 88, and H.J. Res. 89 into law, revoking three EPA Clean Air Act waivers that authorized California to enforce stricter vehicle emissions standards than federal law requires. California's § 209(b) waiver authority dates to the Clean Air Act's 1967 enactment and has been granted under every subsequent administration; it is the legal basis for the state's long-running independent emissions regulatory program that over a dozen states mirror. The administration and Republican-controlled Congress used the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 statute providing fast-track procedures to repeal executive agency rules, as the vehicle for revocation.

Both the Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian — the Senate's nonpartisan legal arbiter — had issued formal findings that EPA Clean Air Act waivers are not "rules" within the CRA's definition and therefore are not subject to its repeal procedures. The administration's position that EPA waivers qualify as CRA-reviewable rules was explicitly rejected by these nonpartisan arbiters before the resolutions passed. Eleven states filed suit the same day the bills were signed.

The legal consequence of using the CRA mechanism goes beyond the immediate revocations. The CRA imposes a permanent "substantially similar" bar: once a rule (or here, a waiver) is repealed under CRA, EPA is barred by statute from issuing any rule or action deemed "substantially similar" in the future, absent new legislation. The application of this bar to EPA waiver authority means the revocations function as a permanent preemption of California's emissions regulatory independence — an outcome without a statutory basis in the CRA's own terms, according to the GAO and parliamentarian findings.

Why we recorded this

The Congressional Review Act provides a fast-track mechanism for Congress to repeal executive agency rules. Both the Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian — the Senate's nonpartisan statutory authority — issued findings that EPA Clean Air Act waivers are not "rules" subject to CRA review. The administration and Republican majority proceeded anyway, using a legislative mechanism its own nonpartisan arbiters found inapplicable outside its statutory scope. The consequence is not merely symbolic: the CRA's "substantially similar" bar permanently prohibits EPA from issuing any analogous waiver without new legislation, ending California's decades-long independent emissions authority that predates federal standards.

Sources

  1. Congressional Bills H.J. Res. 87, H.J. Res. 88, H.J. Res. 89 Signed into Law — The White House primary accessed June 25, 2026
  2. Active Battle Over the California Clean Air Act Waiver Continues — Jones Day secondary accessed June 25, 2026

See also