Congress

Biden admin cedes pivotal air pollution rules to Trump

Published

1 year ago

January 2, 2025

As the Biden administration enters its final weeks, EPA continues to press forward on some fronts, while relinquishing on others to incoming President-elect Donald Trump.

In a decision issued Monday that marks the latest twist in a see-saw regulatory battle, the agency rejected an industry coalition’s petition to scrap toughened safeguards against accidental releases of dangerous air pollutants from refineries, chemical plants and thousands of other operations that must file plans to manage those risks.

In the petition, the coalition, whose members include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Chemistry Council and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, wrote that the more stringent regulations impose “multiple unlawful and highly prescriptive mandates that undermine the performance-based flexibility that is the linchpin of process safety.” Besides rescinding the rules, the coalition asked EPA to freeze implementation.

In a thumbs-down that marked one of his last official acts, however, ex-EPA Administrator Michael Regan found that the petition “fails to identify any information or circumstances that warrant mandatory reconsideration.”

The rejection clears the way for proceedings to resume in a lawsuit brought last year by coalition members before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. But with Trump set to take office Jan. 20, they could also ask his administration to revisit the regulations.

It was a tactic used successfully during Trump’s first term, when EPA largely rolled back an earlier bid to tighten a similar batch of requirements issued in the final days of President Barack Obama’s second term.

American Chemistry Council spokesperson Scott Jensen said Thursday the coalition is already working on a letter to Trump’s transition team that will request a start to a new rulemaking process. While Jensen did not have a specific timetable, “obviously we want it to go over to them as soon as possible,” he said in a phone interview.

Elsewhere, the Biden administration is already yielding`sway to its successor.

Late last month, EPA signaled that it is ending plans for now both to widen the geographic reach of its latest good neighbor smog control framework and tighten emission standards on large trash incinerators that may be located near people of color and low-income communities.

The final versions of both rules had been under review by the White House regulations office since September, with a goal of completing work before the year’s end. Instead, both have now been withdrawn, according to notices posted on a government tracking website.

Asked earlier this week about the reasons for the withdrawals, EPA spokesperson Nick Conger in an email noted that only recently amended consent decrees in litigation with environmental groups pushed back the respective deadlines to finalize both rules.

“EPA will continue working on these Clean Air Act actions,” Conger said in an email.

For the update to the incinerator standards, the new due date falls near the end of this year.

Under an earlier EPA proposal, the rule would have toughened New Source Performance Standards and emissions guidelines for dozens of large municipal incinerators that are sources of smog-forming nitrogen oxides, lead, mercury and other pollutants.

The new December 2025 deadline means that almost another year will pass before EPA updates standards that have remained largely unchanged since 1995.

Filings in the litigation before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia do not explain why the challengers, led by the California-based East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, agreed to the delay. An Earthjustice attorney representing them could not be reached for comment.

Under the Clean Air Act’s good neighbor provision, states are barred from allowing smog-forming pollution from power plants and other industries that contributes to downwind compliance problems outside of their borders.

The original good neighbor framework, issued in March 2023, initially applied to 23 states. It aims to ensure nationwide compliance with EPA’s 70 parts per billion limit for ground-level ozone, a lung-damaging compound that is the main ingredient in smog.

Under the proposed expansion issued a year ago, EPA sought to add Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico and Tennessee to a cap-and-trade program to cut power sector emissions of nitrogen oxides.

Since then, the agency has stayed implementation of the original 23-state good neighbor plan in response to a Supreme Court ruling.

“We decided from our part” that “it didn’t make sense for EPA to finalize” the proposed expansion that would then immediately be stayed, Sierra Club senior attorney Zachary Fabish said in an interview. Previously due in November, the final version must now be completed by February 2026.

Asked whether he has any concerns about the Trump administration’s follow-through, Fabish said “the law requires something to be done.” Otherwise, he added, the environmental advocacy group will be at the forefront “of making sure that EPA and the states are following through on their obligations.”

Congress

Thune is ‘hopeful’ Mitch McConnell will return this week

Published

2 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he hopes his predecessor as top Republican, Mitch McConnell, returns this week from a hospitalization.

Thune said he had not yet spoken directly with the 84-year-old Kentuckian but is getting “readouts from his staff.”

Asked about McConnell’s condition or if he knew if he would be back this week, Thune told reporters, “I’m hopeful that he’ll be back this week.”

A McConnell spokesperson said Sunday that he had been admitted to the hospital but did not provide details on his condition or why he was hospitalized — a break from recent prior instances where the seven-term senator was hospitalized.

A former McConnell staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity was told the senator was doing much better Monday without any further details on what put him in the hospital.

Daniel Desrochers contributed to this report.

Congress

Senate to confirm Jay Clayton as soon as Thursday

Published

4 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate could vote as soon as Thursday on Jay Clayton’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence — a lightning speed pace that will necessitate buy-in from all 100 senators.

Confirming Clayton could help shore up enough votes from Democrats to extend a government surveillance program that expired last Friday over opposition to Trump’s pick for acting director, Bill Pulte.

“He will come out of the committee Thursday, at least hopefully, and then if we get consent, we can move,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview Monday about Clayton, who Trump only nominated for the job late last week.

Democrats “ought to be happy with Clayton,” said Thune, adding that he’s a “good” and “solid” pick.

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, floated Sunday to CBS News that Clayton could be confirmed this week if every senator cooperates.

Senate Intelligence will hold a hearing Wednesday on Clayton’s nomination. If every member of the panel agrees, he could then get a committee vote Thursday. Confirming Clayton on the Senate floor hours later would require getting agreement from every senator to speed up the process. Opposition from a single member will punt Clayton’s confirmation to next week.

Confirming Clayton Thursday would, crucially, limit — and potentially circumvent — Pulte from becoming acting director of national intelligence, which Trump has slated to take place Friday, June 19.

The president’s decision to put Pulte in charge after Tulsi Gabbard’s departure at the helm of the Office of National Intelligence sparked bipartisan pushback, with Democrats saying they will withhold support for extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act while Pulte is in the acting role. Congress allowed the key government spy authority lapse last Friday without a deal.

Trump threw another curveball into a FISA extension over the weekend when he posted on social media that he was against reauthorizing Section 702 unless a GOP elections bill is attached. That bill, known as the SAVE America Act, does not have the votes to get through Congress.

Thune threw cold water Monday on tying the two issues together.

“Yeah, he’s, as you know, passionate about getting that done and wants to use every opportunity to take a shot at it,” Thune said of Trump and his desire to enact the elections bill.

But, Thune said, “we can’t get FISA done” if the policies are linked.

Congress

Senate eyes vote on updated housing affordability legislation

Published

6 hours ago

June 15, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to put an updated version of a bipartisan housing affordability bill on the Senate floor for a vote this week, according to two people familiar with the bill dynamics and two Senate Democratic aides granted anonymity to discuss ongoing plans.

The version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that the Senate will vote on will include most of the House-passed language, including a provision restricting large institutional investors from buying single-family homes. The legislation would also add back Senate bills that were dropped from the House package that passed last month, the two people and the two aides said.

The Senate legislation comes after talks between Thune, Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The updated Senate package was also discussed with the House and the White House, the aides said.

Still, it’s unclear if House leadership and the White House have signed off on the legislation.

The Senate and House have gone back and forth for months on language for a housing affordability bill as lawmakers on both sides look for a win to tout during a midterm election season dominated by cost-of-living issues.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed their own versions of the housing bill — the Senate 89-10 in March, and the House 396-13 in May. The White House supported the Senate-passed bill and then backed the House-passed bill after it retained most of the Senate’s language on reining in private equity and other large Wall Street investors in the housing market — a top priority for President Donald Trump.

The Senate’s updated legislation would remove two of the House’s community banking deregulation bills due to budget scoring concerns, said two of the people familiar: two bills that would modify the Federal Deposit Insurance Act around failed insured depository institutions. The Senate bill also added back a provision to authorize the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program for seven years, as opposed to a permanent reauthorization in the Senate’s March legislation.

The Senate additionally re-inserted several upper-chamber priorities, including the BUILD NOW Act, which would incentivize communities to build more housing through the Community Development Block Grant program; the Rental Assistance Demonstration bill, which would raise the cap on housing authorities to convert voucher-based assistance; the Moving to Work bill, which would aim to add a new cohort of MTW public housing agencies; and the VALID Act, which would require Federal Housing Administration mortgage disclosures to include cost comparison information for veterans.

The package retains core wins for the leaders of both the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees and their members and reflects input from all four leaders of those panels, one of the people familiar said.