Connect with us

Congress

Senate Republicans move toward vote on California emissions waiver

Published

on

Senate Republicans could vote as soon as next week on a controversial proposal to nix federal waivers allowing California to set its own emissions standards — potentially bringing a simmering debate over the chamber’s rules to a head.

“We’re going to pass it next week,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters after a closed-door conference lunch where they discussed the proposal at length.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t yet committed to bringing the measure to the floor next week, and a key sponsor, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, cautioned that the schedule isn’t “100 percent decided” yet. The Senate has until the first week of June to act under the Congressional Review Act.

But Republicans are feeling increasingly confident that they will have the votes to undo California’s longstanding waivers after leaving a House-passed disapproval resolution in a weeks-long limbo. Republicans can lose three of their own and still let Vice President JD Vance break a tie.

“We’re going to do it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said after Tuesday’s lunch, adding that he was confident because “I can tell the way people feel.” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a leadership adviser, also said that he was “very confident” that Republicans will have the votes to nix the California waiver.

The controversy is less about the policy merits and more about a Government Accountability Office ruling that said the waiver isn’t actually subject to CRA review. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough backed up that finding, and the prospect of overruling her has spooked a handful of GOP senators wary of weakening Senate rules in a way that would come back to bite them when Democrats are back in control of Congress.

Republicans are hopeful they’ll have support from at least one member Democrats have targeted — former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell — but they haven’t locked in the votes yet and are actively working to sway the undecideds.

One of them, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said she continued to have “some procedural issues” and would meet Tuesday with Capito to work through them. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said in a brief interview she is discussing the issue with colleagues and not yet ready to make a decision.

“There is obviously apprehension if we go sideways on our own rules and so I’m having a lot of good conversations,” Murkowski said.

Democrats have sounded the alarm over a possible vote, warning GOP leaders in a letter earlier this month that it would be akin to deploying the “nuclear option” against the Senate’s rules. But Republicans are trying to minimize any blowback by focusing on the GAO ruling, not the parliamentarian.

“It’s about whether GAO is able to … veto a process that has never been questioned before,” Capito said. “I see it as us asserting our prerogative.”

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Congress

GOP, Democrats blast Vought for holding back cash: ‘You don’t have the authority to impound’

Published

on

Senators from both parties chided the Trump administration Thursday for continuing to withhold funding Congress has approved, more than a year after the White House first froze billions of dollars for temporary “review.”

During White House budget director Russ Vought’s testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) scolded the OMB chief for not sending hundreds of millions of dollars the Trump administration is supposed to give states throughout the year to support community services aimed at reducing poverty.

“Congress has appropriated money, and you don’t have the authority to impound it,” Grassley said about the more than $810 million Congress appropriated this year for the Community Services Block Grant program.

That program helps states fund anti-poverty services such as transportation, education and nutrition assistance that serve more than 9 million people each year.

Grassley told Vought that lawmakers “are not getting any answers” as to why the Trump administration hasn’t sent states their quarterly funding from the program. “I want those quarterly allotments released,” Grassley said.

While Vought did not directly address Grassley’s comments, he said at a different point during the hearing that “we have not impounded a single thing.”

Other senators, including Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), lamented federal dollars being withheld for the fund that provides capital to small banks and credit unions in underserved areas. For months lawmakers from both parties have pushed back against Trump’s plans to eliminate that program, the Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

Continue Reading

Congress

FISA extension vote delayed

Published

on

House GOP leaders are pushing back the planned 3:15 p.m. procedural vote related to the bill extending a key spy power due to expire in four days.

Leaders are continuing to negotiate with hard-liners to come up with a deal that can pass the chamber.

No new time has been set for the rule vote.

Continue Reading

Congress

Senate Republicans ‘syncing’ immigration funding plan with House GOP

Published

on

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that GOP leaders want to make sure Republicans in both chambers are aligned as they move ahead with a party-line plan for immigration enforcement funding.

The South Dakota Republican told reporters he hopes the Senate will adopt a budget framework “by middle-to-the-end of next week,” the first step to unlocking the filibuster-skirting power to clear a package of up to $75 billion for ICE and Border Patrol.

Then ideally the House would adopt the Senate budget measure without changes, Thune said, allowing Republicans to move on to passage votes on a final bill to fund the immigration enforcement agencies.

“We’re communicating as much as we can, making sure that we’re syncing this up and doing it in the way that meets the requirements that both bodies have,” Thune said Thursday, following a meeting Wednesday with Speaker Mike Johnson for a routine check-in.

The attempt at GOP unity comes after House Republicans hotly rejected the Senate’s proposal last month to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, where funding lapsed more than two months ago. Now several House GOP lawmakers are also insisting Republicans fund all of the department through the party-line budget reconciliation process — not just the immigration agencies Democrats won’t support without new rules on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters Thursday afternoon that he hopes to release text of the budget framework in short order.

“We’re working on all that. Hopefully we’ll find consensus here soon. But I think we’re getting close,” he said.

“I hope we can get moving on it as early as next week,” Graham added.

Senate Republicans have started talking to their chamber’s parliamentarian as they seek to enact the party-line package — one piece of their two-part plan to end the DHS shutdown that began in mid-February.

Continue Reading

Trending