Barrasso, Murkowski tell Politico Morning Energy of some GOP plans for energy, environmental policies

A Congressional attack on President Barack Obama’s recent use of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to block oil exploration in the Arctic and on the Atlantic seaboard is coming. So are Congressional Review Act efforts to nullify sundry other Obama administration environmental protection rules.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told Politico Morning Energy Friday that “her team” is examining methods to overturn Obama’s Dec. 20 OCSLA decision.

“We think we can make the argument that it does fall within review, but again that’s what the smart legal teams are doing,” she told the online publication.

Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., also spoke to Politico Morning Energy. He was quoted as saying that the GOP Congress would take an “opposite approach” when it comes to environmental policy and that the CRA would be deployed to go after at least a few regulations.

Barrasso is the new chair of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee.

Murkowski told the magazine that her staff at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which she chairs, have built a “laundry list” of possible regulations for which CRA nullification would be attempted.

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Republicans waste no time in re-introducing “Midnight Rules Relief Act”

Republicans intent on erasing regulations finalized in the last months of the Obama administration have already introduced legislation in the 115th Congress that could lead to a wholesale rejection of agency actions since May 2016.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., introduced the proposed “Midnight Rules Relief Act” on Tuesday, which was opening day for the new Congress.

The bill would permit Congress to void, by joint resolution, to cast aside multiple regulations in one fell swoop. Regulations would have to be deemed economically “significant” to be subjected to the nullification procedure.

The text of Issa’s bill was not available at the time this post was published. If H.R. 21 resembles similar legislation considered during the 114th Congress, it would apply to regulations finalized during the last six months of a President’s term.

An agency would be permanently barred from again creating any regulation blocked by a joint resolution unless Congress granted permission.

In that sense, the Midnight Rules Relief Act proposal represents a radical shift from existing doctrines of administrative law, which require Congress to attempt erasure of regulations on a one-by-one basis.

Among the regulations that could be eliminated if the Midnight Rules Relief Act clears both chambers of Congress and is signed by President-elect Donald J. Trump after his Jan. 20 inauguration are 19 Environmental Protection Agency rules, 13 Department of Energy rules, and 10 Department of Interior rules.

Under the Congressional Review Act, which was enacted in 1996, Congress can use a joint resolution to eliminate most regulations adopted within a period of about eight months before a new President is inaugurated.

While more than 100 attempts to exorcise regulations through the CRA have been made, only one has succeeded.

Congress can also stamp out regulations by specifying in appropriations bills that they are unenforceable or by amending the statutes that provide authority for the regulations.

The House of Representatives approved an earlier version of the Midnight Rules Relief Act last November.

UPDATE, Jan. 4, 2017, 9:00 pm MST: The House of Representatives passed H.R. 21 Wednesday on a 238-184 vote, according to The Hill. Legislators rejected a Democratic attempt to send the bill back to committee.

UPDATE, Jan. 5, 2017, 5:26 pm MST: Four Democrats voted for H.R. 21 Wednesday night. They are Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Collin Peterson of Minnesota, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. No Republican opposed the bill.

House clears “midnight rules” bill; would allow wholesale rejection of all regs issued in last year of presidency

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would allow Congress to reject all federal regulations finalized since January in one fell swoop.

Labeled the Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2016, H.R. 5982 would allow the 115th Congress to sidestep the current requirement that each regulation that is the subject of an override attempt be the subject of a separate resolution.

So-called “midnight rules” are regulations that an administration completes during the time between a presidential election in November and the inauguration of a new President on the following January 20.

Sometimes these late regulations are used by an outgoing administration to assure that its policy initiatives can endure for a time. The Administrative Procedure Act requires that agencies develop a new factual record before they may repeal or significantly modify existing rules.

Most midnight rules are not controversial, though. A 2012 study by the Administrative Conference of the United States concluded that are “relatively routine matters not implicating new policy initiatives by incumbent administrations” and that the “majority of the rules appear to be the result of finishing tasks that were initiated before the Presidential transition period or the result of deadlines outside the agency’s control (such as year-end statutory or court-ordered deadlines).”

The Congressional Review Act, enacted into law in 1996, permits Congress to reject regulations in a process that bypasses the usual risks of legislative gamesmanship in the U.S. Senate.

Under the CRA, amendments to a resolution that rejects a “major” federal regulation are not permitted. No holds by individual senators, and no filibusters by opponents of a resolution that would eliminate a federal regulation, are allowed.

Congress has 60 days following the date on which both chambers of Congress have received a notice that a regulation has been issued in which to pass a CRA resolution that disapproves it. The 60 day-long clock resets at the beginning of a new Congress if the regulation was issued during the final 60 “session” days, in the case of the Senate, or the final 60 “legislative” days in the case of the House of Representatives, of the preceding Congress.

Although opponents of various regulations have introduced dozens of CRA resolutions in the 20 years since enactment of that statute, it has been invoked only one time. An Occupational Health & Safety Administration rule that addressed ergonomics, which the Clinton administration had finalized in November 2000, was turned away in 2001.

H.R. 5982 would need to pass the Senate and be signed by the President to become law. The Senate has not yet taken up the measure. Moreover, President Barack Obama has threatened to veto H.R. 5982, which cleared the House Nov. 17 by a 240-179 vote.

“[P]roviding for an arbitrary packaging of rules for an up-or-down vote, as this bill does, is unnecessary,” a statement issued by the Executive Office of the President on Nov. 12 said.

Three House Democrats voted with the majority GOP to pass the bill.

Report: Congressional Republicans will consider use of Congressional Review Act to block GHG regs

A report in TheHill.com on Monday said that Congressional Republicans are considering the use of an obscure law in an attempt to block the Obama administration’s proposed greenhouse gas emission rules from taking effect.

The law at issue, known as the Congressional Review Act, has been successfully used only once. While a resolution in the Senate that call on it to block executive and independent agency regulations cannot be filibustered, the resolution could not become law without the President’s signature.

President Barack Obama warned during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night that he will veto efforts by the GOP-dominated Congress to undermine or block his administration’s planned regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions.