The U.S. House of Representatives had voted to rescind waivers granted by the Environmental Protection Agency in the Biden Administration to the California Air Resources Board for its Advanced Clean Trucks rule and its Omnibus NOx rule.

The House-passed resolutions include: · 

• H.J. Res 87, targeting the waiver for the ACT and other rules, passed 231-191 with 13 Democrats joining 218 Republicans in support. 

• H.J. Res 89, targeting the waiver for strict NOx engine emission standards, passed 225-196 with 10 Democrats joining 215 Republicans in support.

These are the provisions under which the Biden Administration’s EPA previously granted waivers to CARB to adopt its Advanced Clean Trucks rule in 2023 and its Omnibus NOx rule in late 2024. An additional ten states have adopted CARB's ACT rule as their state's law with varying dates of implementation. 

The Congressional Review Act prevents agency regulations from going into effect if a majority of each house of Congress passes a "resolution of disapproval" and it is signed by the President. The CRA resolutions passed last week now move on to the Senate. If they are enacted, then neither the ACT nor the NOx rule could be enforced in California or any other state that has adopted those rules. In that event, California is expected to sue, and the threshold issue of whether EPA waivers are subject to the Congressional Review Act will be decided by the courts – perhaps ultimately, the Supreme Court.

In fact, California Governor Gavin Newsom has already issued a statement claiming the U.S. House of Representatives “illegally” used the Congressional Review Act to repeal the state's Clean Air Act waivers. The governor's office noted that both the Government Accountability Office and Senate Parliamentarian have ruled the CRA does not apply to the state's waivers, suggesting legal challenges are forthcoming.