Washington – The House of Representatives took a trio of votes this week targeting the authority of California at decades Apply your own environmental standardsOpening the ground for an important dead end in the American Senate, where Democrats say that Republican leaders should challenge the long -time congress order to pass the measures.
Votes questioned Sentify California From the Clean Air Act of 1970, an authority which allowed the State to define more strict pollution directives and allowed its managers to set an alternative standard on car emissions to those of the federal government.
Thursday, the Republicans of the Chamber, joined by a handful of democrats, voted to ban California from prohibiting gas cars By 2035. The day before, the room voted in similar lines to end California's ability to define Heavy truck emission standards And to fight against smog levels in the state.
For decades, car manufacturers have folded their car production channels to meet Californian mileage standards, partly due to the size of the Californian market and in part because the industry has found a safer bet – with changes of power so common in Washington – to be stricte on the standards of efficiency than the alternative.
But since President Trump took office, the Environmental Protection Agency wondered if this authority is equivalent to a technical “rule” which allows the Senate to disapprove with a simple majority vote, under the Congressal Review Act.
In the past two months, two independent offices – the Senate parliamentarian and the government of government responsibility, or GAO – have found that the California renunciation authority is not subject to examination under the Congressal Review Act.
California's exemption, GAO said, is “not a rule” under the law, noting that the case has been examined several times in the last 60 years. The “recent submission of EPA is incompatible with this workshop,” revealed the office.
Although these decisions were not sufficient to prevent the votes from carrying out the House, it will be the responsibility of the Republican management of the Senate, under the direction of the majority John Thune (RS.D.), to decide how to proceed.
“Let me be also clear about the process,” said senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) In a press release. “The Senate parliamentarian has already confirmed decades of previous and determined that these arcs are not authorized by the rules of the Senate. If the Senate Republicans take these measures under the Congress Revision, they will become nuclear by canceling the parliamentarian, all to attack California base. ”
The California Senator's office Adam Schiff also said that he urged others to the Senate to join the Gao's conclusions, noting that Thune had already committed to following “regular order” on votes – which traditionally meant to take into account parliamentary functions and GAO.
“The Republicans themselves admitted that the Congress Revision Act is not a tool at their disposal to ignore the law and cancel the previous one, like the Senate parliamentarian,” said Schiff.
“We are going to fight against this last attack against the power of California to protect its own residents,” he added, “and I will exhort my colleagues in the Senate to recognize the serious implications for the procedure of this violation of state rights, as well as the dangerous previous precedent he would bring by vibrating the unanimous opinion of the confidence referees of the Congress.”
