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“We’ve been very busy,” said Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “We have passed arguably the most important bill in decades and now we are pushing for the next steps – for example, infrastructure and tax reform. These are big problems and there are only a limited number of hours in the day. “
Yet nearly two months after the start of the new administration, time is running out to use the maneuver given the constraints of using the so-called ARC within 60 legislative days of a new regulation. The Senate is currently working on a series of Cabinet confirmations and is planning a two-week hiatus at the end of the month. Most committee heads said on Monday that they had not made any final decisions.
Senate Banking President Sherrod Brown said his committee is still considering whether to scrap some Trump regulations and the lack of action so far doesn’t mean Democrats won’t act not.
“The fact that nothing has happened yet is that everything was happening sooner,” Brown said of Trump’s regulatory pace. Ohioan added that it has until the end of next month to try to roll back items on the former president’s agenda.
The Democrats’ deliberative approach differs greatly from that of former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who, in early February 2017, had already begun to overturn an EPA’s flow protection rule and regulation on the resource extraction released as part of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act.
In all, the GOP blitz amounted to gutting 14 Obama regulations in mid-May 2017. Before Trump became president, the law had only been used successfully once, to roll back ergonomic regulations. of the administration of former President Bill Clinton.
“It was a major tool that we were able to use,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who was the majority whip in 2017.
Still, some Democrats are reluctant to prosecute against Trump’s regulations because of a legally untested provision that could limit the ability of the Biden administration to rewrite those rules. The law prohibits the rewriting of new regulations that are frowned upon by Congress if they are “substantially of the same form” as previous regulations that were vetoed.
In other words, if Congress removes an October rule from Trump’s EPA lowering methane limits on new oil and gas wells, some conservationists fear Biden will have his hands tied for rewrite it. That means Biden and the Congressional Democrats need to coordinate closely on whether Congress should take action or leave it to the new administration.
“It can prevent the executive branch from making good policies. So we take each on a case-by-case basis, ”said Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
The revision act “is a brutal instrument,” in the words of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Who said Democrats have yet to have a caucus-wide discussion on the upgrade. zero of Trump’s actions. “If you are successful, you not only repeal the rule you don’t like, but then you can set a bar your way.”
Still, Democrats haven’t totally ruled out using the ARC’s simple mechanism to stamp out Trump’s deregulation actions. Last week, House Financial Services Committee chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) Began to assess support for three resolutions aimed at blocking Trump-era revisions to housing rules and bank. One of the proposals would override a rule that would make it more difficult to file discrimination complaints under the Fair Housing Act.
“There were discussions. But nothing is settled yet, ”said Senate Speaker on Health, Education, Work and Pensions, Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
Democrats also need to assess the best use of their time at this point in Biden’s presidency. The Senate has yet to fill several Biden Cabinet positions, including that of Director of the CIA and Secretary of Health and Human Services, with limited speaking time and many competing imperatives.
“It’s not that we decide not to do it. We just haven’t gotten there yet because of Covid. And we need to get those confirmations, ”said Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Who chairs the Agriculture Committee and is in her leadership role.
Another factor at play in the regulatory debate: Democrats currently enjoy a smaller majority in both chambers than Republicans in 2017. This means they should make sure they have near-full party unity. before you start to burn a lot of speaking time. in the Senate.
“I know there has been a lot of work to figure out what is possible, what makes sense, whether or not there are more than 50 votes for each of these things,” said Senator Martin Heinrich ( DN.M.). While there are actions from Trump, Heinrich said he personally wanted to repeal, he added, “It’s a different matter than doing the analysis to make sure we would be successful as well.”
Anthony Adragna and Zachary Warmbrodt contributed to this report.
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