House, Senate Pass Resolutions to Overturn Biden Admin Regulations

The disapproval resolutions were passed in accordance with the Congressional Review Act.

The U.S. Capitol building on Feb. 19, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—Republicans have passed three resolutions to overturn a handful of environmental regulatory actions taken in the waning days of the Biden administration, the first of many such resolutions likely to be pursued by the current Congress.

The disapproval resolutions were passed in accordance with the Congressional Review Act (CRA). This allows Congress to repeal regulations issued within the past 60 days by a simple majority vote of both chambers.

On Feb. 27, the House passed a resolution to repeal a regulation by the Department of Energy titled ‘‘Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-fired Instantaneous Water Heaters.”

Eleven Democrats joined all Republicans in voting for the resolution.

The regulation “amended energy conservation standards for gas-fired instantaneous water heaters.”

“House Republicans voted to end the Biden administration’s radical ban on gas-fired water heaters,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement.

“The American people made it clear they want lower costs and more choices, and we are keeping our promise to undo the damage of the last administration by cutting costs, protecting choice, and rejecting these damaging regulations.”

The previous day, the House passed a disapproval resolution to repeal a regulation from the EPA called “Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems: Procedures for Facilitating Compliance, Including Netting and Exemptions.”

Six Democrats joined 214 Republicans in voting for the resolution.

The regulation was a result of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, one of President Joe Biden’s major legislative accomplishments, which included investments in clean energy.

The rule “requires the EPA to impose and collect an annual charge on methane emissions that exceed waste emissions thresholds specified by Congress.”

“House Republicans rolled back the disastrous natural gas tax imposed by Democrats,” Johnson said in a statement.

“This overreach has driven up energy prices, hurt domestic natural gas production, and increased reliance on foreign energy—without delivering any so-called environmental benefit.

“House Republicans are leveraging the Congressional Review Act to support President [Donald] Trump in undoing the damage of the Biden administration’s war on American energy.”

These House resolutions go to the Senate, where it takes only a simple majority to pass them; they are not subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold that most legislation must clear.

On Feb. 25, the Senate made the first use of a disapproval resolution in the 119th Congress, voting 54–44 to overturn a rule by the Biden-era Interior Department that requires offshore oil and gas lessees to submit archaeological surveys before they can obtain a lease.

The resolution is now pending before the House.

Critics characterized the rule as contributing to a “regulatory stranglehold.”

The rule requires “lessees and operators to submit an archaeological report with any oil and gas exploration or development plan they submit” to the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

“The Biden administration was in hyperdrive to finalize regulatory strangleholds on U.S. oil and gas production, one of which is this BOEM cultural survey requirement,” Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) said in a statement.

In 2017, when the GOP last had control of both houses of Congress and the White House, the CRA was successfully used 14 times.

Four years later, when the Democrats had unified control of Washington, there were three CRA disapproval resolutions that became law.

The CRA allows only one regulation to be repealed at a time.

A House bill, the Midnight Rules Relief Act, would allow for multiple regulations to be repealed simultaneously. It passed the House on Feb. 12 and is now pending in the Senate.