Dozens of Commonsense Safeguards Vulnerable to GOP Rollback

November 22, 2024

Dozens of Commonsense Safeguards Vulnerable to GOP Rollback

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dozens of Biden administration regulations are vulnerable to repeal early next year under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Public Citizen today released a new trackerwith the full list of potential targets.

Rules vulnerable to repeal include regulations to reduce lead in drinking water, new rights for consumers to access and manage their own financial data, fees requiring drillers to pay for their methane pollution, and measures to prevent more corporate concentration and monopolies. Republicans in Congress and their corporate backers are already plotting to gut many of these and other regulatory protections in the first months after Trump takes office.

"The Congressional Review Act gives the Republican controlled Congress the power to undo a vast array of consumer, environmental, and safety protections," said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. "For members of Congress, the questions are simple: Do you act on behalf of the American people, or your corporate patrons? Do you protect consumers, workers, the environment, and a fair marketplace, or do you defend corporations' ability to price gouge, pollute, and profiteer?"

The CRA allows Congress by a simple majority vote in both chambers - with limited debate, no possibility of a filibuster, and the president's signature - to overturn recently issued rules. The law also includes a lookback provision, allowing a new Congress to target regulations issued in the final months of an outgoing presidential administration.

While the 118th Congress is still in session, the lookback date cannot be calculated. However, the Congressional Research Service has projectedthat rules issued on or after August 1, 2024 are likely to be subject to the CRA and at risk of being overturned in the next Congress.

Public Citizen's list includes more than 50 rules that have been finalized since August 1 and dozens more that may be nearing completion. If finalized before the end of Biden's term, any of these pending rules would be vulnerable to repeal under the CRA.