{"id":114299,"date":"2025-07-08T20:53:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T00:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/?post_type=news&p=114299"},"modified":"2025-07-29T20:54:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T00:54:16","slug":"the-republicans-anti-regulatory-agenda","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/the-republicans-anti-regulatory-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"The Republicans\u2019 Anti-Regulatory Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article appeared in the July\/August 2025 edition of Public Citizen News. Download the full edition here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The White House and congressional Republicans are pushing an anti-regulatory agenda at warp speed that threatens public health and safety as well as long standing norms of legislative and regulatory procedure. Public Citizen is exposing how this is all being done to benefit Big Business, Big Banks, Big Polluters, Big Pharma, and Big Tech at the public\u2019s expense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One powerful anti-regulatory tool Republicans used this Congress to advance a corporate agenda\u00a0 is the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA <\/span>allows Congress to override final agency actions, such as rules that ensure clean air and water. Under the CRA, Congress can undo rules by passing a resolution of disapproval in both chambers \u2013 which only requires a simple majority in the Senate \u2013 that is then signed by the president. Typically, bills must overcome the filibuster with a 60-vote supermajority to pass in the Senate. The CRA offers the opportunity to sidestep the filibuster.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, in a handout to Big Polluters, Senate Republicans in May used the CRA to invalidate Clean Air Act waivers issued to California by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The waivers have long allowed California to establish protective pollution standards for auto fuel efficiency and other measures without being preempted by the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA\u2019s) national standards. The Government Accountability Office and the senate parliamentarian found that the waiver should not be subject to the CRA but Senate Republicans simply ignored their findings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Public Citizen fought hard to prevent this maneuver,sending a letter along with more than 80 other allies to Senate leadership explaining how his dangerous precedent will damage our democracy for the foreseeable future. The door has now been opened for the Senate to ignore the parliamentarian on other matters and pass more harmful measures by simple majority when a 60-vote threshold should be required \u2013 namely, through the upcoming budget reconciliation bill. Public Citizen may have lost the CRA fight, but the work to prevent future harms isn\u2019t over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Congressional Republicans have many more anti-regulatory legislative priorities. In May, the House Oversight Committee referred two dangerous bills to the House for consideration: the Unfunded Mandates Accountability and Transparency Act (UMATA) (H.R. 580) and the Modernizing Retrospective Regulatory Review Act (H.R. 67). These bills seek to delegitimize and weaken the regulatory process that all of us rely on for protection from potential harms caused by regulated industries \u2013 like businesses that place unsafe products in the market or banks that engage in risky financial activities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

UMATA would increase the private sector\u2019s involvement in the rulemaking process at the expense of consumers, workers, the environment, and public health and safety, and it would further delay rulemaking. The Modernizing Retrospective Regulatory Review Act would force agencies to waste resources reviewing regulations already on the books, which will do nothing to protect Americans from under-regulated or unregulated hazards. Instead, it will drown government agencies in busy work and distract them from addressing significant threats to public health and safety, such as polluted drinking water, toxins in our food and products, or workplace safety hazards. Public Citizen is pushing back against all anti-regulatory bills this Congress to ensure they never become law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake: Trump\u2019s deregulatory blitz from DOGE\u2019s mass firings to dismantle entire agencies to gutting enforcement against corporate criminals will mean more preventable injuries and illnesses, more needless deaths, more consumer scams and ripoffs, more industrial disasters,\u201d said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. \u201cThese moves will help boost CEOs\u2019 compensation packages and further skyrocket corporations\u2019 record profits.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s anti-regulatory agenda is nearly boundless. In February, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14219, \u201cEnsuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President\u2019s \u2018Department of Government Efficiency\u2019 Deregulatory Initiative.\u201d EO 14219, in concert with its accompanying presidential memorandum issued in April, pushes an anti-regulatory agenda onto federal agencies by directing agency heads to identify and rescind so-called \u201cunlawful regulations and regulations that undermine the national interest\u201d primarily in accordance with, but not limited to, 10 Supreme Court cases.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the EO calls on agencies to use something called the \u201cgood cause\u201d exception to bypass the notice and comment rulemaking process, the democratic process that gives the public the opportunity to have their voice heard as agencies are writing rules. The \u201cgood cause\u201d exception is a carveout under the Administrative Procedure Act \u2013 the federal law governing the rulemaking process \u2013 that allows agencies to forgo notice and comment when that process would be \u201cimpracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.\u201d The Trump administration is urging agencies to subjectively label rules as \u201cunlawful\u201d and roll them back without any chance for public input.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Public Citizen is fighting back against the Republicans\u2019 alarming and destructive anti-regulatory agenda by fighting for a regulatory system that works in the public interest, not for corporate special interests. We\u2019re working in coalitions and educating members of Congress to reimagine a regulatory system that is transparent, responsive to the public\u2019s needs, and isn\u2019t heavily influenced by corporations and their lobbyists. Our health and safety shouldn\u2019t be jeopardized by politicians and an administration who have an anti-regulatory, pro-corporate agenda and don\u2019t want to play by the rules.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-114299","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","tax_topic-public-citizen-news","tax_news-featured-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Republicans\u2019 Anti-Regulatory Agenda - Public Citizen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/the-republicans-anti-regulatory-agenda\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Republicans\u2019 Anti-Regulatory Agenda - Public Citizen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article appeared in the July\/August 2025 edition of Public Citizen News. 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