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House Democrats are preparing to vote to eliminate three Trump-era rules. The lawmakers will use the Congressional Review Act to take aim at rules governing methane regulations, lending practices, and employment discrimination cases.
The first Trump-era rule Democrats are looking to eliminate got rid of methane emissions standards for the oil and gas sector.
“This resolution is important. It’s probably one of the most important things that we can do right now because methane emissions are so damaging to the climate,” Representative Diana DeGette said.
The second, a resolution on lending, would repeal a rule that allows lenders to offer loans at interest rates that exceed state limits if they team up with a federally chartered bank headquartered in a state with a higher cap.
Rebecca Borné, senior policy counsel with the Center for Responsible Lending, said that the vote will determine if consumers will be protected against predatory loans or exposed to them.
The third rule up for elimination requires the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to provide more information to employers when the agency is trying to help reach an out-of-court resolution in discrimination cases.
“When workers bring credible claims of discrimination to the EEOC, they deserve a fair process that protects their rights and shields them from retaliation,” Representative Bobby Scott, CRA resolution sponsor and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman, said.
According to The Hill, this is the first time that Congress has repealed former President Donald Trump’s policies through the Congressional Review Act. The CRA allows lawmakers and presidents to cancel rules established under a previous president if implemented shortly before leaving office.
“You have lots of different tools that you can use to shift regulatory policy. This tool comes with some interesting sort of expedited procedures,” Daniel Pérez, a senior policy analyst at George Washington University’s Regulatory Studies Center.
Republicans used the CRA to eliminate more than a dozen of President Barack Obama’s regulations.
“The Congressional Review Act is quite possibly the worst law Congress has ever enacted,” James Goodwin, a senior policy analyst with Center for Progressive Reform.
Goodwin says that the CRA is more beneficial for Republicans because they aim to deregulate.
“Getting rid of Trump stuff is never going to be adequate for President Biden,” the analyst said.
“Given how much success the Republicans had using it and how little success it had prior to that…and given how [many] differences there are in regulatory policy between the Trump administration and the Biden administration, just as there was such a broad difference between Obama and Trump, I would’ve thought for sure we were going to see more CRA activity,” Diane Katz, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said. “In my mind, it’s kind of a wasted opportunity.”
