Senate Republicans want to overturn an electric vehicle law in California via the Congressional Review Act. The only problem? The Senate parliamentarian says Republicans can’t do it using the CRA.
Republican leaders say senators should just ignore her.
It’s a disagreement that may seem wonky and small, but it could have massive policy implications — both for future uses of the Congressional Review Act and for reconciliation.
That’s because that same Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, is also tasked with reviewing the Republican reconciliation bill later this year and determining whether specific policies should be subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the upper chamber.
The GOP’s willingness to sidestep MacDonough’s opinion on this issue, Democrats say, is raising questions about how they’ll handle her reconciliation rulings later. Democrats contend that ignoring MacDonough is the Senate equivalent to “going nuclear,” wherein the majority overrules Senate bylaws and creates a new precedent.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Majority Whip John Barrasso earlier this month, 20 Senate Democrats wrote, “Once that precedent is set, a future Senate Majority could subsequently apply it to legislation beyond the CRA.”
“Put bluntly,” the letter said, “there is no cabining a decision to overrule the Parliamentarian.”
But Senate Republicans seem to believe this situation is different.
“I don’t think the parliamentarian has a role to rule on it,” Sen. Kevin Cramer said of the CRA vote. “Because she’s basing it on a (Government Accountability Office) decision or position that doesn’t matter to me or to us.”
The California waiver, issued at the end of 2024, allows the state to write its own auto emissions standards, which effectively means an eventual ban on the sale of gas-powered cars in the state. Republicans worry that other blue states could follow California’s lead.
The GAO delivered a report in March that the waiver, along with two others, didn’t count as an Environmental Protection Agency rule eligible for a rollback through a Congressional Review Act vote. MacDonough said she agreed with that conclusion. But because it was the GAO’s authority, not MacDonough’s, Republicans say it’s not overruling her to roll back the waiver.
We’re going to pass it next week because it’s critical for the American people. … The GAO does not have veto power over the United States Senate.
Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyoming
CRA votes are subject to a simple-majority threshold in the Senate — avoiding the 60-vote filibuster.
“This is fundamentally different,” Sen. Josh Hawley said. “She’s not giving a ruling at all. Actually, she’s expressing opinions.”
The GAO itself, though it can issue reports requested by Congress, should not be the final word instead of Congress, other Republicans said.
“We’re going to pass it next week because it’s critical for the American people,” Barrasso told reporters on Tuesday, adding that “the GAO does not have veto power over the United States Senate.”
A handful of Republicans are still undecided on how they will vote. The bill was a topic of conversation at the weekly GOP lunch on Tuesday. And if all Democrats vote against the effort, Republicans can afford to lose only three GOP votes before Vice President JD Vance would have to break a tie.
Sen. John Curtis told NOTUS later on Tuesday that he is still “studying” the procedural implications of voting to overturn it, particularly the parliamentarian’s role.
“I am not in favor of what the emissions standards do, but I want to understand the Senate procedure better before I weigh in on where I’m at,” Curtis said.
Sen. Susan Collins also said she is behind the intent of repealing the waiver, but undecided on how to vote. She told reporters Tuesday there were “procedural issues,” and she would be meeting with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, to discuss her concerns. Moore Capito said last month she wasn’t worried about setting a precedent.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, another swing voter in the Senate, also has not yet publicly said how she’ll vote on the measure. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who previously appeared hesitant, reportedly told senators at lunch Tuesday he will support the effort.
Still, Republicans said they’re not worried about setting any precedent for overriding MacDonough’s rulings on reconciliation. The GOP’s marquee reconciliation package will be subject to a full review, specifically on whether the bill abides by the Byrd Rule, which requires all provisions in the reconciliation package to be strictly tied to the federal budget.
The Byrd Rule and parliamentarian rulings in previous reconciliation packages have blocked lawmakers from including some substantial wish-list items, like immigration reform, which are more difficult to tie directly to the budget.
“Everything I’ve heard in conference is that no one would go against her if, for example, on a Byrd ruling, because that’s her authority,” Cramer said.
“I like her a lot,” he added. “We all do. We all think a lot of her, both for her professionalism and her intellect and her knowledge.”
In the meantime, some Democrats are trying to make an institutionalist argument for Republicans to leave California alone.
“Are they that obsessed with trying to stick it to California?” California Sen. Alex Padilla asked.
His fellow California Democrat, Sen. Adam Schiff, told NOTUS he thinks cutting against MacDonough now will set a precedent for future procedural changes.
“If they’re going to overthrow the parliamentarian on this, they’ll do it on anything else, which means that they’re putting an end to the filibuster,” Schiff said.
Republicans contend that isn’t the case.
Thune has said he would oppose overruling the parliamentarian on reconciliation. And Sen. Thom Tillis quickly decried the suggestion that the CRA vote would be a segue to nuking the filibuster altogether.
“Democrats are going to tell you the hue and cry of it nuking the filibuster,” Tillis said.
“I don’t believe that,” he said.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.
