Senate Republicans prepare blitzkrieg on Biden regulations

Senate Republicans, waiting for their House counterparts to figure out their strategy on border security and tax reform, are planning to use the Congressional Review Act to wage a lightning war on regulations implemented by the Biden administration over the past six months.

Senate GOP leaders say their first priority will be to confirm President-elect Trump’s Cabinet nominees but then they will move quickly to passing Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions to overturn an array of Biden-era regs.

But they need to act quickly on the deregulatory front because a joint resolution disapproving of Biden-era rules needs to be introduced under strict time requirements.

Republican lawmakers introduced 67 resolutions of disapproval to roll back regulations implemented under President Barack Obama during Trump’s first year in office in 2017. Trump signed 16 of those resolutions of disapproval into law that year.

Republican lawmakers are hoping to recreate that assault on Biden-era regulations in the weeks ahead but the biggest problem right now is figuring out which ones to target, given limited Senate floor time.

“It’s a target-rich environment,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “I think the most important thing is for us to have sort of internal discussion and prioritization.

“It would be good to have some initial successes,” he said.

Joint resolutions disapproving of Biden administration rulemaking cannot be filibustered in the Senate but Republican senators will need to act on the resolutions within a 60-day window if they are to bypass regular procedural hurdles.

The resolutions are filibuster-proof if Senate Republicans advance them within the first 60 session days of the 119^th Congress. Those are calendar days when the Senate is in session. After that window, the special procedural protection expires.

The new GOP-controlled Congress can act on rules finalized since the middle of last summer.

The disapproval resolutions must be passed by both the Senate and House and signed by Trump once he is sworn into office to overturn a Biden-era rule.

“We’re talking through what some of the eligible CRAs might be but that’s under consideration,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told The Hill Tuesday.

Senate Republican staff have compiled a list of 60 Biden rules that they say would be eligible for repeal.

They include regulations setting a safety standard for nursing pillows; requiring a phasedown of hydroflurocarbons; prohibiting the selling or purchasing of fake consumer reviews; and establishing recordkeeping and reporting requirements for uses of ozone-depleting substances.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has highlighted a rule finalized by the IRS in December requiring brokers to report gross proceeds from cryptocurrency sales and other digital assets.

Cruz called the regulation “a brazen attempt to undermine the pro-crypto policies of the Trump administration and Republican Congress.”

GOP aides have flagged a rule that would allow citizens and passport holders from Qatar to travel to the United States for up to 90 days for tourism or business without a visa.

Qatar has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for sending hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. CNN reported that Qatar began making monthly payments to Gaza in 2018.

The country had played a role in mediating the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

GOP aides have also identified anti-money laundering rules for real estate agents announced by the Treasury Department in August as eligible for repeal under the Congressional Review Act.

Another regulation that could come up for a repeal vote is one finalized by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in late August to add investment advisers to the definition of “financial institution” for the purposes of complying with the anti-money laundering policies.

Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said GOP lawmakers are juggling a number of priorities but added that repealing Biden administration rules in the next few months will be an urgent goal.

“Top priority right now is to get President Trump’s Cabinet in place and we hope to have some of those members confirmed on Inauguration Day,” he said.

But Barrasso emphasized that Republicans want to get moving on repealing Biden’s various regulatory initiatives before the 60-day window closes.

“As you know there’s a 60-day time[line] on the Congressional Review Act. We’re very confident that President Trump will want to sign every one that we can pass and we can get through the House and the Senate,” he said.

“There’s a list and we’re going to prioritize those. You can expect to see CRAs, you will see them,” he added.

Trump to Capitol Hill

Trump is scheduled to meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon to discuss the year ahead. The meeting will be hosted by Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).

The immediate challenge for Republicans will be to narrow down what rules they want to target first.

“It’s a big conversation,” said Senate Steering Committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah). “The big picture we’ve got to look at is figuring out the window” of regulations eligible for repeal and within what period of time.

Lee noted that the Biden administration could still finalize a few more rules before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.

“We’ve got something of a moving target because we don’t know what we don’t know yet in terms of what he’s going to issue. But we’re going to have a lot of targets,” he said.

Biden has taken a flurry of executive actions in recent weeks to put his final stamp on the country before leaving the White House.

Biden on Monday moved to ban offshore oil and gas drilling along the East and West Costs and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico as well as federal waters off Alaska.

He signed executive orders in September to establish a task force to assess the threat posed by 3-D printed guns or so-called ghost guns and to direct federal officials to assess whether active-shooter drills at schools may traumatize students.

Some of those actions don’t fall under the Congressional Review Act, including Biden’s sweeping order to grant clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans released from prison and placed on home confinement during the pandemic.

The president is currently negotiating a swap of a high-profile prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay for Americans who have been detained in Afghanistan.

President-elect Trump has accused Biden of trying to sabotage his transition to power through “ridiculous executive orders” and other actions.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) on Monday called Biden’s 11th-hour actions a “slap in the face” to Trump voters.

“He is giving, he’s shoveling billions of dollars out the door before President Trump gets in there, giving us an even larger debt, really impacting our treasuries and the bond market,” he said during an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday.

Marshall told The Hill that his staff is compiling a list of late-term Biden rules to target for repeal under the Congressional Review Act.

“My staff is making a list,” he said.

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