{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/icymi-sen-cramer-op-ed-bidens-fhwa-tries-to-pull-regulation-from-thin-air", "ICYMI: Sen. Cramer Op-Ed: Biden\u2019s FHWA Tries to Pull Regulation From Thin Air", "2023-12-05", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "ND", "Kevin Cramer", "C001096", "www.cramer.senate.gov", "cramer", "https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on the Federal Highway Administration\u2019s illegal, unrealistic rule requiring state Departments of Transportation and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to reduce tailpipe emissions on our highway system.\n\nBefore the rule was finalized, Senator Cramer introduced a bipartisan amendment to the Transportation Appropriations Bill defunding it. Senate Democrats knew it would pass but ensured its defeat by requiring a 60-vote threshold to pass. This rule places an illegal and impractical burden on large rural states like North Dakota, and Senator Cramer remains committed to overturning it.\n\n\u201cFew things are more frustrating in government than the federal executive branch asserting authority it doesn\u2019t have and foisting mediocrity on the states. Despite definitive losses in court, the Biden administration refuses to pump the brakes on executive overreach and instead has hit the gas on more illegal, costly regulations. Case in point: the Federal Highway Administration\u2019s rule requiring state transportation departments to reduce tailpipe emissions on highways,\u201d wrote Senator Cramer.\n\n\u201cWhy does Congress exist if the bureaucracy can assert legal authority solely because it wasn\u2019t explicitly prohibited? If federal agencies can invent power to dictate their preferred policies to circumvent Congress, we no longer have three coequal branches of government. This problem is larger than the FHWA. Bureaucracies routinely assert authority they don\u2019t possess. [\u2026] I remain committed to doing everything I can to block this unworkable, illegal rule. The Biden administration better buckle up,\u201d concluded Senator Cramer.\n\nFew things are more frustrating in government than the federal executive branch asserting authority it doesn\u2019t have and foisting mediocrity on the states. Despite definitive losses in court, the Biden administration refuses to pump the brakes on executive overreach and instead has hit the gas on more illegal, costly regulations. Case in point: the Federal Highway Administration\u2019s rule requiring state transportation departments to reduce tailpipe emissions on highways.\n\nCongress never granted the FHWA regulatory authority to do so. As ranking Republican on the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, I was intimately involved in negotiating the 2022 bipartisan infrastructure law. The committee debated whether to grant the FHWA this authority and rejected the idea.\n\nSomehow, the administration saw this red light as a green. It now argues that because legislators \u201cdid not use the opportunity in BIL to amend existing statutory language,\u201d Congress likely \u201cintended to leave such determinations to Agency expertise to be handled via regulatory authority.\u201d\n\nWhy does Congress exist if the bureaucracy can assert legal authority solely because it wasn\u2019t explicitly prohibited? If federal agencies can invent power to dictate their preferred policies to circumvent Congress, we no longer have three coequal branches of government.\n\nThis problem is larger than the FHWA. Bureaucracies routinely assert authority they don\u2019t possess. This directly conflicts with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), which held that on matters of great political or economic significance, agencies must identify \u201cclear congressional authorization\u201d for their claimed authority. The FHWA\u2019s own rationale admits it has none.\n\nFurther, the agency\u2019s rule isn\u2019t workable, as highlighted by comments a majority of states submitted that were concerned about or opposed to it. The rule imposes requirements with no recognition of urban and rural differences, assuming mass transit could be a solution. The notion of a bus lane through soybean fields or a subway stop at a cattle ranch is laughable. The rule suggests increased electric-vehicle adoption could help reduce emissions if mass transit isn\u2019t viable. Never mind that EVs lack traits many rural drivers need, such as batteries that work well in extreme cold and have the necessary range for our wide open spaces.\n\nBefore the rule was finalized, I introduced a bipartisan amendment to the transportation appropriations bill explicitly barring the use of federal money for this rule, but Democrats arbitrarily required a 60-vote threshold for passage, ensuring its defeat. I promised to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval, which requires only a simple majority to pass, and when it eventually reaches the courts, I will lead a friend-of-the-court brief against it.\n\nNeither federal law nor the states supports this activist boondoggle. I remain committed to doing everything I can to block this unworkable, illegal rule. The Biden administration better buckle up.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cramer.senate.gov/news/press-releases/icymi-sen-cramer-op-ed-bidens-fhwa-tries-to-pull-regulation-from-thin-air"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.3970929216593504, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}