WASHINGTON — House Republicans pushed through two bills this week designed to undermine key environmental and financial regulations by jamming federal courts with lawsuits.
The first bill, passed Wednesday, rejuvenates the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, shepherded through Congress by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). The 20-year-old legislation imposed a host of cost-benefit standards on federal regulators, including a requirement that they consider the costs that new rules might impose on state and local governments. Wednesday’s GOP bill adds a new dimension to that law by allowing those detailed regulatory calculations to be challenged in federal court — opening every stage of analysis to litigation that may make it nearly impossible for agencies to write and implement rules.
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All of the Democrats who voted for intensifying the Gingrich law, except Rep. Sanchez, voted for Thursday’s bill, as did Reps. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Ami Bera (D-Calif.), Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), Timothy Walz (D-Minn.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.).
Neither bill is likely to be enacted as standalone legislation, since Obama opposes both measures and this week’s votes demonstrated that Republicans do not have enough Democratic support to override a veto. Nevertheless, GOP leaders may try to tuck either or both bills into a broader government funding bill or legislation to raise the debt limit — arenas in which Obama has demonstrated a willingness to let Republican priorities be enacted.
