If Democrats win big in the November election, they may have an unusual way of quickly repealing some important Trump administration environmental rollbacks. That’s because the coronavirus pandemic has upended the schedule in Congress. An obscure tool may be available to Democrats who have pledged to bring back car and water pollution rules undone by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency since the viral outbreak has drastically altered the planned congressional calendar.
Restoring Obama-era pollution protections is one of former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s biggest campaign promises when it comes to addressing climate change and cleaning up the environment.
If Biden wins, he could avoid going through a long bureaucratic process of repealing Trump-era rules.
The Congressional Review Act gives Congress and the president the power to repeal any federal regulation within 60 legislative days of it being implemented. All it takes is a simple majority in both chambers to cancel a regulation using the act — no Senate filibuster allowed.