The Scoop
Congressional Republicans are lining up votes to roll back Biden administration rules on bank mergers, WiFi hotspots and more for floor consideration as early as next week, five people familiar with the plans said Friday.
The GOP can undo regulations issued within the last 60 legislative days with simple majority votes under the terms of the Congressional Review Act. And now that Donald Trump is in the White House, they can get a presidential signature on repeal of some of former President Joe Biden’s regulations.
The 60-legislative-day clock limits Republicans’ window to use their control of Washington to chip away at Biden’s legacy, however, and they notably have yet to send Trump any Congressional Review Act repeals. That’s guaranteed to change by March as House and Senate GOP leaders plan strikes on Biden regulations while they continue to fight over passing Trump’s broader legislative agenda.
The specifics of which regulations will be axed are still getting finalized, but Republicans have identified several high-priority efforts — and the new cross-chamber coordination on which repeals to pursue suggests that Republicans may cut a quick swath.
The bank merger rollback, led by Louisiana’s John Kennedy in the Senate, would undo an Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rule that placed more guardrails on those corporate consolidations. The WiFi hotspot repeal, led by Texan Ted Cruz in the Senate, would negate a Federal Communications Commission order that allows the subsidy of off-campus WiFi hotspots for students.
A third regulatory strike, also led by Kennedy, would scrap a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management requirement that oil and gas companies submit an archeological report before beginning production on federally managed offshore waters.
A fourth one, led by Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, would repeal an EPA rule that charges oil and gas companies for methane emissions. And a fifth, led by Cruz and Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., would reverse an Energy Department policy that set higher standards for gas-powered water heaters.
The House is expected to take up Pfluger and Palmer’s resolutions next week, one of the people familiar with the plans said.
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Enacting any of the regulatory rollbacks will also prevent the agencies in question from issuing similar regulations in the future — a big win for the firms that have lobbied against them and for Republicans who want to keep fighting the Biden administration’s progressive bent.
Banks have pushed hard for Congress to overturn the OCC rule, which they say makes it too difficult for them to merge.
“With the ongoing regulatory tsunami creating increased pressure for consolidation, regulators must ensure that banks that decide to combine have clear standards for how proposed mergers will be evaluated, that regulators’ decisions will be made promptly and that the approval process will not reflect a bias against mergers,” American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols said when the regulator finalized the rule in September.
Notable
- The House’s plans to take up the methane charge and water heater rule repeals next week were first reported by Punchbowl News.
- Republicans are also looking at rollbacks of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules on medical debt and overdraft fees, as Eleanor reported last month.