Senate Majority Leader John Thune is diving into a contentious fight over the Senate’s institutional prerogatives, guiding his conference through a complex and potentially risky high-stakes standoff with Democrats.
On Wednesday, GOP senators will effectively vote to disregard the Government Accountability Office — and the Senate parliamentarian by extension — in order to use the Congressional Review Act to block California’s ability to set strict environmental standards.
During an interview in his Capitol office Tuesday, Thune defended what he called a narrow assertion of congressional authority. And he dismissed the notion that Republicans are setting a precedent that weakens the filibuster.
“Obviously the Democrats are going to scream bloody murder and say you’re undermining the filibuster,” Thune told us. “This is a very narrow, very novel case in which you’re dealing not with legislation but with an administrative ruling by an executive branch agency.”
The backstory. Senate Republicans have used the CRA to overturn several Biden administration regulations, taking advantage of the expedited floor consideration and simple-majority vote threshold allowed under the 1996 law.
But Wednesday’s move, which Republicans have been debating internally for weeks, has set off a partisan firestorm centered around the chamber’s own rules.
Senate Democrats warn that defying GAO — which says the waivers don’t qualify as rules under the CRA — will set a precedent that expands the scope of the CRA and chips away at the legislative filibuster.
In the weeds. The debate has forced Senate GOP leaders to confront difficult questions about how it may impact the institution long-term. Thune has already ruled out voting to overrule the parliamentarian when it comes to reconciliation.
It has also exposed a fresh bit of hypocrisy. Just a few years ago, nearly every Democratic senator voted to scrap the legislative filibuster, even as they’re warning today that overruling the parliamentarian would mean going nuclear.
Thune and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso spent the last few weeks persuading GOP holdouts concerned about the precedent that could be set by overruling GAO.
Thune consulted with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the former GOP leader who told colleagues he supports moving forward with the CRA votes. And the South Dakota Republican said the issue has been “fully vetted” by his conference.
At the same time, Thune acknowledged today’s votes will be unprecedented and that they “could create a precedent for the future, but it’s very narrow about the CRA.”
“The question before the body is, is the GAO gonna decide this or not?” Thune said. “For the most part, our members feel comfortable saying this is something Congress ought to be heard on.”
Dems respond. Democrats claim Republicans will be establishing a new standard for CRA consideration: that Congress can trigger the CRA’s expedited procedures and filibuster bypass even if GAO says it doesn’t qualify as a rule under the CRA.
Sen. Alex Padilla (Calif.), the Rules Committee’s top Democrat, detailed this possibility in a recent memo to Senate offices.
Thune countered that this is an unusual case in which GAO, which usually sides with Congress, is constraining lawmakers’ authority.
“You can’t anticipate everything that’s gonna happen in the future,” Thune said. “[But] I don’t think you can draw a broad application to this narrow set of circumstances.”
But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) warned that a future Democratic-controlled government would use the GOP move to “revisit decades worth of paltry corporate settlements, deferred prosecution agreements, and tax rulings that were overly favorable to multinationals and ultra-wealthy individuals.”
