Federal Agencies Scramble to Finish Biden’s Rules — and Protect His Legacy From Trump

Looming large over President Joe Biden’s rule-writing this year is the prospect of a second Trump administration. During his first term, Trump shocked environmental advocates when he and the GOP-controlled Congress used the 1996 Congressional Review Act to trash more than a dozen Obama-era rules.

Biden’s agencies are facing a deadline this spring to finish some of their most important regulations, including a crackdown on power plants’ climate pollution, protections for endangered species and a bid to protect federal employees from politically motivated firings. A daunting task considering opposition to several of Biden’s rules runs strong among GOP lawmakers.

“I would point to a substantial body of pushback to the promulgation of these rules by Republicans on Capitol Hill,” Bracewell’s Joseph Brazauskas told POLITICO.

Those include EPA’s forthcoming rules on power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions and vehicles’ tailpipe pollution, said Brazauskas, who led EPA’s congressional and intergovernmental relations office during the first Trump administration.

The law allows Congress to overturn agency rules within 60 congressional session days of when a regulation is finalized and sent to the Capitol. But Congress’ schedule can be hard to predict, and it’s not yet clear when the deadline for shielding rules will be.