00:00Mr. President, let me first thank my colleague from Rhode Island.
00:07I don't know how many years he's been delivering this message on the floor,
00:12but he has become the spokesperson for a cause that we all should share
00:18to try to make certain that we address the deterioration of this planet that we live on,
00:23that our kids, our grandkids, and their children have a fighting chance
00:27against elements that they can't personally control.
00:30It's up to our generation, and Senator Whitehouse comes to the floor
00:34and reminds us on a regular basis our moral and economic and environmental responsibility.
00:40I thank him for his statement today, and I want to join him in one respect.
00:45Mr. President, last month the Senate parliamentarian analyzed the GAO's opinion,
00:50ruling that some Senate Republicans cannot use the Congressional Review Act
00:56to overturn a waiver granted to California by the U.S. EPA to regulate its own vehicle emissions.
01:03I remember a time in the House and again in the Senate when we had a hearty debate here
01:10over miles per gallon and what was reasonable.
01:13And I remember the automobile industry saying that we shouldn't impose a standard
01:18that they could never live up to, never produce cars that meet that standard of the higher miles per gallon.
01:25I remember that California stepped out ahead of the rest of the nation and said let us prove we can do it.
01:30Our economy is so big you can't miss it if we succeed or if we fail.
01:35And they succeeded.
01:37They proved that if you create the right incentives, technology will move in that direction.
01:42And it has successfully when it comes to miles per gallon.
01:47Now Republicans have decided with a new president to attempt to block a California law requiring all new cars sold in the state by 2035 to be zero emission vehicles.
02:00It's an ambitious goal.
02:02It's as ambitious as some of the MPG goals they set in earlier times.
02:06That's right.
02:07Despite the claims of the Party of People's, pardon me, of states' rights, Republicans want to end this state-level regulation in the state of California.
02:17And get this.
02:18Elon Musk, the unelected advisor to the president, previously wrote to the EPA in favor of California's waiver.
02:25Now he's joined the Republican majority to try to gut the rule.
02:30The parliamentarian's decision was not one of party loyalty.
02:34It followed decades of precedent showing that California's Clean Air Act waivers are not subject to the Congressional Review Act.
02:42Despite the parliamentarian's decision, my Senate Republican colleagues want to override the GAO and the Senate parliamentarian to advance the fossil fuel agenda.
02:53It's burn, baby, burn, drill, baby, drill.
02:56Now I understand that using the CRA might be faster than agency rulemaking or even considering legislation.
03:03Think about this.
03:04There was a time when we actually legislated on the floor of the United States Senate.
03:08I can vaguely remember it.
03:09It was so long ago.
03:11But rather than deal with legislation, hearings, public review of what we're all about, we have these shortcut methods that in some cases are disastrous.
03:22In fact, President Trump in his first term took administrative action to rescind California's Clean Air Act waivers and could take that path again.
03:30But what Republicans are pursuing today is a procedural nuclear option, a dramatic break from Senate precedent with a profound consequence.
03:40Let me repeat, should my Senate Republican colleagues overrule the Senate parliamentarian, it will have a major long-term impact for the Senate and the legislative filibuster.
03:52This move is unprecedented.
03:54The Senate has never overruled the parliamentarian regarding the CRA or allowing a bill to pass by majority vote.
04:01And before, when the tables were turned and the Senate Democrats were in the majority, my Republican colleagues were singing a very different tune about never breaking from the parliamentarian.
04:12Leader Thune himself acknowledged in January of this year that overruling the parliamentarian is, quote, totally akin to killing the filibuster.
04:22We can't go there, Leader Thune said.
04:24People need to understand that, end of quote.
04:27If Senate Republicans disregard the parliamentarian's decision, they would set a new precedent in the Senate, eliminating longstanding guardrails and paving the way for a future Senate majority to overrule the parliamentarian to achieve its partisan goals.
04:42I caution my Senate Republican colleagues from towing this line and setting the wrong precedent, and as I've said time and time again, there cannot be one set of rules for the Republicans in the Senate and another set of rules for the Democrats.
04:56I hope my Republican colleagues will heed my warning and make the right choice, the only choice, except the GAO and the Senate parliamentarian's decision.
05:06Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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