Rolling back Biden
Plus: How New Dems’ view the looming funding deadline and Hakeem Jeffries welcomes Pop Warner champs to the Hill.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) reintroduced a resolution honoring the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement celebrating Black art, literature, music, and identity in the iconic New York City neighborhood.
Keep reading for what’s worth knowing from the Hill today before you clock out—straight from my notebook to your inbox. Paid subscribers to Once Upon a Hill get first dibs on Michael’s List each evening. On the free plan? You receive the same valuable updates the following morning. Be in the know tonight, not tomorrow.
1. GOP kicks off CRA campaign
— House Republicans voted this afternoon to repeal a Biden-era energy regulation, the first in a series of measures to dismantle key parts of the former president’s legislative record.
— The final vote was 220–206–1. Six Democrats voted in favor of the rollback: Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Adam Gray (Calif.), Kristen McDonald Rivet and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.). Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) was the lone Republican opposed and Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) voted present.
— “I was very excited about what the Biden administration was doing, thinking it was the right way to go,” Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.), who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “And what I see House Republicans doing is putting Big Oil and polluters ahead of the health and well-being of the American people.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), another House E&C Committee member, offered a similar sentiment: “Let’s be clear: It’s not even about Republicans. It’s about the fossil fuel industry and doing the [its] bidding right now.”
— The Congressional Review Act of 1996 empowers Congress with a fast-track process to overturn federal regulations within 60 legislative days using a disapproval resolution. The law packs the most punch at the start of a new administration when one party controls the House, Senate, and White House. Its secret weapon? Disapproval resolutions dodge the Senate filibuster, needing only a simple majority to pass. In other words, as long as Republicans stay united, Democrats will be powerless to stop them.
— Last November, the Environmental Protection Agency implemented a rule under the Inflation Reduction Act requiring large oil and natural gas facilities to pay an annual fee for methane emissions. Critics argue that the fees could impose significant costs and increase energy prices. However, the EPA estimates that the regulation would cut methane emissions by 2035, equivalent to taking nearly 8 million gasoline-powered cars off the road for a year.
— House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) released a list of eight more CRA targets, enabling the GOP to use their unified control of government to reshape the regulatory state in Trump’s image without passing new legislation. The Senate took a procedural vote to open debate on a companion version of the House disapproval resolution.
—Read all about it: “The wonky way the House GOP plans to undo Biden’s legacy—without writing new laws”
2. Dem distrust lingers as shutdown looms
— House Democrats have provided the majority of votes for the six short-term funding extensions passed since September 2023 to keep the government open. Most of those votes come from members of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of centrist, pro-business Democrats.
— But for NDC Chair Brad Schneider (Ill.), whether Democrats and Republicans agree to extend government funding beyond the mid-March deadline will depend on trust—and that’s in short supply right now.
— “There was a deal agreed to two years ago with then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Biden,” Schneider said of the Fiscal Responsibility Act that Congress passed in 2023 to reduce the federal deficit by limiting governing spending and raising the debt ceiling over two years. “If the Republicans want to honor that deal, that could have been solved six months ago. We wouldn’t be sitting here entering March with a funding bill that’s going back to October.”
— But it’s not just the spending limits deal that has Democrats hot. Members point to several other trust-eroding about-faces from the GOP:
The agreement on a short-term funding extension that Elon Musk’s opposition blew up in December.
The federal funding freeze the Trump administration authorized last month.
The indiscriminate cuts to federal agencies and departments by the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
The abruptly rescheduled vote on the House GOP budget plan last night after Republican leadership pulled it from consideration.
— “There’s another dimension to this too, which is a president who doesn’t think he has to abide by the deal that he makes,” Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) told me. “At a minimum, we need Speaker Mike Johnson to stand up for this institution as a co-equal branch of government with the power of the purse, to say, ‘No, Mr. President, once we make a deal, we’re going to stand behind it as an institution.’”
— Schneider and Peters’s comments came during an event to discuss the New Dems’ nine policy working groups to maximize their legislative impact in the 119th Congress.
— Read all about it: “Stopgap needed to avert March shutdown, top appropriator says”
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3. “The Jaguars did their thing”
— In a brief departure from assailing House Republicans for their budget plan, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) honored the Mo Better Jaguars, the 2024 Pop Warner 9 and Under national champions, on the House floor.
— “Throughout the season, the Mo Better Jaguars team displayed incredible skill, resilience, courage, intellect and determination on the field and off,” Jeffries said of the team, which hails from his Brooklyn-based congressional district. “In a year where our local NFL teams went a combined 8-26—it’s rough to be a Jets and Giants fan at this moment—the Jaguars did their thing and put together a remarkable 12-0 undefeated season, not giving up a single touchdown before the Super Bowl.”
— Jeffries took photos with the team on the House steps after his speech and received team-branded swag, including a mini football, sweatshirt and letterman jacket.
— See for yourself: The full floor speech
— Read all about it: Jeffries on the status of the government funding negotiations, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s potential New York City mayoral bid, Elon Musk attending the first Trump cabinet meeting, and Black History Month.
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