BISMARCK — U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, issued the following statement after the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published its final rule, imposing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions performance measures on state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations.

Earlier this month, Senator Cramer delivered remarks on the Senate floor regarding his amendment (#1241) to the bipartisan Transportation Appropriations Bill, which would have defunded the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) proposed rule. Click here to watch the full floor speech.

The amendment was germane and bipartisan, requiring only 50 votes for passage, but Senate Democrats demanded a 60-vote threshold to ensure its defeat. After he withdrew the amendment, Senator Cramer said he will introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) Joint Resolution of Disapproval if the Biden administration finalizes the rule.

“As the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee, I was intimately involved in negotiating and passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The committee specifically debated whether to grant DOT this authority, and the Committee’s unanimously-passed bill chose not to include this poison pill. Once again, the Biden bureaucracy is returning to their stale playbook of inventing illegal, punitive regulatory schemes. They clearly have learned nothing from the Supreme Court, which has made clear: the absence of a prohibition is not a license. This final rule is contrary to congressional intent, usurps state authority by putting the federal government in the driver’s seat, and is fundamentally unworkable in rural states like North Dakota. I look forward to leading a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval overturning it.”

During an EPW Committee meeting in June, Senator Cramer questioned FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt on the agency’s GHG Emissions Performance Measure Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. In October 2022, he also joined U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) in sending a letter to the FHWA, voicing strong opposition to the agency’s proposal to implement a GHG emissions performance measure. Similarly, the Transportation Departments of North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming submitted formal comments opposing FHWA’s GHG proposed rulemaking, emphasizing the agency’s lack of authority to promulgate this rule.