Senate Democrats Have Been Handed a Tool to Stop the Big Beautiful Bill

[Passages]

Thanks to a Republican vote to stop California from setting its own auto emissions, Democrats can challenge virtually any Trump administration action, and eat up time on the Senate floor.

by David Dayen May 28, 2025

It’s refreshing in a way that we no longer have to spend much time thinking about the Senate parliamentarian, the shadowy figure whose rulings supposedly decide what the chamber can and cannot do. Republicans put that to bed last week by overruling the parliamentarian over whether a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution could nullify the Environmental Protection Agency’s waiver allowing California to set its own air pollution standards on vehicles.

California was given authority in a carve-out to the Clean Air Act in 1970 to set higher emissions standards than the national rules, with the EPA subsequently granting waivers more than 100 times. The state was prepared to use its latest waiver to effectively ban gas-powered auto sales by 2035. But the Senate voted 51-to-44 last week to cancel that waiver, as well as two other waivers to tighten emission rules on diesel trucks and allow zero-emission trucks on the road. The House had already voted for the resolution, so it can now be signed by President Trump.

SNIP
For this reason, Democrats could subject the Senate to time-consuming resolution votes repeatedly, to such a degree that the Senate would not have time to do anything else for the rest of this session of Congress. In other words, Democrats could respond to the waiver vote by paralyzing the Senate, and stopping the giant Trump tax bill from ever reaching the floor.

Georgia State University assistant professor and former House Oversight Committee staffer Todd Phillips laid this out in a Prospect piece earlier this month. Any 30 senators can force a CRA resolution onto the floor, with a required ten hours of debate time. These resolutions would need the president’s signature, and nearly all of them wouldn’t even get the Republican votes necessary to pass the Senate. But according to Senate procedure, they have to be dealt with if enough senators force them onto the floor. They must be debated and voted upon ahead of other Senate business if brought up for consideration. This means that Democrats can tie up the Senate floor for upwards of ten hours with any single CRA resolution.

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-05-28-senate-democrats-stop-big-beautiful-bill/

[Autumn]

1. Nice! But will Democrats do it?

[Passages]

2. I am hoping they surprise us in a good way.

[dchill]

3. My thought exactly.

They need to think about Tommy Tuberville.

[lees1975]

4. When we had the majority in both houses in 2020...

...we could have revised the Judiciary act, created five more seats on the Supreme Court and then abolished the filibuster to ram it through. That would have prevented a second Trump Presidency by expiditing his insurrection trial to a verdict, along with overturning the immunity ruling, Citizens United and preserving Roe, and we wouldn't do that.

This sounds somewhat risky and a little too bold for Democrats in the status quo. It's what Republicans would do if they had a shot at it, but we have to be careful and not look too "political" or do these kind of off beat things to shut down progress like they do all the time.

[Cirsium]

5. The options

Option one: Democrats stop the Republicans in Congress from doing anything. The right wing will the launch a frenzy of attacks against the Democrats. Mass media will talk incessantly about the "obstructionist" Democrats. They won't be sure how to counter that, and some will end up going on the Sunday morning shows and saying "well I guess you are right, Chuck Todd" (or whoever it is now) "we shouldn't obstruct everything. That was probably a mistake." Others will disagree, and "Democrats in disarray" ensues.

Option two: Democrats let the Republicans have their way, while throwing up token resistance to establish credibility and then fund raise and campaign on "OMG! Look at what Trump and the Republicans are doing!"

[lees1975]

6. What Trump is doing

is always an effective vote getter for Democrats.

[Cirsium]

7. More than that

It is the gift that keeps on giving. It is actually so so for getting votes, but it is fabulous for fund raising.