House Republicans Wage War on Fuel Efficiency, ESG, and Immigrants

This past week, the Republicans in the US House of Representatives were hard at work. Not, of course, hard at work at passing a budget. But hard at work passing right-wing messaging bills.

Blocking Fuel Efficiency Regulations

The House voted 215 to 191 to repeal the EPA’s new rule on emissions standards for cars and to block any such future regulations. House Republicans tried this last year, but were unsuccessful due to Senate opposition.

This rule would save consumers money and protect all Americans from harmful air pollution.

One Republican — Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01)— joined Democrats in voting against it, and eight Democrats joined Republicans in voting for it.

The eight Democrats were Yadira Caraveo (CO-08), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Don Davis (NC-01), Jared Golden (ME-02), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Mary Peltola (AK-AL), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03).

Waging Trump’s War against Immigrants

The House voted 219 to 186 to strip billions of dollars in federal funds from cities, counties, and even states that choose not to comply with potentially unconstitutional and illegal DHS detainer requests. The bill in particular bans any federal funds from going to uses that “benefit” undocumented migrants, including funds that would be used for food, shelter, health care, transportation, and legal services.

As Minority Whip Katherine Clark pointed out, “Because immigrants “benefit” from use of the roads, schools, and law enforcement services, states may be forced to forfeit billions of dollars in Federal highway funds, Department of Education grants, and Byrne-JAG grants awarded to police agencies by the Department of Justice.”

Twelve Democrats nonetheless joined Republicans in voting for it: Colin Allred (TX-32), Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Ed Case (HI-01), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Don Davis (NC-01), Ruben Gallego (AZ-03), Jared Golden (ME-02), Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Mary Peltola (AK-AL), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), Elissa Slotkin (MI-07), and Susan Wild (PA-07).

The House also voted 266 to 158 for the so-called Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, a bill whose xenophobic agenda is clear in its name.

As Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler explained in the committee markup, this bill is “so poorly drafted that it would result in extremely harsh consequences, including the deportation or removal of survivors of domestic violence.”

Given that sexual assault is already a deportable offense, as is domestic violence with intent to cause bodily harm, the bill is largely redundant.
However, the definition of domestic violence used in the bill risks putting domestic violence survivors at risk of deportation. To quote Nadler: “Unconscionably, this will likely implicate survivors who have used violence in self-defense, or who were accused by their abusers and were either unable to defend themselves or pled guilty to avoid having to go through the court process.”

Unfortunately, 51 Democrats joined the GOP in this fear-mongering exercise:

The GOP’s War on ESG

The House voted 217 to 206 for the RETIRE Act, a bill to codify an unpopular Trump-era rule that poses needless barriers to the use of ESG criteria in investments from defined-contribution retirement plans like 401(K)s.

Three Democrats joined Republicans in voting for it: Jared Golden (ME-02), Mary Peltola (AK-AL), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03).

In recent years, Republicans have made ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investing one of their key targets.

The House voted 215 to 203 to pass the so-called GUARDRAIL Act, which would restrict the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) authority to require disclosures and enforce compliance with such requirements, enabling companies to hide risks about themselves that investors would otherwise want to know (e.g., climate risks).

Three Democrats joined Republicans in voting for it: Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Jared Golden (ME-02), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03).

One Republican — Morgan Griffith (VA-09) — voted present.

The House voted 213 to 201 for the so-called Accreditation for College Excellence Act, which was an attack on DEI in higher education. The bill is based on the false belief that accreditors are denying schools accreditation based on DEI policies and imposing ideological litmus tests on them. Accreditors evaluate institutions’ execution of their own stated missions, and that includes any commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Democrats on the Education Committee argued that the real goals of the bill were to (1) scare accreditors away from assessing any academic discipline that includes a “controversial” view (“For example …would a program accreditor, in assessing the quality of a university environmental science program, be forced to ignore that the program banned the teaching of the consensus scientific belief that man-made climate change is real because it was seen as ``political’’ or merely a ``viewpoint’’?”) and (2) discourage accreditors from making any assessment of what a school purports to do in the field of DEI. They also pointed out how the bill tries to prevent accreditors from assessing whether religiously affiliated institutions are providing a proper education to their students.

Four Democrats joined Republicans in voting for it: Don Davis (NC-01), Jared Golden (ME-02), Mary Peltola (AK-AL), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03).

Supporting Israeli Annexation and Misleading Consumers

The House also voted 231 to 189 to codify a Trump-era policy to to label products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as originating from “Israel”. This is an implicit endorsement of Israel’s annexation efforts and an effort to undermine any work toward a peaceable resolution in the region, which cannot exist without acknowledgement of Palestinian territorial claims.

Sixteen Democrats nonetheless joined Republicans in voting for it: Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Don Davis (NC-01), Jared Golden (ME-02), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Susie Lee (NV-03), Grace Meng (NY-06), Jared Moskowitz (FL-23), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Chris Pappas (NH-01), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), David Scott (GA-13), Darren Soto (FL-09), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), and Juan Vargas (CA-52).