Few things are more frustrating in government than the federal executive branch asserting authority it doesn’t have and foisting mediocrity on the states. Despite definitive losses in court, the Biden administration refuses to pump the brakes on executive overreach and instead has hit the gas on more illegal, costly regulations. Case in point: the Federal Highway Administration’s rule requiring state transportation departments to reduce tailpipe emissions on highways.
Congress never granted the FHWA regulatory authority to do so. As ranking Republican on the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, I was intimately involved in negotiating the 2022 bipartisan infrastructure law. The committee debated whether to grant the FHWA this authority and rejected the idea.
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