'You Don't Get To Make Stuff Up': Kevin Cramer Hammers Federal Highway Administrator Over New Regs

4 months ago

During Wednesday's Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) questioned Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt about new emissions rules.

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Transcript

00:00 [Mr. Connolly] Thank you, Senator Cardin.

00:02 The next person in line to ask questions is Senator Cramer.

00:07 Senator Cramer.

00:08 [Mr. Cramer] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having this hearing.

00:10 Thank you.

00:11 [Mr. Connolly] Thank you for joining us.

00:12 [Mr. Cramer] Thank you, Mr. Administrator, for being here.

00:13 I am going to start with it might not surprise you. I have repeatedly raised concerns over

00:22 the legality and impracticality and nature of the FHWA's greenhouse gas emissions rule

00:31 over the past couple of years. Since the last time you were before us, not one but two Federal

00:36 courts have agreed and said that this was an unlawful rule. Following those two rulings,

00:44 the United States Senate passed the My Congressional Review Act resolution with 53 votes, which

00:50 means it was bipartisan, a resolution supporting that position. Yet I see that you all have

01:03 appealed the decision of the courts and continue to pursue this unlawful rule as though you

01:10 have a license to do something that Congress has not given you.

01:17 What is the point of wasting taxpayer dollars and time and resources on a rule that is so

01:22 clearly illegal?

01:23 [Mr. Cramer] Thank you, Senator. You have been very consistent in your statements on

01:29 this. I would like to share that consistency on my side. I have always said that we will

01:33 comply with the law. When the courts reached their decision, we told States that we would

01:39 not be requiring them to meet the schedule because of the legal decisions that have been

01:46 made. I am going to defer to DOJ. They are the ones who are in charge of appeals and

01:53 other things. We will just continue to follow the law.

01:55 [Mr. Inslee] Since you brought that up, defer to the DOJ, which I know you have to do, that

02:01 is another frustration of mine, that the client of the Department of Justice no longer has

02:08 any authority over the Department of Justice's decisions on your own behalf. Congress did

02:13 that back in the 1960s. It was one of the great mistakes that we should correct someday.

02:19 I have found it very frustrating. I can't wait for the Chevron doctrine to be overturned,

02:24 along with I am grateful to the court in West Virginia v. EPA using the major questions

02:30 doctrine, which I believe this is a violation of, by the way.

02:35 The idea that you now, as the client of this law firm called the Department of Justice,

02:40 but have nothing to say about an appeal is disgusting to me. We should break that up.

02:47 At any rate, given the fact that the Supreme Court has issued rulings previously that are

02:54 not dissimilar to this, using the major questions doctrine, at what point does an agency just

02:58 follow all of that precedent rather than trying to make it up as it goes in violation of what

03:05 is so clear, I think, to most people?

03:07 >> Senator, I am not trying to be evasive. I am trying to under--

03:13 >> It is a tough one for you to answer. I get it. I am just saying you don't get to

03:19 make stuff up and issue the rule and then wait for the Supreme Court of the United States

03:26 or some other appeal process to finish off before you say, okay, well, we will go by

03:32 the law again now. The law, to me, was crystal clear, is crystal clear, as is, by the way,

03:39 the intent of Congress in the CRA. Anyway, all of that said, I want to move on to my

03:44 other favorite topic that you and I have been consistent about, and that is, of course,

03:48 formula funding and the importance of it. It was my highest priority in the bipartisan

03:54 infrastructure bill. I was grateful for the 90/10 formula funding formula. But I have

04:03 been hearing, and I am going to ask you to verify whether this is true or not, but I

04:08 have been hearing that on the grant side, the discretionary side, money has not been

04:11 going out very fast, that, in fact, it could be even manipulating or confusing the formula

04:18 a little bit. So I want you to either verify or deny that that is the case and just maybe

04:25 advocate for moving more money out of discretionary into formula if, in fact, there is a problem.

04:32 Because one thing about the states, they get their money out really, really fast, as you

04:35 know. You have done it a couple of times yourself. Anyway, first of all, is that a correct assumption

04:42 that I am making about the grant funding or is my information not accurate? And second

04:47 of all, what do you think about putting more of it in formula?

04:50 Senator, thank you for that question. And I believe the states have done a great job

04:55 of getting formula dollars obligated and out the door, and the chairman talked about all

04:59 the great projects that are out there. Project delivery, and I am less interested in giving

05:04 out money. I am more interested in delivering projects. And so we have about 2,250 discretionary

05:11 grant agreements that we are working on from money that we have awarded, and about 50 percent

05:16 of those now, which is greatly up from when I started, have now signed grant agreements.

05:22 So we want to turn all of these projects into successful ribbon cuttings, and I commit to

05:27 continuing to do that.

05:28 Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

'You Don't Get To Make Stuff Up': Kevin Cramer Hammers Federal Highway Administrator Over New Regs

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