Freedom! Republicans erased record number of Biden regulations in 2025

Congressional Republicans capped off 2025 with one notable accomplishment: overturning a record number of regulations enacted under former President Joe Biden.

Republicans undid 22 regulations issued in the final months of Biden’s presidency that restrict fossil fuel production, phase out the sale of gas-powered cars and limit access to credit in the name of capping overdraft fees. The record number of resolutions of disapproval, used to block regulations, signed into law by President Donald Trump is the most of any Congress since the Congressional Review Act (CRA) was enacted in 1996.

GOP lawmakers rescinded 14 Obama regulations during Trump’s first term in 2017.

The CRA allows Congress to rescind recent administrative rulemakings with a simple majority vote in both chambers, along with the president’s stamp of approval.

“By reining in Biden’s heavy-handed bureaucrats, we are saving Americans $180 billion,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said in a floor speech on Dec. 17. “That pencils out to over $2,000 in savings for each and every family.”

1. Banning New Gas-Powered Cars

Congressional Republicans successfully undid a Biden-era waiver in May allowing California and any state that adopts its stringent standards to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The Republican-controlled Congress also rescinded two California vehicle emissions rules requiring the sale of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and effectively banning diesel engines.

Republicans — and some Democrats — warned California’s aggressive electric vehicle (EV) mandate would undermine consumer choice and devastate Americans employed in the automobile industry.

“These job losses will not be confined to California, but they will be spread all across the nation,” Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said in a speech on the Senate floor prior to the upper chamber voting to nix the waiver.

Trump frequently called for the repeal of EV mandates during his 2024 presidential campaign.

Though the push to rescind the rules hit several procedural roadblocks, Senate Majority Leader John Thune kept his conference united before the window to nix the waivers closed.

2. Ending Coal Leasing In America’s Top Coal Region

GOP lawmakers voted in October to repeal a Biden-era rule restricting millions of acres of land in the Powder River Basin — spanning Montana and Wyoming — from future mining.

Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines argued the Biden administration’s move to end coal leasing in the resource-rich region following the 2024 election amounted to a “midnight rule” with little political support among the affected states.

Daines alongside fellow Republican Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy and Reps. Troy Downing and Ryan Zinke spearheaded the successful effort to nix the heavy-handed resource management plan.

“The American people have rejected the left’s radical climate hysteria and removing this harmful rule will help protect our energy dominance and our national security,” Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines told the DCNF prior the resolution of disapproval’s passage in the Senate.

Biden sought to restrict coal production and pledged to shut down coal plants “all across America” in 2022. More than 40% of the country’s coal production comes from the Powder River Basin, according to analysis published by the Energy Information Administration in 2019.

The Republican-controlled Congress also overturned a Biden plan restricting coal leasing on Wyoming public lands in November.

3. Blocking Energy Production In Alaska

In December, Trump signed into law two resolutions of disapproval overturning Biden-era rules restricting energy production in Alaska. The Biden regulations, finalized after the 2024 election, blocked oil and gas leasing across 13 million acres across Central Yukon in the name of conservation and restricted future energy production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain (ANWR).

“When we unlock Alaska, we are strengthening America’s national security and economic posture in this generation and for generations to come,” Republican Alaska Rep. Nick Begich told the DCNF in December. “These bills are not isolated. They are representative of a long-term strategy to rebuild our energy strength, reconstruct our critical mineral inventory, and ensure that America — not China — controls the supply chains that power our economy.”

Alaska’s congressional delegation and many tribal communities within the Last Frontier State argued the Biden-era regulations tamping down energy production were economically devastating.

“The economy in the North Slope is oil and gas activity,” Begich also told the DCNF. “The building blocks of communities — schools, healthcare, roads and running water — exist due to the “economic base our early leaders ensured that we had access to.”

4. Instituting Price Controls On Overdraft Fees

Republicans voted in spring 2025 to undo a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that limited most bank overdraft fees to $5, far less than the $35 average. The Biden administration approved the controversial rulemaking capping the amount banks can charge their customers when they overdraft their checking accounts in December 2024.

GOP lawmakers and the banking industry warned the overdraft fee rule would reduce the amount of credit that banks can provide to low-income customers, who would be forced to turn to payday lenders that typically charge higher interest rates. Opponents of the rule also slammed the agency for overstepping its authority to regulate checking accounts.

“The Biden administration’s ill-conceived rule imposing new price controls on overdraft services provided by banks and credit unions harmed the very consumers the CFPB is supposed to protect,” Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Scott said in May. “The rule would have reduced access to credit and important financial services and resulted in more unbanked Americans.”

5. Driving Up Costs For Commercial Appliances

Trump approved two resolutions of disapproval in May cancelling Biden regulations that imposed stringent energy efficiency standards on walk-in coolers and freezers and a separate rule targeting commercial refrigerators and freezers.

Republicans argued the Biden-era rules imposed a high cost burden on the small businesses who would have to comply with the new standards and limited consumer choice.

“This regulation, which had an estimated cost of a billion dollars, would have been crippling for businesses throughout the country, especially in rural areas,” Republican Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice, the sponsor of one of the resolutions of disapproval, said in a statement in March.

Republicans also successfully nixed a Biden Department of Energy rule banning some gas water heaters by 2029.

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