House GOP moves to cement Trump energy agenda by taking sledgehammer to Biden-era regulations

FIRST ON FOX: A newly proposed bill by House Republicans would cement President Donald Trump's energy agenda by taking a sledgehammer to a vast array of his Democratic predecessor's regulations.

Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Texas, is introducing legislation that would give all future energy-related regulations a five-year sunset window, while requiring many existing rules to be amended with a one-year expiry pending a review process.

It comes after Trump levied a similar executive order that would target energy red tape imposed by former President Joe Biden during his first year in office.

But if Goldman's bill becomes law, it would significantly hamstring the ability of future Democratic administrations to impose new long-term energy policies like Biden's, many of which Republicans have panned as burdensome and unnecessary.

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He argued to Fox News Digital that those regulations were compounding the rising costs Americans have seen in their daily lives.

"It is going through and looking at every single cost, basically from start to finish, of energy costs, and how it affects every single American taxpayer," Goldman said of his legislation.

"All anyone has to do is look at where they were a year and a half ago with costs of certain things. It was all based on regulations passed by the Biden administration, and that's exactly what we hope to cut and codify."

The Texas Republican pointed out that increased energy costs, including prices at the gas pump, bled into other facets of Americans' daily lives.

"My dad and I owned a wine and food store and, yeah, when gas prices went up, the guy who drove the 18-wheeler full of cheese from Chicago, Illinois, charged us an extra $2,000 for that delivery because his gas prices were up tremendously. And so we couldn't afford to eat that cost, so the cheese prices went up," he said as an example. 

"Everything that every single American taxpayer touches — whether they know it or not, when energy prices are high, their cost of living is in turn going to be high."

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His legislation would primarily target regulations issued under major energy and land laws overseen by the Departments of Energy and Interior.

The House has already voted to roll back a number of Biden-era regulatory policies so far this term and with bipartisan support.

Last month, 11 Democrats voted with Republicans to overturn Biden administration regulations on showerhead pressure.

Both the House and Senate passed resolutions early last year to overturn Biden-era regulations targeting water heaters, with six Democrats joining Republicans in the House on that measure.

Rising energy costs have been targeted by both parties as they make competing arguments ahead of the November 2026 midterms.

But Goldman is arguing that Democrats have less of a footing to talk about affordability with select goods like gas seeing a decrease in prices this year.

"We pushed back, and we made people realize, 'No, wait a minute. Let's talk about affordability. Let's talk about where the cost of things were just over a year and two months ago, before Donald Trump came into office and before Republicans could push through good legislation that President Trump signed," Goldman said. "I kind of find it quite interesting that all of a sudden the buzzword affordability isn't much talked about anymore."

Co-sponsors of Goldman's bill include Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Reps. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, Randy Weber, R-Texas, Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., and Barry Moore, R-Ala. 

A Senate counterpart was introduced by Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.