Republicans in Congress ended 2025 with one notable accomplishment: repealing a record number of regulations passed under former President Joe Biden.
Republicans reversed 22 regulations issued in the final months of Biden's presidency that curbed fossil fuel production, phased out the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles and limited access to credit in the name of limiting overdraft fees. The record number of resolutions of disapproval being used to block regulations signed by President Donald Trump is the most in any Congress since the Congressional Review Act (CRA) was passed in 1996. (RELATED: Trump Admin to End Biden-Era Water Rule After Years of Contentious Debate)
GOP legislators canceled 14 Obama Resolutions During Trump's First Term in 2017.
The CRA allows Congress to overturn recent administrative rules with a simple majority vote in both houses, along with the President's stamp of approval.
“By reining in Biden's autocratic bureaucrats, we will save Americans $180 billion,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said in a Dec. 17 speech.This means each family will save over $2,000.”
1. Ban on new gasoline vehicles
Congressional Republicans successfully canceled The Republican-controlled Congress also repealed two California vehicle emissions rules that required zero-emission sales of heavy-duty trucks and effectively banned diesel engines.
Republicans – and some Democrats — warned that California's aggressive electric vehicle (EV) mandate would undermine consumer choice and devastate Americans employed in the auto industry.
“These job losses will not be limited to California, they will spread across the country,” said West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. speech on the Senate floor before the upper chamber voted to overturn the waiver.
Trump frequently called for repealing electric vehicle mandates during his 2024 presidential campaign.
Although the call to repeal the rules affected several procedural roadblocks, Senate Majority Leader John Thune kept his conference united in front of the window to overturn the waivers.
2. Ending coal leasing in America's leading coal region
GOP legislators voted in October, repeal a Biden-era rule limiting millions of acres of land in the Powder River Basin, spanning Montana and Wyoming, from future mining.
Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines said the Biden administration's decision to end coal leasing in the resource-rich region after the 2024 election amounts to a “midnight rule” with little political support among affected states.
Daines, along with fellow Montana Republicans Sen. Tim Sheehy and Reps. Troy Downing and Ryan Zinke, led a successful effort to repeal the harsh resource management plan.
“The American people have rejected the radical climate hysteria of the left, and repealing this harmful rule will help protect our energy dominance and our national security,” Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines told DCNF before passing the resolution of disapproval in the Senate.
Biden has sought to curb coal production and vowed to shutter coal plants “across America” in 2022. More than 40% of the country's coal production comes from the Powder River Basin. according to to an analysis published by the Energy Information Administration in 2019.
The Republican-controlled Congress also upside down Biden's plan to limit coal leasing on Wyoming public lands in November.
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 24: Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) speaks at a news conference following the weekly Senate Republican Political Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol on September 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
3. Blocking energy production in Alaska
In December, Trump signed two resolutions of disapproval reversing Biden-era rules limiting energy production in Alaska. Biden's rules, finalized after the 2024 election, blocked lease oil and gas on 13 million acres of Central Yukon for conservation and limited future energy production on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
“When we unlock Alaska, we will strengthen America's national security and economic standing in this generation and for generations to come,” the Alaska Republican said. Nick Begich DCNF reported in December. “These bills are not isolated. They represent a long-term strategy to restore our energy strength, rebuild our critical mineral reserves, and ensure that America, not China, controls the supply chains that fuel our economy.”
Alaska's congressional delegation and many tribal communities in the last frontier state argued Biden-era regulations limiting energy production have been economically devastating.
“The economy of the North Slope is tied to oil and gas activity,” Begich told DCNF. “The building blocks of communities—schools, health care, roads and running water—exist because of “the economic base that our early leaders provided us with access to.”
4. Establishing control over overdraft fee prices
In the spring of 2025, Republicans voted to repeal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The (CFPB) has limited most banks' overdraft fees to $5, much less than the $35 average. Biden Administration approved controversial rules limiting the amount banks can charge their customers if they overdrawn their current accounts in December 2024.
GOP lawmakers and the banking industry have warned that the overdraft fee rule would reduce the amount of credit 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 criticized the agency for exceeding its authority to regulate checking accounts.
“The Biden administration’s ill-conceived rule imposing new pricing 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. “This rule would limit access to credit and important financial services and lead to an increase in the number of Americans who are unbanked.”
5. Increased costs for commercial equipment
In May, Trump approved two resolutions of disapproval, overturning Biden's rules that imposed strict energy efficiency standards for refrigerators and freezers, and a separate rule covering commercial refrigerators and freezers.
Republicans argued that the Biden-era rules would impose large cost burdens on small businesses, which would have to comply with new standards and limit consumer choice.
“This billion-dollar regulation would hurt businesses across the country, especially in rural areas,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Stephanie Bice, who authored one of the disapproval resolutions, said in a March statement.
Republicans are also successful canceled Biden's Energy Department rule banning some gas water heaters by 2029.
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