Measures to repeal vehicle emission rules and create a program allowing businesses to pay fees for accelerated permitting have been stripped from the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a blow to the GOP deregulatory agenda.  

The Senate parliamentarian said Thursday that the provisions violate the Byrd Rule, which limits the kinds of measures that can be included in budget reconciliation. Budget reconciliation is a special process that allows fiscal legislation to bypass the filibuster, and Republicans are using it to advance the tax and spending megabill. Under the Byrd Rule, reconciliation provisions must be primarily fiscal in their effects.

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“As much as Senate Republicans would prefer to throw out the rule book and advance their families lose and billionaires win agenda, there are rules that must be followed and Democrats are making sure those rules are enforced,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, said in a statement announcing the determinations. “We will continue examining every provision in this Great Betrayal of a bill and will scrutinize it to the furthest extent.”

Specifically, the parliamentarian ruled against 22 provisions in the OBBBA that would cut spending authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022 by Democrats. Former President Joe Biden signed it, providing hundreds of billions in green subsidies.

Spared was the GOP effort to axe funding for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program, which Republicans have derided as a slush fund. The fate of the money is the subject of litigation following the Trump EPA’s efforts to claw it back.

Another major provision that the parliamentarian stripped from the bill is a measure to repeal auto emissions rules imposed by the Biden Environmental Protection Agency, which Republicans have argued amounted to a mandate for electric vehicles.

The congressional GOP and the Trump administration are moving to undo those rules via other means. They have successfully canceled emissions rules implemented by California and followed by several states, using the congressional Review Act. This tool allows legislators to avoid filibustering and vote in a simple majority to overturn federal rules. The House has also voted to undo the broader emission standards. The EPA has administratively begun the process of rolling back auto emissions rules.

Lastly, the Senate parliamentarian nixed a provision that would’ve allowed companies to pay a fee to expedite environmental reviews during the permitting process. The provision has been controversial among Democrats, who call it a “pay to play” scheme allowing large corporations to pay to avoid a complete environmental review of projects.