
The House on Thursday voted to bar California from imposing its landmark ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035, the first step in an effort by the Republican majority to stop a state policy designed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.
The 246-to-164 vote came a day after Republicans, joined by a few Democrats, voted to block California from requiring dealers in the state to sell an increasing percentage of zero-emission, medium and heavy-duty trucks over time. And, lawmakers also voted on Wednesday to stop a state effort to reduce California’s levels of smog.
All three policies were implemented under permissions granted to California by the Biden administration. They pose an extraordinary challenge to California’s longstanding authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act to set pollution standards that are more strict than federal limits.
And the legality of the congressional action is in dispute. Two authorities, the Senate parliamentarian and the Government Accountability Office, have ruled that Congress cannot revoke the waivers.
California leaders condemned the actions and promised a battle.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, called the move “lawless” and an attack on states’ rights. “Trump Republicans are hellbent on making California smoggy again,” Governor Newsom said in a statement.
“Clean air didn’t used to be political,” he said, adding, “The only thing that’s changed is that big polluters and the right-wing propaganda machine have succeeded in buying off the Republican Party.”
Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said, “We will fight this latest attack on California’s power to protect its own residents.”
California’s policy requires that 35 percent of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the state be either zero-emission, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen-powered models by 2026. Those requirements climb to 68 percent in 2030, and 100 percent in 2035, after which no gas-powered vehicles could be sold in the state.
As the fifth-biggest economy in the world, California exerts significant market influence. And 11 other states have adopted California’s ban on gas-powered cars, which means that it could shift the entire U.S. auto industry toward electric vehicles.
Governor Newsom has hailed the measure as one that could render automobile tailpipes as obsolete as rotary phones. The state already leads the nation in the electric vehicle adoption; 25 percent of cars sold in 2024 were zero-emissions, according to the California Energy Commission.
But Republicans and the Trump administration, backed by the fossil fuel industry and major automakers, have argued that California is effectively setting rules for the rest of the country.
“California should not be allowed to dictate national policy,” Representative John Joyce, Republican of Pennsylvania, said this week, arguing for the repeal of California’s policies.
John Bozzella, president and chief executive of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents major automakers, said California’s policies were unrealistic and costly.
“Today’s vote was a welcome, and targeted, action by the House to prevent the inevitable jobs and manufacturing fallout from these unachievable regulations,” said Mr. Bozzella, whose group represents General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai, among others.
He urged the Senate to act quickly on the matter.
“Time is ticking,” Mr. Bozella said. “These E.V. sales requirements start in model year 2026. Right now, for automakers.”
The 1970 Clean Air Act specifies that California can receive waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency to enact clean air standards that are tougher than federal limits because the state has historically been the most polluted air in the nation. Federal law also allows other states to adopt California’s standards as their own, under certain circumstances.
Ending California’s aggressive electric vehicle policies is a top priority for President Trump, who denies the established science of climate change and has moved to stop government support for E.V.s and other clean energy technologies.
“California has imposed the most ridiculous car regulations anywhere in the world, with mandates to move to all electric cars,” Mr. Trump said during the 2024 campaign. “I will terminate that.”
The House votes were held under the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that permits lawmakers to reverse recently adopted agency regulations with a simple majority.
But the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, found this month that California’s waivers are not regulations, echoing two legal findings by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan agency auditing office. Therefore, Ms. MacDonough ruled, they are not eligible for a vote under the Congressional Review Act.
The parliamentarian is an unelected civil servant who serves as a referee when it comes to the chamber’s complex rules.
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, has to decide whether to disregard the parliamentarian’s ruling and move ahead with a vote on the waivers. He has not indicated his plans.
Mr. Thune’s decision could serve as something of a warm-up act for an even more consequential showdown as Republicans try to deliver Mr. Trump’s agenda through the budget reconciliation process, another filibuster-free path for passing legislation.
Republican senators already steered around Ms. MacDonough in early April, when they chose to approve a budget blueprint that deemed the continuation of President Trump’s tax cuts as cost-free. Representatives for Mr. Thune did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“California’s authority and responsibility to regulate its own pollution is enshrined in federal law and has been repeatedly approved on a bipartisan basis, and reaffirmed by years of independent review,” Mr. Schiff said.
“We will fight this latest attack on California’s power to protect its own residents, and I will urge my colleagues in the Senate to recognize the severe implications of proceeding with this violation of states’ rights, as well as the dangerous precedent it would set by flouting the unanimous opinion of Congress’s trusted arbiters,” he said.
California has received hundreds of waivers over the years, and none had been presented to Congress for a vote until now.
Maya C. Miller contributed reporting.