House Republicans Target Gas Stove Regulations, Power of Administrative State

Blue flames rise from the burner of a natural gas stove in Orange, Calif., June 11, 2003. David McNew/Getty Images

After repeatedly failing to overturn Biden administration regulations in existing legislation, House Republicans are taking the next steps in their attempt to exert authority over the administrative state.

Lawmakers discussed a series of bills intended to reach those ends during a June 5 Rules Committee hearing.

“The Constitution articulates where the laws are made. It’s here in Congress,” said Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) in his opening remarks.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), by contrast, said the proposals show that the House Republican majority “once again prioritizes right-wing culture wars over the American people.” Right-leaning ideology prioritizes individual liberty over the government intervention preferred by the left.

Stove Wars

Two of the four bills are specifically concerned with regulatory efforts directed at gas stoves. In recent months, both the Department of Energy and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have moved on those appliances.

One bill, the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, would prevent the CPSC from banning or substantially raising the price of gas stoves. That agency made a formal request for information related to gas stoves in March.

The other bill, dubbed the Save Our Stoves Act, would keep the Department of Energy from implementing a proposed energy efficiency rule for gas stoves.

Concerns about a ban were ignited in part by comments from CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr., to Bloomberg News in January.

“This is a hidden hazard. Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he said.

U.S. President Joe Biden posthumously awards the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Richard Trumka as Richard Trumka Jr. accepts, during a ceremony honoring 17 recipients, in the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 7, 2022. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Subsequent reporting by Fox News drew attention to an internal memorandum the commissioner circulated late last year, in which he argued for a gas stove ban.

“The need for gas stove regulation has reached a boiling point,” he wrote in the memo, which can be read here.

Fears of a federal gas stove ban are also influenced by emerging restrictions at the state and local levels.

In early May, New York passed a state budget that would phase out gas stoves in new construction.

“Everybody who has a gas stove–enjoy it. Keep your gas stove. But new buildings that are going up, they can go electric, they can do heat pumps,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a May 2 appearance on FOX 5’s “Good Day New York.”

Intentionally or not, the words echoed President Barack Obama’s famous promise that, under Obamacare, “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”

President Barack Obama speaks on health care at Faneuil Hall in Boston, Mass., on Oct. 30, 2013. Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Ninth Circuit overturned Berkeley, California’s similar gas stove ban in new buildings this April.

Their reasoning? It should be left to the federal government.

“By completely prohibiting the installation of natural gas piping within newly constructed buildings, the City of Berkeley has waded into a domain preempted by Congress,” Judge Patrick J. Bumatay ruled in an opinion that met with concurrences from two of his colleagues.

He was referring to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. The decision can be read here.

The June 5 Rules Committee hearing featured its share of sparring over possible limitations on gas stoves.

“Contrary to the rhetoric out there, the government is not coming for anybody’s gas stoves,” Scanlon said.

She said the two pieces of legislation House Republicans want to advance “work against requirements to ensure that newly manufactured gas stoves are healthy, safe, and energy-efficient.”

Cole was more critical.

“The White House wants to limit your ability to purchase and use gas stoves,” he said.

He noted that DoE’s proposal would take out about half of the gas cooking appliances now in the marketplace, according to its own analysis.

“My constituents are right to worry,” he said.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) during a hearing in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Dec. 18, 2017. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

REINS on Administrative State

The hearing also considered two bills meant to increase oversight of the administrative state–that is, the complex array of agencies and similar bodies primarily organized under the executive branch but sometimes considered an unofficial fourth branch of government.

One bill, known as the REINS Act, would require Congress to approve major regulations from agencies before they could take effect. “Major regulations” include those with an anticipated economic impact of $100 million or more per year.

The other, the Separation of Powers Restoration Act of 2023 (SOPRA), would subject proposed regulations to judicial scrutiny without deferring to the agency’s own internal review process.

Scanlon said REINS could “bring government operations to a grinding halt.” She asserted it might constitute a legislative veto. Such maneuvers have been unconstitutional since 1983 thanks to the Supreme Court case INS v. Chadha.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), speaks during the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law hearing on "Online Platforms and Market Power" in the Rayburn House office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 29, 2020. Mandel Ngan/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

“Congress already has multiple tools to shape agency rulemaking,” she said.

Scanlon and other Democrats emphasized the availability of other Congressional mechanisms to support their claim that the REINS Act is unnecessary. They cited the joint resolution of disapproval, a tool created by the Congressional Review Act that can allow both chambers to come together against a newly issued rule.

Yet, Republicans argued that recent history shows the ineffectiveness of that tool.

“Just in the 118th Congress, both the House and the Senate passed legislation to overturn the unlawful WOTUS [Waters of the United States] rule as issued by the EPA, to overturn the tariff repeal on solar panels made in China, and to overturn the radical ESG requirements issued by federal agencies. Yet each of those times, the President of the United States vetoed the actions of the House of Representatives and the Senate,” Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) said.

Hageman noted that the joint resolution of disapproval has only infrequently succeeded in overturning rules.

In the eyes of Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), that’s a good sign.

He said the low number of successful joint resolutions “is a testament to the validity and the virtue of the rules” coming from federal agencies.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) speaks during a House Judiciary Committee mark up hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on June 02, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Johnson said REINS and SOPRA “both represent efforts to dismantle and undermine the administrative process in different and dangerous ways that would frustrate the purpose of government and would put our constituents in harm’s way.”

“This is in keeping with the mastermind of the MAGA movement, Steve Bannon, who when he first came to power, stated that his goal was to destroy, or to deconstruct, the administrative state. And that is exactly what this legislation seeks to do,” he added.