GOP marks its success by flipping Obama-era rules

WASHINGTON — Final score: Republicans 14, Barack Obama’s last-minute regulations, one.

Congressional Republicans anxious to show voters they can get something done are hailing their reversal of more than a dozen Obama-era regulations on guns, the internet and the environment.

Over a few months, lawmakers used an obscure legislative rule to ram through changes that will have far-reaching implications for the coal industry, broadband customers, hunters and women seeking health care at Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

The deadline for scuttling the rules that Democrat Obama imposed during his final months in office was last Thursday. The 1996 Congressional Review Act had given Republicans the power to make the changes with a simple majority, within a set time.

While the rest of Washington focused on the furor over President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, Republicans were celebrating their effort to reverse the rules, arguing that it would boost the economy and make it easier for businesses to operate.

“I am almost speechless when I think about the success,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.

Senators pointed out that Congress had only once before used the legislative tools stemming from the Congressional Review Act to quash a regulation — until this year. In all, the GOP was able to reverse 14 regulations that had or will get Trump’s signature.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader in the Senate, argued that overturning rules passed at the end of the Obama administration hardly constituted an agenda. “The fact that they are bragging about these highlights how little else they have accomplished legislatively,” he said.

Republicans have a long way to go in their efforts to repeal and replace the health care law, cut taxes and boost infrastructure spending, all Trump priorities. Still, the GOP made clear soon after election victories in November that one of the first orders of business would be to go after Obama administration rules.

The effort has had strong backing from business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Rifle Association and prominent anti-abortion groups — all key constituencies that generally back Republican candidates.