Stop any activity without clear current congressional authorization
What the document says“EPA should not conduct any ongoing or planned activity for which there is not clear and current congressional authorization”
The chapter asks for a tiered-down approach to cut costs, reduce full-time equivalent positions and eliminate duplicative programs, and says this shift should be communicated in the President's first budget request.
What the document actually says“EPA should not conduct any ongoing or planned activity for which there is not clear and current congressional authorization”
If Congress has not clearly approved a job, the EPA should not do it.
Congress tells the EPA what work to do. The book says some work was never approved. It says that work should stop.
Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Deregulatory Initiative
2025-02-19 · 90 FR 10583
Executive Order 14219 of February 19, 2025 directs every agency head, within 60 days, to review all regulations under the agency's jurisdiction and identify those based on anything other than the best reading of the underlying statutory authority and those implicating matters of social, political or economic significance that are not authorized by clear statutory authority, to send that list to the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for a unified agenda that seeks to rescind or modify them, and to generally de-prioritize enforcement of them. That is the test the passage sets. The fit breaks down in that the order reaches regulations rather than any ongoing or planned activity, so it does not touch programs, grants or staffing; it runs to all agencies rather than the EPA; it directs identification and proposed rescission rather than stopping the activity; and it says nothing about the reduction in full-time positions or the budget request the chapter attaches to the proposal.
The order tells each agency to find rules that lack clear backing in law. Those rules go on a list to be undone, and are put last for enforcement. The chapter's test was wider. It asked about all agency work, not just rules, and about staff and budget too.
Rescission of the Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and Motor Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards Under the Clean Air Act
2026-02-18 · 91 FR 7686
In the rule published February 18, 2026, the EPA rescinds the Administrator's 2009 findings of contribution and endangerment and repeals all greenhouse gas emission standards for light-duty, medium-duty and heavy-duty vehicles and engines, stating that section 202(a)(1) of the Clean Air Act does not authorize the agency to prescribe emission standards in response to global climate change concerns and that this reading is corroborated by the major questions doctrine. An agency ending an activity because it concludes the statute does not authorize it is the test the passage sets. The fit breaks down in that the rule applies that test to one set of standards under one Clean Air Act provision rather than across the agency, it is a rescission of rules rather than the agency-wide review the passage asks for, and only the rule's own summary is indexed here, so what the preamble says beyond that is not recorded on this site.
In a rule of February 18, 2026 the environment agency drops its 2009 climate findings. It also ends all greenhouse gas limits for cars and trucks. It says the law never gave it that power. But the rule covers one set of limits, not a check across the whole agency.