Congress blocks offshore drilling safety updates, favoring oil operators
H.J.Res. 57 — Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of the Interior relating to "Oil and Gas and Sulfur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf-High Pressure High Temperature Updates". · Filed by Andrew Clyde (R-GA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 12, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This resolution uses the Congressional Review Act to block a Department of Interior rule that updated safety and operational standards for high-pressure, high-temperature oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf. If passed, the rule would be nullified and cannot be re-issued in substantially the same form without new congressional authorization.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole function is to nullify a Department of Interior rule that updated safety and operational standards for offshore HPHT drilling. This is a straightforward deregulatory action using the Congressional Review Act mechanism.
What the text implies
- Voiding the rule prevents Interior from re-issuing substantially similar standards without explicit congressional approval, effectively locking in older operational standards for HPHT drilling.
- The CRA disapproval may signal congressional intent to block future Interior rulemaking in this domain, potentially chilling agency efforts to update standards based on new safety data or operational experience.
- Removal of updated HPHT standards may increase operational costs for safety compliance at the operator level, but reduces regulatory burden and potential liability exposure for non-compliance with newer rules.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The rule being blocked updated safety and operational standards for high-pressure, high-temperature offshore drilling. Voiding it removes those updated protections, returning to older standards and increasing operational risk to workers, coastal communities, and marine environments. The primary beneficiaries are oil and gas operators facing fewer regulatory constraints.
Who stands to gain
- offshore oil and gas operators
- deepwater drilling contractors
- oil and gas equipment suppliers
Named in the bill
Department of Interior, Outer Continental Shelf, HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) drilling, Congressional Review Act, 89 Fed. Reg. 71076
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- Feb 12, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 12, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,670,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 33 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Andrew Clyde, the sponsor, reported $122,592 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Chevron U.S.A. Inc. — $1,670,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,229 characters) on Jul 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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