Congress moves to weaken air-pollution limits, restoring looser soot standards
H.R. 2288 — Common Sense Air Regulations Act · Filed by Buddy Carter (R-GA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 24, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill voids an EPA rule that tightened air-quality standards for particulate matter (soot and dust pollution). The rule, finalized in March 2024, had strengthened limits on how much fine particulate pollution the air can contain. By nullifying it, the bill restores the previous, looser standards—allowing higher levels of soot and dust in the air that Americans breathe.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to void a rule that strengthened air-quality standards. This is a direct deregulatory action, framed under a 'common sense' label that obscures the public-health cost.
What the text implies
- The bill's title ('Common Sense Air Regulations') inverts the actual effect: it removes regulations, not implements them. The framing suggests streamlining, but the operative text nullifies a protective rule.
- Particulate-matter standards are set by EPA based on peer-reviewed health science. Voiding the 2024 rule via Congress substitutes legislative judgment for scientific evidence—a reversal of the Administrative Procedure Act's fact-based rulemaking model.
- The prior standard (likely the 2012 NAAQS) was itself the product of decades of epidemiological research. Restoring it does not return to a 'baseline'—it freezes protection at an older scientific consensus while new evidence accumulates.
- States and municipalities that have invested in compliance infrastructure (transit, industrial controls, vehicle emissions programs) face regulatory uncertainty and potential stranded costs if the rule is later reinstated.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose air-quality protections. Particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) is linked to asthma, bronchitis, heart disease, and premature death—especially in children, elderly, and those with respiratory conditions. Restoring a weaker standard increases public health risk across the population.
Who stands to gain
- coal-fired power plants and fossil-fuel utilities
- heavy manufacturing and industrial facilities
- cement, steel, and chemical producers
- transportation and logistics companies
- oil and gas refineries
Named in the bill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), Federal Register (89 Fed. Reg. 16202), House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Republicans.
- Mar 24, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 24, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
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 3 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $54,660,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 254 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.
Buddy Carter, the sponsor, reported $992,325 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $54,660,000 on 3 filings
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 (417 characters) on Oct 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 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 Dec 2025 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 2026-10-31.
“Congress moves to weaken air-pollution limits, restoring looser soot standards” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr2288 Report an error
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