On December 17, 2025, the House passed a bill with a friendly-sounding name — the Reliable Power Act — by a vote of 225 to 203. The name is about the only friendly thing about it.
Here is what the bill actually does. It rewrites the Federal Power Act so that whenever the grid's reliability watchdog flags a risk that the country could run short on electricity, the Environmental Protection Agency — and every other federal agency — has to hand its rules over to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission before those rules can take effect. And here's the kicker: the agency cannot finalize the rule until FERC decides it won't hurt the power supply. In plain English, a panel of energy regulators gets to stand in the way of clean-air and climate rules on power plants.
Why this matters to you
Power plants that burn coal and gas are some of the biggest sources of the pollution that lands in the air your kids breathe. For decades, the EPA has been the agency that tells those plants how much soot, mercury, and carbon they're allowed to dump on the rest of us. This bill hands another agency a way to block those protections before they ever start.
The League of Conservation Voters — which tracks how members of Congress vote on the environment — urged lawmakers to reject the bill, warning that it would give FERC "the over-reaching authority to suggest changes and block any rule from any other agency if it relates to any electricity generation resource." That's not a narrow fix. That's a veto over clean-air rules, dressed up as a reliability study.
It was written by Ohio's own Troy Balderson, with Texas's Randy Weber and North Dakota's Julie Fedorchak as the lead cosponsors. When the roll was called, every Republican on the floor voted yes — not a single Republican voted against it.
Who voted to block the clean-air rules
188 Republicans on this site's report cards voted for the Reliable Power Act. Here they are, grouped by state:
Alabama: Dale Strong, Gary Palmer, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt
Alaska: Nick Begich
Arizona: Abraham Hamadeh, Andy Biggs, David Schweikert, Eli Crane, Juan Ciscomani, Paul Gosar
Arkansas: Bruce Westerman, French Hill, Rick Crawford
California: David Valadao, Jay Obernolte, Ken Calvert, Kevin Kiley, Tom McClintock, Vince Fong, Young Kim
Colorado: Gabe Evans, Jeff Crank, Jeff Hurd, Lauren Boebert
Florida: Aaron Bean, Anna Paulina Luna, Brian Mast, Byron Donalds, Carlos Gimenez, Cory Mills, Greg Steube, Gus Bilirakis, Jimmy Patronis, John Rutherford, Kat Cammack, Laurel Lee, Maria Elvira Salazar, Mario Diaz-Balart, Mike Haridopolos, Randy Fine, Scott Franklin
Georgia: Andrew Clyde, Austin Scott, Brian Jack, Mike Collins, Rich McCormick, Rick Allen
Idaho: Mike Simpson, Russ Fulcher
Illinois: Darin LaHood, Mary Miller, Mike Bost
Indiana: Erin Houchin, Jefferson Shreve, Jim Baird, Mark Messmer, Marlin Stutzman, Rudy Yakym, Victoria Spartz
Iowa: Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Zach Nunn
Kansas: Derek Schmidt, Ron Estes, Tracey Mann
Kentucky: Andy Barr, Brett Guthrie, Hal Rogers, James Comer
Louisiana: Clay Higgins, Julia Letlow, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise
Maryland: Andy Harris
Michigan: Bill Huizenga, Jack Bergman, John James, John Moolenaar, Lisa McClain, Tim Walberg, Tom Barrett
Minnesota: Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber, Tom Emmer
Mississippi: Michael Guest, Mike Ezell, Trent Kelly
Missouri: Ann Wagner, Bob Onder, Eric Burlison, Jason Smith, Mark Alford
Montana: Troy Downing
Nebraska: Adrian Smith, Mike Flood
New Jersey: Chris Smith, Jeff Van Drew
New York: Andrew Garbarino, Claudia Tenney, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Nick Langworthy, Nicole Malliotakis
North Carolina: Addison McDowell, Brad Knott, Chuck Edwards, David Rouzer, Mark Harris, Pat Harrigan, Richard Hudson, Tim Moore, Virginia Foxx
North Dakota: Julie Fedorchak
Ohio: Bob Latta, David Joyce, David Taylor, Jim Jordan, Max Miller, Michael Rulli, Mike Carey, Mike Turner, Troy Balderson, Warren Davidson
Oklahoma: Frank Lucas, Josh Brecheen, Kevin Hern, Stephanie Bice, Tom Cole
Oregon: Cliff Bentz
Pennsylvania: Brian Fitzpatrick, Dan Meuser, Glenn Thompson, Guy Reschenthaler, John Joyce, Lloyd Smucker, Mike Kelly, Rob Bresnahan, Ryan Mackenzie, Scott Perry
South Carolina: Joe Wilson, Russell Fry, Sheri Biggs, William Timmons
Tennessee: Andy Ogles, Chuck Fleischmann, David Kustoff, Diana Harshbarger, John Rose, Matt Van Epps, Scott DesJarlais, Tim Burchett
Texas: August Pfluger, Beth Van Duyne, Brandon Gill, Brian Babin, Craig Goldman, Jake Ellzey, John Carter, Keith Self, Lance Gooden, Michael Cloud, Monica De La Cruz, Nathaniel Moran, Pat Fallon, Pete Sessions, Randy Weber, Roger Williams, Ronny Jackson
Utah: Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy, Mike Kennedy
Virginia: Ben Cline, Jen Kiggans, John McGuire, Morgan Griffith, Rob Wittman
Washington: Michael Baumgartner
West Virginia: Carol Miller, Riley Moore
Wisconsin: Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Glenn Grothman, Scott Fitzgerald, Tom Tiffany, Tony Wied
Wyoming: Harriet Hageman
The vote
None of this is our opinion about how they voted. It's the official record. You can read every name and every vote for yourself on the House Clerk's roll call for H.R. 3616, and the full text of the bill that spells out the new roadblock for clean-air rules. When your representative tells you they're looking out for the air you breathe, ask them why they voted to give a panel of energy regulators the power to stop the EPA from cleaning up the plants next door.
