By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted on Thursday to block California’s first-in-the nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, acting to kill the nation’s most aggressive effort to transition toward electric vehicles as President Donald Trump’s administration has doubled down on fossil fuels.

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The resolution approved by the Senate goes to the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it, along with two other measures blocking California’s rules that the Senate is poised to pass. The House approved the three resolutions earlier this month.

The GOP effort to kill the rules could have a profound impact on California’s longtime efforts to curb air pollution. The push comes after Senate Republicans established a new exception to the filibuster on Wednesday to allow them to weigh in on the issue.

California makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, giving it significant power to shape purchasing trends. Vehicles are one of the largest sources of planet-warming emissions.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state air regulators say that what Congress is doing is illegal and they will likely sue to keep the rules in place.

The two other resolutions would block rules to cut tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and curb smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks. Democrats charge that Republicans are acting at the behest of the oil and gas industry and they say California should be able to set its own standards after obtaining waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Republicans say the phaseout of gas-powered cars, along with other waivers that California has obtained from the EPA, is costly for consumers and manufacturers, puts pressure on the nation’s energy grid and has become a de facto nationwide electric vehicle mandate.

“The waivers in question allow California to implement a stringent electric vehicle mandate, which – given California’s size and the fact that a number of other states have signed on to California’s mandate – would end up not just affecting the state of California, but the whole country,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., before the vote.

Newsom, a Democrat, announced plans in 2020 to ban the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles within 15 years as part of an aggressive effort to lower emissions from the transportation sector. Plug-in hybrids and used gas cars could still be sold.

The Biden administration approved the state’s waiver to implement the standards in December, a month before Trump returned to office. The California rules are stricter than a Biden-era rule that tightens emissions standards but does not require sales of electric vehicles.

Biden’s EPA said in announcing the decision that opponents of the California waivers did not meet their legal burden to show how either the EV rule or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was inconsistent with the Clean Air Act.

Through a series of votes on Wednesday, Republicans set a new precedent for the Senate to reject the state EPA waivers with a simple majority vote, as opposed to the 60 vote threshold on legislation that is subject to a filibuster. The votes were a workaround that enabled them to hold the votes after the Senate parliamentarian agreed with the Government Accountability Office that California’s policies are not subject to the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows Congress to reject federal regulations under certain circumstances.

Democrats fought the changes, which were the latest attempt to chip away at the Senate filibuster after both parties have used their majorities in the past two decades to lower the threshold for nominations. Democrats tried in 2022 to roll back the filibuster for legislation, as well, but were thwarted by members of their own caucus who disagreed with the effort.

Republicans have insisted that they would not try a similar move after regaining the majority this year. But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the move to block California’s laws were a “point of no return” and called the Republicans “fair weather institutionalists.”

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs.

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U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out two plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trump’s goal to dismantle the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president’s campaign promises.

The injunction was requested in a lawsuit filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts and the American Federation of Teachers, along with other education groups.

In their lawsuit, the groups said the layoffs amounted to an illegal shutdown of the Education Department. They said it left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.

In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a “stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations.”

Layoffs of that scale, he added, “will likely cripple the Department.”

Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate federal workers who were terminated as part of the March 11 layoff announcement.

The Trump administration says the layoffs are aimed at efficiency, not a department shutdown. Trump has called for the closure of the agency but recognizes it must be carried out by Congress, the government said.

The administration said restructuring the agency “may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished” but it’s committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The probe is the third done at the request of public housing tenants who serve on the comptroller’s NYCHA Resident Audit Committee, in response to “complaints of a lack of transparency” about how funds are being doled out.

An out-of-service elevator at NYCHA’s Mitchel Houses in 2023. (Photo by Adi Talwar)

The NYC Comptroller’s Office will investigate how city funding for NYCHA is being doled out on capital projects—at the request of tenants who complained about “a lack of transparency” in how such funding is allocated, officials announced Thursday.

The probe is the third selected by public housing tenants who serve on the comptroller’s NYCHA Resident Audit Committee, and will examine the $3.18 billion in city money included the housing authority’s capital plan for fiscal years 2024-2028, which funds infrastructure upgrades and major repairs.

The audit will focus on what projects get earmarked for city funds, how NYCHA determined those allocations and what has been spent so far, Comptroller Brad Lander said in a press release.

“With delayed repairs and services comes increased scrutiny of how NYCHA is allocating and spending their money. Fortunately, NYCHA put forth a very detailed four-year Capital Plan that my office can dig into and assess if NYCHA is delivering for their tenants,” Lander, who is currently running for mayor, said in a statement.

The housing authority says it needs more than $78 billion to address outstanding repair needs across its developments over the next two decades.

Rev. Carmen Hernandez, a longtime tenant at NYCHA’s 1471-73 Watson Ave. who heads the resident council there and serves on the comptroller’s audit committee, said they want more clarity around how city funds are spent.

“We want to have transparency,” Hernandez said. “Each development should know where the money that’s coming to their development [is] and [what’s to] be fixed.”

She described filing work order tickets for repairs that get closed without fixes at her development, which she said has deteriorating brick work as well as mold and leaks.

Officials are currently negotiating the city’s budget for the next fiscal year that starts July 1, including resources for NYCHA, which is facing the possibility of dramatic federal funding cuts from the Trump administration.

At a City Council budget hearing last week, Shaan Mavani, NYCHA’s chief asset and capital management officer, said the housing authority weighs a number of factors when deciding how to allocate funds, including whether the money might be earmarked for specific purposes or programs. NYCHA is also under a federal monitorship that requires improvements in specific areas like heating, elevators, mold, leaks, and lead abatement.

“As we allocate funding, we look at a number of different data sources,” Mavani said. “The conditions of each site, the physical conditions, but also how much repairs we’re doing, how many work tickets residents are putting in, the type of repairs.”

The comptroller’s office said the findings of the upcoming audit should be complete by mid-to-late 2026.

Earlier investigations selected by the Comptroller’s NYCHA Resident Audit Committee looked into the housing authority’s repair processes, as well as how evictions are being carried out.

 To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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By ALEX VEIGA, Associated Press Business Writer

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in April, as elevated mortgage rates and rising prices discouraged prospective home buyers during what’s traditionally the busiest time of the year for the housing market.

Existing home sales dropped 0.5% last month from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. The sales decline marks the slowest sales pace for the month of April going back to 2009. March’s sales pace was also the slowest for that month going back to 2009.

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Sales fell 2% compared with April last year. The latest home sales fell slightly short of the 4.10 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.

Home prices increased on an annual basis for the 22nd consecutive month, although at a slower rate. The national median sales price rose 1.8% in April from a year earlier to $414,000, an all-time high for the month of April.

“The affordability condition is clearly hurting the market, particularly higher mortgage rates,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has remained relatively close to its high so far this year of just above 7%, which it set in mid-January. The average rate’s low point so far was five weeks ago, when it briefly dropped to 6.62%.

The elevated mortgage rates, which can add hundreds of dollars a month in costs for borrowers, have kept frozen out many would-be homebuyers, even as the inventory of homes on the market has risen sharply from last year.

There were 1.45 million unsold homes at the end of last month, a 9% increase from March, and 20.8% higher than April last year, NAR said.

That translates to a 4.4-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 3.5-month pace at the end of April last year. Traditionally, a 5- to 6-month supply is considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers.