U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) introduced legislation Thursday that would permanently eliminate federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, arguing the program has strayed far from its original purpose and now functions as a backdoor electric vehicle mandate on automakers.

The Restoring Affordability in Automobile Manufacturing (RAAM) Act, introduced July 24, would end CAFE standards beginning with model year 2029. Crapo was joined by five co-sponsors: fellow Idaho Senator Jim Risch, Rick Scott of Florida, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, and Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma.

Background on CAFE Standards

Congress created the CAFE program in 1975 in response to the OPEC oil embargo, with the goal of improving the fuel efficiency of American passenger vehicles. The program has remained a fixture of federal energy and auto policy for more than five decades, though its scope and targets have expanded significantly over time.

Under targets set during the Biden administration, automakers would have been required to more than double average fleet-wide fuel economy across conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles within fewer than ten years — a pace critics argued was technically and economically unrealistic without a rapid shift toward electric vehicles.

President Trump reversed those Biden-era standards by executive order in 2025. Separately, the Working Families Tax Cuts legislation eliminated civil monetary penalties for CAFE noncompliance, further weakening the program’s enforcement mechanism.

Crapo’s Case for Elimination

Crapo contended the RAAM Act is needed to make the executive rollback permanent through statute, preventing future administrations from reinstating aggressive fuel economy targets. He has been vocal on the issue for years — in January 2024, he led a bicameral group of 120 Members of Congress urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to withdraw a proposed CAFE rule.

“The Biden-era CAFE standards turned an energy-security program into a de facto electric vehicle mandate, beyond Congress’s original intent,” Crapo said in a statement accompanying the bill’s introduction.

Co-sponsor Ricketts framed the issue in terms of consumer costs, saying that Biden-era fuel regulations impose burdens that limit what vehicles Americans can choose to buy while driving up prices. “Affordability is at the top of minds for Nebraskans,” Ricketts said.

Supporters of the bill argue that market forces — rather than federal mandates — should determine the pace of adoption for more fuel-efficient or alternative-energy vehicles. Automakers and consumers, they say, are better positioned than federal regulators to make those decisions.

What the Bill Would Do

The RAAM Act would remove CAFE standards from federal law entirely, with the elimination taking effect for model year 2029. That timeline would give automakers a window to adjust product planning and manufacturing commitments that are already underway.

The bill does not address EV tax credits or other incentive programs — its scope is limited to the fuel economy mandate structure that applies to conventionally powered fleets.

What Comes Next

The bill now heads to committee, where its prospects will depend on the Senate’s broader energy and regulatory agenda. Republican majorities in both chambers have shown appetite for unwinding Biden-era energy regulations, though a full statutory repeal of a fifty-year-old program represents a more significant step than executive action alone.

Crapo, who has represented Idaho in the Senate since 1999, chairs the Senate Finance Committee and carries considerable institutional influence in the chamber. That standing could help the RAAM Act advance further than similar past proposals.

The legislation fits within a broader pattern of the Idaho delegation pushing back on federal regulatory overreach. Congressman Russ Fulcher recently addressed federal land policy and other regulatory concerns during a telephone town hall with Idaho constituents, reflecting similar themes of reducing Washington’s footprint on economic decisions.

Whether Congress acts before the 2029 model year deadline — or whether the Trump administration’s executive actions are deemed sufficient — will shape the practical impact of the RAAM Act in the near term.