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House passes bill for year-round E15 ethanol fuel sales, splitting Republicans

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by Emily Brooks - 05/13/26 6:47 PM ET

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by Emily Brooks - 05/13/26 6:47 PM ET

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The House on Wednesday passed a bill to codify year-round sales of E15 ethanol fuel, a major win for members from corn-producing states but one that drew fierce opposition from other Republicans.

The vote was 218-203, with 122 Republicans, 95 Democrats and 1 independent voting in favor, and 90 Republicans and 113 Democrats opposing the bill.

It also split the votes of Republican leadership. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) voted against the bill, while House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) voted in favor.

Sales of E15, a fuel blend with 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline, have been typically restricted for parts of the year due to smog concerns, though President Trump has used executive action to allow E15 sales this summer.

“Anybody who’s from Ag state, this is a huge win for them,” said Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), one of the main advocates for the bill. “We’re helping keep domestic energy successful, and we’re helping family farms.”

“I appreciate that we can have differences in the Republican Party and still allow members to vote their districts,” Nunn added.

In a highly unusual move reflecting how tense the issue is among Republicans, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), an opponent of year-round E15, called for a motion to recommit on the bill and send it back to committee, effectively killing the bill. That procedure is typically utilized by the minority party and normally results in a party-line vote, but on Wednesday split both parties, even as it failed 112-309.

While the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, the House passage and floor action itself was a long-sought milestone for Republicans from agricultural, corn-producing states.

The stand-alone vote was also a resolution to intraparty turmoil that had complicated passage of the Farm Bill last month. As a way to get Republicans on board with a slate of other measures, House Republican leaders made a late-stage move to tie a year-round E15 bill to the Farm Bill.

But that led to discontent from Republicans representing oil-producing states, who had concerns about how the legislation would affect small refineries, who later held up the legislation until an agreement could be reached to decouple the two. The House formally passed a procedural rule decoupling the measures earlier on Wednesday.

Opponents have slammed E15 as a gift to the ethanol lobby. Perry and Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote in an op-ed for The Hill last week that E15 is a “Trojan horse to expand one of the most costly and destructive federal mandates in U.S. history: the Renewable Fuel Standard.”

But E15 advocates argue that the fuel helps relieve prices at the gas pump, which have spiked amid the Iran war and helped drive inflation to the highest rate in three years in April.

Debate was also somewhat heated in a Wednesday morning House GOP conference meeting, according to Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who supports year-round E15 — calling arguments from his colleagues that E15 would lead to higher gas prices “gobbledygook.” Nunn argued that E15 fuel options help lower gas costs.

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