WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado is pressing President Donald Trump to use NAFTA negotiations to transform federal rule-making in a way that could thwart future environmental protections and other proposed regulations.

The initiative, outlined in a letter Gardner and two fellow Senate Republicans sent Trump in mid-March, would use a retooled North American Free Trade Agreement to give Congress power it otherwise lacks: the ability to swat away any new federal regulation with an annual economic impact of at least $100 million.

At the same time, their plan — billed as a way keep the U.S. economically competitive — could help advance a port project in Oregon that would make it easier for Colorado energy producers to sell natural gas to overseas markets.

“It’s time to try a new and more innovative approach,” Gardner and fellow GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Steve Daines of Montana wrote in their letter to Trump.

Their proposal asks Trump to add a “competitiveness” chapter to NAFTA, which the Trump administration has been renegotiating with Canada and Mexico amid the president’s own threats to withdraw. That addition would streamline regulations, promote new infrastructure and — most significantly — put in place a long-sought Republican plan to limit the power of federal bureaucrats.

Specifically, Gardner and his two colleagues suggested that Trump revise the NAFTA treaty by adding a bill called the REINS Act, which would make it easier for Congress to torpedo major new regulations — and in the process shift power away from the executive branch.

Trump can more easily revise NAFTA, thanks to past law

The idea has hit a wall in Congress due to Democratic opposition in the Senate, but it could move forward through NAFTA because of the way Congress and the White House typically handle major trade deals.

“Taking this approach means that you could ratify your improved version of NAFTA before November of this year,” the three lawmakers wrote of their idea of inserting a competitiveness chapter into NAFTA. “And under the Trade Promotion Authority Act’s expedited procedures, we can avoid a filibuster and pass implementing legislation in the Senate with only 50 votes.”

Republicans control 51 seats in the Senate — not enough to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster if Democrats oppose a bill on party lines. But under legislation signed into law by then-President Barack Obama, Trump has a window to push through trade deals such as a revised NAFTA with a bare majority and no opportunity for Congress to amend them. (Trump in March asked Congress for an extension of that authority.)

Officials at the White House and the U.S. trade representative did not respond to requests for comment about the Cruz-Daines-Gardner proposal.

GOP urging president not to scuttle trade pact

But its timing is notable, given the ongoing, delicate dance between Trump and other Republicans over NAFTA.

Trump has called it the “worst trade deal ever made” and has threatened to withdraw from the 24-year-old agreement with Canada and Mexico, a move opposed by most Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 1, 2018

Trump excluded Canada and Mexico from tariffs he recently placed on steel and aluminum imports, but he set May 1 as an end date for that exemption – putting more pressure on NAFTA negotiations.

The “America first” sheen being promoted by Gardner, Cruz and Gaines, however, could give Trump more incentive to keep the U.S. on board.

“Part of our thinking was that (Trump) could modernize NAFTA by making the United States more competitive without the need to withdraw from NAFTA,” said Gardner, who added that he has spoken with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly about the idea.

“They were intrigued by it. I know there are people looking at it,” Gardner said. “This is a unique, sort of creative idea that’s never been contemplated before, so there’s got to be a lot of legwork before anything like this could be pursued by any administration.”

Implementing the REINS Act as part of NAFTA — and turning Congress into something of a regulatory gatekeeper — would be transformative.”

The measure, which passed the House in January 2017, has significant GOP support in the Senate, including from Gardner, a co-sponsor of its companion bill.

When analyzing a similar version of the measure in 2015, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that about 80 of these federal rules are issued annually, on topics ranging from mental health to the environment.

“Major rules published in recent years include rules that required warnings for cigarette packages and advertisements, set Medicare payment rates for inpatient psychiatric facilities, and established national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants from industrial, commercial and institutional boilers,” the CBO analysts wrote.

The possibility of the REINS Act becoming law as a part of NAFTA has set off alarm bells in the environmental community, which sees the effort as a backdoor effort to neuter protections.

“Their version of competitiveness is that we gut our regulations that were democratically enacted to protect workers and the environment,” said Ben Beachy of the Sierra Club.

Colorado energy sector could benefit

The addition of the REINS Act — or an alternative called the Regulatory Accountability Act — are only part of what Gardner and his two Republican colleagues suggested that Trump include as part of any NAFTA redux.

They also called for a streamlining of the permitting process and an infrastructure initiative that would enable the “swift movement of cargo from the heartland to and through our borders and ports.”

Environmentalists and energy officials said one project that could benefit from the slate of changes proposed by the three senators is a multibillion-dollar port initiative in Oregon known as Jordan Cove.

The proposed liquefied natural gas terminal would make it easier for Colorado energy companies to sell natural gas to markets in Asia and beyond, supporters said.

The Rocky Mountain area, including the Piceance Basin region of western Colorado, is “the only large producing region of our country that doesn’t have direct access to an overseas market,” said David Ludlam, executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

The project is opposed by some environmental groups and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., but it has the support of Republican leaders and a number of Colorado Democrats – including Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

Its application was rejected in 2016 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but its backers are trying again — and they say the Cruz-Daines-Gardner proposal would make it easier for this project and others like it to get approval.

“I really like it,” Western Energy Alliance president Kathleen Sgamma said of the senators’ plan. “It certainly resonates where the oil and natural gas industry’s head is at.”

Ludlam said approval of Jordan Cove could prompt an uptick in extraction of natural gas in the Piceance Basin, although that change probably wouldn’t affect in-state prices.

The potential for more drilling has worried local environmentalists.

“The past has shown that additional drilling creates a slate of environmental problems like degradation of mule deer and sage grouse habitat and air pollution, not to mention forcing West Slope communities to continue to rely on the boom-bust fossil fuel economy,” said Jessica Goad of Conservation Colorado.

Gardner — who has received more than $1.1 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas sector over the course of his congressional career, according to Center for Responsive Politics — said the goal is to help the U.S. better assert itself on the global stage.

“It’s about competitiveness. It’s about making America competitive again,” he said. “Regulations create an economic drag on our competitiveness — especially when they’re onerous and overly restrictive.”

Staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.