Sponsors
The bill increases transparency and aims to reduce regulatory costs by forcing agencies to estimate rule costs and offset them by repealing other rules, but it risks eliminating or delaying beneficial protections and creating new legal and administrative burdens.
Taxpayers and regulated parties will get clearer upfront cost estimates because federal agencies must estimate major-rule costs before issuing them, increasing transparency and predictability.
Small businesses and the public gain more notice and accountability because the bill expands the definition of “rule” to include guidance and interpretive rules, bringing more agency actions into formal rulemaking processes.
Small-business owners and middle-class families could face lower net regulatory burdens over time if agencies identify and repeal offsetting rules when issuing costly major rules, reducing compliance costs.
Middle-class families, small businesses, and taxpayers risk losing or seeing delayed access to important protections and services because agencies must repeal or offset existing rules to issue new costly major rules, which could eliminate, delay, or block health, safety, or environmental safeguards.
State governments and small businesses may see needed regulations impeded because broad requirements to count public costs (including implementation/understanding costs) could be manipulated to overstate burdens and justify blocking new rules.
Federal employees and small businesses could face increased litigation and administrative workload as agencies rescind, reissue, or litigate over guidance reclassified as rules, which raises compliance costs and uncertainty.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires agencies to estimate major-rule costs, repeal existing rules to offset those costs, and state whether the rule is "budget neutral."
Introduced March 6, 2025 by Beth Van Duyne · Last progress March 6, 2025
Requires federal agency heads to estimate the public cost of any "major rule," identify existing agency rules that could be repealed to offset that cost, and repeal those rules before issuing the new rule. Agencies must publish with each major rule a statement saying whether the rule is "budget neutral," defined as the new rule's cost equaling the total public costs removed by the repealed rules. Expands the coverage of "rule" to capture interpretive rules, policy statements, and guidance documents (with limited exclusions), and defines "major rule" using economic thresholds and tests for significant adverse effects. The measure aims to force cost-offsetting repeals and increase cost transparency for major federal regulatory actions.