Sponsors (13)
This bill makes it easier and faster for Congress to overturn multiple last‑minute major rules with a single CRA resolution, improving congressional oversight but risking bundled, all‑or‑nothing votes that increase uncertainty and reduce granular control over individual regulations.
Congress (and federal oversight) can combine multiple major rules finalized in a President's final year into a single Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution, making it faster to review and potentially reverse last‑minute rules.
Taxpayers, state and local governments, and regulated parties are more likely to see last‑minute major rules receive timely congressional review, reducing the chance that agencies lock in major policies without legislative input.
Federal employees, congressional staff, and taxpayers could face lower administrative burden because related last‑minute rules can be handled with a single CRA vote instead of multiple separate motions.
Congress, state and local governments could be forced into all‑or‑nothing votes on bundles of unrelated rules, limiting granular decision‑making and preventing targeted fixes or selective approval.
Small businesses, state and local governments, and other regulated entities may face increased regulatory uncertainty because a single bundled CRA resolution can change the status of many unrelated regulations at once.
Taxpayers and small businesses could experience greater legal and policy instability around rules issued in a President's final year as expanded procedural tools make reversal of multiple rules more likely.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands Congress's ability under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to use a single joint resolution of disapproval to target more than one rule that an agency submitted during a President's final year, and makes related technical changes to CRA timing/procedures. The change is aimed at rules finalized near the end of a presidential term (so-called “midnight rules”) and alters how Congress and agencies handle disapproval under existing CRA deadlines and paperwork. The legislation does not create new programs or spending; it changes which agency rules may be bundled in a single CRA disapproval and adjusts statutory text that governs CRA procedures. That will affect federal agencies, regulated entities, state and local governments, and how quickly agencies finalize or submit rules late in a presidency.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress February 13, 2025