Sponsors (3)
The bill trades stricter limits, transparency, and legislative oversight to curb growth in regulatory costs—benefiting small businesses and taxpayers—against greater risk of delayed or weakened health, safety, and environmental protections, shifted costs, added agency burden, and increased litigation.
Small businesses will face year-to-year caps on new unfunded regulatory costs, limiting how much new compliance expenses can rise and reducing the risk of sudden regulatory cost increases for small-business owners.
Taxpayers and the public gain more transparency and stronger oversight: OMB must publish agency and governmentwide cost limits and bases quickly, agencies must justify and notify OMB when rules would exceed limits, and Congress can block net-cost increases—together increasing accountability over regulatory cost growth.
The bill creates an OIRA Associate Administrator for regulatory budgeting, centralizing responsibility and oversight for enforcing the new cost limits and improving coordination across agencies.
Homeowners and local communities risk weakened, delayed, or blocked health, safety, and environmental protections when rules exceed preset cost ceilings, potentially harming public health and the environment.
State and local governments, as well as regulated businesses, may face political delays because allowing net increases requires Congressional joint resolutions, which can slow time-sensitive rulemaking and politicize regulatory decisions.
Regulated entities (including small businesses) and the public may bear shifted costs or reduced protections as agencies cut, delay, or scale back rules to remain under the caps, increasing private burdens or lowering standards.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires OMB to set annual governmentwide and agency ceilings on new unfunded regulatory costs and blocks rule increases unless Congress approves by joint resolution.
Official title: To require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to establish a limit for the total amount of additional unfunded regulatory costs that may be imposed in a fiscal year, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 8, 2025 by Pat Fallon · Last progress May 8, 2025
Requires the OMB Director to set an annual, governmentwide ceiling on new unfunded regulatory costs and to set matching agency-level ceilings. Agencies must propose their limits in advance; OMB must publish limits and bases quickly; agencies cannot finalize or let take effect rules that would cause net increases in unfunded regulatory costs unless Congress approves by joint resolution (and OMB may impose a default no‑increase limit until Congress acts). The Director can require agencies to reduce cumulative unfunded costs to offset increases during the year and must post reports on a designated website.