Sponsors (94)
Official title: To amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide that major rules of the executive branch shall have no force or effect unless a joint resolution of approval is enacted into law.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Kat Cammack · Last progress January 3, 2025
The bill increases congressional oversight and budget transparency around major rules and gives policymakers clearer data on regulatory costs, but it does so at the risk of slower rule implementation, greater politicization of technically driven decisions, and added economic and planning uncertainty.
All Americans (taxpayers) gain more direct legislative oversight and public accountability because Congress would vote on significant federal rules before they take effect.
Taxpayers, state and local governments, and budget committees get more transparent and consistent budget projections because CBO and OMB must include the effects of rules subject to the §802 approval process in baseline scoring.
Taxpayers, regulated entities, and subnational governments receive clearer, consolidated data on the stock and estimated economic costs of federal rules, which can improve oversight, compliance planning, and policy debates.
Taxpayers and the public could face slower or blocked implementation of regulations, delaying consumer protections, health/safety safeguards, or services that rely on agency rules.
Federal agencies, employees, and regulated parties risk increased politicization of technical rulemaking and budget scoring, which can undermine agency expertise and enable strategic or partisan efforts to weaken protections.
Businesses, individuals, and taxpayers may face greater economic and legal uncertainty — including disrupted planning and volatile market expectations — if rules are delayed, blocked, or treated inconsistently in budget baselines, and projected deficits are altered by baseline assumptions about rules.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires congressional approval for covered agency rules, changes baseline scoring for such rules, and orders a GAO inventory and cost estimate of existing federal rules.
Requires congressional approval for agency rules through a revised congressional-review procedure, updates budget scoring assumptions for rules that would be subject to that approval process, and orders a GAO study measuring the number and estimated economic cost of existing federal rules. The bill aims to increase legislative oversight of regulation, change how rule impacts are treated in budget baselines, and quantify the regulatory stock and its costs for Congress within one year.