RESTART SUNSET Act of 2025

Summary

Requires federal agencies to review all regulations on a 10-year schedule, publish each year a list of rules that they say do not have a significant economic impact on many small businesses, and gives courts a mandatory power to bar enforcement of any rule the agency failed to review as required. Removes an earlier requirement for agencies to publish an initial plan within 180 days and replaces it with the periodic 10-year review framework and an annual transparency requirement.

• Replaces a prior 180-day initial planning requirement with a mandatory periodic-review framework for agency rules.
• Requires agencies to review all existing rules within 10 years of enactment and to review each new rule within 10 years of final publication.
• Directs agencies to publish annually in the Federal Register any rules they find do not significantly impact a substantial number of small entities, with an explanation.
• Gives federal courts a mandatory remedy: if an agency failed to comply with review duties, the court must bar enforcement of that rule.
• Applies to all federal agencies subject to 5 U.S.C. § 610 and to judicial review under 5 U.S.C. § 611(a).
• Increases transparency about small-entity impacts but raises administrative workload and recordkeeping demands for agencies.
• Likely to increase litigation risk and the possibility that rules could be rendered unenforceable for procedural noncompliance.
• Does not include new appropriations or changes to substantive policy standards; focuses on procedural review and enforcement remedies.