Sponsors (3)
The bill increases congressional oversight, transparency, and predictable review of regulations—potentially lowering long-term regulatory burdens—at the cost of creating new risks of policy gaps, legal and market uncertainty, administrative burden, and politicization that could let important protections lapse or disrupt enforcement if reauthorization processes fail.
Taxpayers, small-business owners, federal employees, and other stakeholders gain stronger congressional oversight and transparency because agencies must periodically justify expiring major rules, send reauthorization reports to Congress, and publish those reports for public review.
Small-business owners and regulated entities get clearer end-dates and predictable review timelines for covered rules, which can reduce long-term compliance uncertainty and lower regulatory burden when rules are updated or allowed to expire.
The bill preserves agencies' ability to act quickly on emergencies, military/foreign-affairs, and criminal-enforcement matters and excludes internal organization/management/personnel rules from the sunset process, limiting disruption to critical national security, law-enforcement, and internal administrative functions.
All Americans (taxpayers, consumers, communities) face a substantial risk that environmental, safety, consumer-protection, or other public-health safeguards could lapse after the fixed sunset period unless Congress affirmatively reauthorizes them.
Small businesses, regulated entities, and the public could face increased legal and market uncertainty and planning disruption if rules automatically expire or are left in limbo, harming investment and compliance planning.
Shifting substantive policymaking and technical review from agencies to Congress increases legislative workload and raises the risk of delayed renewals or policy gaps if Congress does not act in time, disrupting programs and compliance.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Most new federal rules expire five years after their effective date unless Congress reauthorizes them; agencies must request reauthorization a year before sunset and publish the request.
Introduced February 12, 2025 by Marlin A. Stutzman · Last progress February 12, 2025
Requires most new federal regulations to automatically expire five years after their effective date unless Congress affirmatively reauthorizes them. Agencies must submit a written reauthorization request to Congress at least one year before a rule's sunset date, publish that request, and may bundle multiple requests; certain categories of rules (e.g., emergency rules, military/foreign affairs, criminal-law enforcement, internal personnel/organization rules, and rules from formal adjudication) are excluded.