Sponsors (17)
The bill increases regulatory clarity and predictability by defining key terms and creating a public inventory and sunset schedule, but it does so at the cost of weaker near-term congressional oversight, risk of abrupt regulatory gaps and program disruption, and a potential entrenchment of judicial deference to agencies.
Regulated businesses, government contractors, and agencies: receive clearer statutory definitions (e.g., 'Chevron', 'sunset date', 'rule'), reducing legal uncertainty in administrative proceedings and rulemaking.
Taxpayers, regulated entities, and other stakeholders: can identify which agency rules will receive automatic sunset dates, enabling better planning for regulatory changes on a predictable timetable.
Federal employees and the public: gain a public GAO inventory of court decisions that upheld agency rules under Chevron, improving transparency about which rules rely on Chevron deference.
All Americans and Congress: reduce Congress's timely procedural check on specified agency rules (shorter window to disapprove), making it harder to reverse or block rules quickly and weakening legislative oversight.
Taxpayers, small businesses, and regulated parties: face sudden expirations of rules when GAO-imposed sunset dates take effect, creating regulatory gaps and short-term uncertainty for compliance and planning.
Beneficiaries of agency programs and enforcement targets: risk disruption to ongoing programs and enforcement tied to affected regulations if sunset dates or other changes interrupt implementation.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
GAO must list existing rules upheld under Chevron, assign chained 30‑day sunset dates per agency, and those listed rules are exempt from the CRA’s 60‑day disapproval filing window.
Requires the Government Accountability Office to list all existing federal rules that courts upheld by applying Chevron deference and to assign chained sunset dates so those rules expire in 30-day steps per agency, and it removes the 60-day Congressional Review Act disapproval window for those listed rules. The GAO must publish the list within 180 days of enactment; the rest of the CRA remains in force except the 60-day filing period for joint disapproval resolutions for listed rules.
Official title: To provide for the sunset of rules upheld based on Chevron deference.
Introduced January 9, 2025 by Mark E. Green · Last progress January 9, 2025