Sponsors (2)
Official title: To impose certain limitations on consent decrees and settlement agreements by agencies that require the agencies to take regulatory action in accordance with the terms thereof, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 11, 2025 by Benjamin Cline · Last progress December 11, 2025
The bill increases public transparency, third‑party intervention rights, and judicial/accountability checks on agency consent decrees, but does so at the cost of significant new delays, administrative and litigation burdens, higher costs, and some limits on who can challenge agency actions or settlements.
State, local, and Tribal governments and the public gain meaningful opportunities to review, comment on, and access records for proposed agency consent decrees and settlements (60‑day publication, certified indexes, records availability), increasing transparency and public participation.
Courts and agency leaders face stronger accountability: courts must perform fresh, independent review of motions to modify consent decrees and agency heads/AGs must certify decrees that remove agency discretion or commit unappropriated funds, which raises scrutiny for major regulatory commitments.
State, local, and Tribal governments are presumptively given greater ability to intervene and influence settlements because courts are instructed to presume existing parties do not adequately represent intervenors’ interests.
Agencies will face longer delays and substantial new administrative burdens (60‑day notice, comment responses, record compilation, potential hearings) to finalize settlements, slowing implementation of operational or regulatory fixes.
Expanded public processes, additional intervenors, and heightened judicial review will increase litigation complexity and drive up litigation and administrative costs for agencies, litigants, and taxpayers.
Narrowing the definitions of covered actions and who may challenge settlements could make it harder for some private parties and public‑interest groups to bring or sustain challenges to delayed or withheld agency rules, reducing outside oversight.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Requires public notice, comment, record disclosure, expanded intervenor access, and de novo court review before entering, modifying, or dismissing certain regulatory consent decrees or settlements.
Requires federal agencies and courts to follow new public notice, comment, participation, and record-disclosure procedures before entering, dismissing, or modifying consent decrees or settlement agreements in certain lawsuits that seek to compel agency regulatory action. It also creates a rebuttable presumption favoring intervention by outside parties, requires settlement negotiations to include prospective intervenors or occur before an impartial judge/ADR, and directs courts to apply fresh (de novo) review when an agency asks to modify a covered consent decree or settlement. The rules apply only to qualifying suits and agreements filed or proposed on or after the statute’s enactment.