Sponsors
The bill aims to reduce regulatory burdens and clarify which agency rules are subject to review, but it increases the risk that health, safety, environmental protections and public accountability will lapse or become harder to enforce unless agencies act promptly.
Federal energy and land agencies and regulated energy/mining/offshore companies get a clearer, narrower definition of which agency rules are covered (down to parts/subparts/provisions), reducing ambiguity about regulatory scope.
Businesses and individuals (especially small businesses) face fewer or simpler regulations, lowering compliance costs and administrative burdens.
Taxpayers and small businesses gain more opportunity for input because agencies must solicit public comment before extending rules, increasing transparency about regulatory costs and benefits.
Workers, consumers, and the public risk losing health, safety, or consumer protections if agencies do not timely extend rules before automatic expirations.
Businesses and state governments face regulatory uncertainty from widespread, automatic expirations of rules, complicating long-term planning and investment decisions.
Federal agencies and state governments will incur substantial administrative burdens to review, amend, and track near-universal sunsets within tight deadlines, diverting staff and resources.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Most DOE, Interior, and FERC regulations must automatically expire on a set timetable unless affirmatively renewed after public comment or certified as deregulatory.
Introduced July 24, 2025 by James Risch · Last progress July 24, 2025
Requires most energy-related federal regulations issued by DOE, several Interior bureaus, and FERC to automatically expire on a fixed timetable unless the agency actively renews them. Agencies must amend existing covered rules promptly so they expire (typically one year after amendment), and new rules generally expire within five years unless certified as net deregulatory; extensions require public comment and a written agency determination. The bill forces routine regulatory "sunsets," limits private causes of action under the law, preserves existing executive authority, and creates procedures for agencies to extend or remove regulations; failure to extend means a regulation ceases to have legal effect and must be removed from the CFR.