“A bill to require congressional approval for rules that are expected to cost not less than $50,000,000 annually, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the Congressional Review Act (chapter 8 of title 5, U.S. Code) to require a joint resolution of congressional approval for major rules to take effect (reversing the prior disapproval procedure), while authorizing a joint resolution of disapproval for nonmajor rules. It directs agencies to submit enhanced reports to Congress and the Comptroller General prior to a rule's effective date, including the rule text, cost-benefit analysis (with jobs impacts distinguishing public and private sectors), inflation effects, related regulatory actions and their economic effects, Unfunded Mandates Reform Act compliance, and constitutional authority; requires the Comptroller General to assess within 15 calendar days whether a rule is major or nonmajor, agency procedural compliance, and any new private-sector limits or mandates; and deems major rules not approved (and thus ineffective) if no approval resolution is enacted within 30 session or legislative days of congressional receipt (excluding periods of more than three days adjournment). The section further (1) authorizes a temporary 15-session-day effective period for major rules upon presidential determination of national security or disaster response needs (without altering approval procedures); and (2) provides for review of late-session rules (i.e., those submitted within 60 session/legislative days of adjournment) in the next Congress, treating them as newly submitted 15 days after that session convenes. (Thus, major rules generally cannot take effect without affirmative congressional action, potentially subjecting more rules to congressional veto.)
This section adds a new baseline assumption for direct spending and receipts under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 to treat any rule subject to the congressional review procedure of 5 U.S.C. §802 (i.e., Congressional Review Act) that affects budget authority, outlays, or receipts as effective unless not approved in accordance with that section. (As background, baselines are used by the Congressional Budget Office for budget enforcement mechanisms such as PAYGO scoring and sequestration triggers. Thus, this directs baseline projections to assume such agency rules take effect absent congressional disapproval.)