Rules resulting in a major increase in costs or prices, including for geographic regions would be subject to Congressional approval. Image: Orhan Cam/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe House has passed HR-277, which would broaden the process in which Congress can review and disapprove of “major” agency rules, by requiring affirmative congressional approval before such a rule could take effect.
Under the Congressional Review Act such a rule takes effect unless the Congress enacts a joint resolution of disapproval but that law contains a “design flaw,” says the report on the bill, because the President must consent to blocking a rule being made by his own administration. The result is that just 20 agency rules have been overturned under that law since it was enacted in 1996, it says.
Under the bill, the standards for rules that would need congressional approval first would be the same as for rules subject to disapproval under the CRA—those that involve “an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, government agencies, or geographic regions; or significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or the ability of U.S.-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises.”
Such a rule—it’s estimated there are about 100 a year meeting those standards—would take effect by default if Congress did not block it within 70 working days; that could be a number of months. There would be an exception for rules to temporarily take effect if the White House declares them necessary for health, safety or security reasons.
The White House threatened a veto if the bill were to clear the Senate, saying it “would undermine agencies’ efforts by inserting into the regulatory process an unwieldy, unnecessary, and time-consuming hurdle that would prevent implementation of critical safeguards that protect public safety, grow our economy, and advance the public interest.”
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