Congressional Review Act

[7] In January 2017, with a new Republican president (Donald Trump), the Republican-controlled 115th Congress began passing a series of disapproval resolutions to overturn a variety of rules issued under the Obama administration.

If the committee to which a joint resolution is referred has not reported it within 20 calendar days after the rule is received by Congress and published in the Federal Register, the committee may be discharged from further consideration by a written petition of 30 Senators, when the measure is placed on the calendar, and it is in order at any time for a Senator to move to proceed to the joint resolution.

[12] The CRA emerged as an attractive tool in the 115th Congress because it provides one of the few avenues for Senate action that avoids the ordinary 60-vote cloture requirement.

[7] A variation on the idea was pursued later in the 115th Congress by Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), who was looking for additional deregulatory pathways.

Toomey has criticized government regulators for "regulat[ing] by guidance rather than through the process they're supposed to use, which is the Administrative Procedure Act" and has argued that an official determination that a particular piece of guidance "rises to the significance of being a rule" would mean that "from that moment the clock starts on the CRA opportunity".

[13][15] Other possible applications are already being explored, including a 2016 plan from the Bureau of Land Management, which the GAO confirmed was a rule for CRA purposes in response to a request from Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

57 could prove to be a Pandora's box, setting a dangerous precedent and calling into question the legitimacy of many other rules in a way could create a climate of uncertainty and jeopardy for those who have been following or relying on them.

[17] Despite its passage in 1996, the Congressional Review Act was not used to send any resolutions of disapproval to the President's desk during the remainder of the Clinton administration.

[19] At the White House, Andrew Bremberg, Marc Short, and Rick Dearborn coordinated with aides of Senator Mitch McConnell to use the CRA, creating an Excel spreadsheet of target regulations, eventually being able to eliminate over twice as many as they had anticipated.

[14] The following is a complete list of successful uses of the CRA, as of June 30, 2021: The following joint resolutions has been passed by the House of Representatives in the 118th Congress and is awaiting consideration by the Senate.