Congress quietly flips the switch on hundreds of regulations at once

What it does

This bill directs the Government Accountability Office to identify all federal regulations that were upheld in court because judges deferred to agency interpretations under the Chevron doctrine, then automatically terminates those rules on a staggered schedule—the most recent rule 30 days after publication, then each older rule 30 days after the one before it. It also exempts these rules from the normal Congressional Review Act 60-day window, allowing Congress to disapprove them without the usual time constraint.

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative function is to automatically sunset a broad class of existing regulations without requiring affirmative repeal—a mass deregulation device disguised as a procedural reform targeting a single judicial doctrine. It reverses the normal legislative burden: instead of Congress voting to repeal rules, Congress must vote to save them.

What the text implies

• The staggered 30-day sunset schedule creates a cascading termination event: rules expire in waves, potentially destabilizing regulatory regimes (e.g., environmental, financial, labor) that depend on multiple interlocking rules. Agencies cannot replace them quickly enough.
• The bill exempts these rules from the Congressional Review Act's 60-day window, meaning Congress has no standard procedural time to deliberate before rules vanish—the CRA normally gives Congress a fixed window to disapprove; this bill gives Congress a fixed window to approve, inverting the default.

The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.

Who stands to gain

fossil fuel and energy companies; financial services firms (banks, lenders, investment firms); pharmaceutical and healthcare companies