Congress speeds up blocking late-term regulations with batch disapprovals
S. 164 — Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2025 · Filed by Ron Johnson (R-WI) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 21, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill amends the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to allow Congress to disapprove multiple 'midnight rules'—regulations issued during a President's final year in office—in a single joint resolution, rather than requiring separate votes on each rule. Currently, each rule requires its own disapproval resolution; this change bundles them together for efficiency.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a technical amendment to the CRA's procedural rules, enabling batch disapproval of midnight rules. It does not create new substantive policy; it changes how Congress votes on existing regulatory disapprovals.
What the text implies
- Bundling midnight rules may reduce individual scrutiny of each regulation—Congress votes once on a package rather than deliberating each rule separately, potentially obscuring controversial disapprovals within a larger batch.
- The change applies only to rules submitted during a President's final year, creating an asymmetry: only late-term regulations can be bundled, not those from earlier years.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who it affects
The bill creates a procedural efficiency that could benefit citizens by making it easier for Congress to block regulations it opposes—but the net effect depends entirely on which rules Congress chooses to disapprove. Bundling midnight rules may accelerate disapproval of consumer protections or environmental rules, or it may accelerate disapproval of industry-friendly deregulation.