Congressional Review Act Timeline

In INS v. Chadha, the Supreme Court struck down Congress’ first attempt to give itself the power to easily nullify a bureaucratic regulation it objects to.

The Congressional Review Act passed, enabling Congress to expeditiously nullify administrative rules that it finds unnecessary or unwise.

Agencies submitted 57,000+ rules to Congress, but there were just 72 joint resolutions of disapproval from Congress. Only one Congressional Review Act resolution became law and overturned a regulation.

Larkin and Gaziano released research that the Congressional Review Act can be used to strike down any formal or informal regulation by an agency that hasn’t been reported to Congress, going all the way back to 1996.

The Congressional Review Act was used to get rid of “midnight regulations” that were issued after Trump’s election, but before Obama left office.

The Congressional Review Act had been used by Trump and Congress to kill 14 regulations thus far. American people are saved $36.2 billion and 4.2 million hours of paperwork and hassle, according to the American Action Forum.

Larkin published an article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy explaining why the Congressional Review Act applies to a broad range of agency policy statements, guidance manuals, opinion letters, and the like, and why Congress and President Trump should work together to identify and nullify unwise rules that were never submitted to Congress as the Congressional Review Act requires. Paul J. Larkin, Jr., Reawakening the Congressional Review Act, 41 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 187 (2018)