CRAMER: Midnight Rules Bill Streamlines Regulation Review of Outgoing Administration

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Kevin Cramer supported a bill passed by the House of Representatives today that allows regulations issued during the final legislative days of an outgoing President‘s administration to be disapproved as a group, instead of individually.

H.R. 21, the Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2017, amends the Congressional Review Act to allow Congress to issue joint resolutions of disapproval on regulations submitted for review within 60 days prior to the departure of an outgoing administration. Under this bill, regulations submitted by the Obama Administration since June 13, 2016, are eligible to be included in these joint resolutions of disapproval. The House passed an identical version of this legislation, H.R. 5982, in November.

“Midnight rules are regulations pushed through at the end of a President’s administration to extend his policies into the new administration,” said Cramer.  “As President Obama’s tenure draws to a close, this bill presents an efficient way to handle any midnight rules issued within a short period of time which could otherwise overwhelm Congress if their disapproval needed to be handled individually. It also allows Congress to move ahead more quickly with the legislative agenda of the new President and administration.”

“The Obama Administration has aggressively issued new rules throughout the past eight years, with an economic impact of more than $100 million per year,” said Cramer. “Unfortunately North Dakotans are among those most affected. Estimates are that there will be a minimum of $5.3 billion in economic impact from regulations that were planned to be finalized in the months of November and December alone.”

In addition to any new rules issued before President Obama leaves office on Jan. 20, Cramer said one issued since June that could be considered for disapproval strips certain Social Security beneficiaries of their Second Amendment rights without due process. Others that could be subject to review include the Stream Protection Rule; Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation; Cross-State Ozone Air Pollution Rule and Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium and Heavy Duty Engines and Vehicles; Revisions of Food Labeling of Nutrition and Supplement Facts, and Solid Waste Landfill Performance and Submission Guidelines.