Time Running Out for Congress to Undo Biden Executive Actions

In the final weeks of the Biden administration, the White House and executive agencies unleashed a torrent of liberal rules and regulations designed to slow down and frustrate the implementation of President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. Congressional Republicans have a powerful tool to block these changes – but only for a limited time.

It’s called the Congressional Review Act (CRA). This 1996 law, an outgrowth of former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” requires all agencies to provide Congress with a report on every “major” new rule or regulation. While agency rules do not go through Congress and are typically difficult to overturn in court, they often carry the force of law. The CRA strengthens congressional oversight by allowing Congress to block a rule’s implementation with a simple majority vote on a joint resolution of disapproval.

That resolution must be introduced within 60 legislative days in the House and 60 session days in the Senate of when the rule is published in the Federal Register and received by Congress. However, an important caveat in the CRA resets that window at the start of a new Congress.

In other words, when the new Republican-controlled Congress was seated on January 3, a fresh 60-legislative-day clock began for rules finalized on or after August 16, 2024. While the exact deadline for passing a disapproval resolution depends on the congressional calendar, this special “lookback period” is expected to conclude around late March in the House and late May or early June in the Senate.

Utilizing the CRA offers distinct advantages over simply reversing Biden-era rules and regulations via executive action. If the Trump administration were to try to unwind agency rules, it would take months or even years of burdensome notice-and-comment periods. During that time, the Biden rules would remain in place.

Additionally, once a rule is repealed via the CRA, the issuing agency is barred from enacting a “substantially similar” rule without explicit congressional approval, preventing bureaucrats from simply reintroducing the same regulation under a different name in the future.

Congressional Republicans have already introduced 34 disapproval resolutions under the CRA, with five passed through the House and four through the Senate. According to an American Action Forum tracker, reversing the rules in question could save taxpayers more than $135 billion.

One resolution arriving on President Trump’s desk awaiting a signature, H.J.Res.35, eliminates an Environmental Protection Agency rule that forces oil and natural gas companies to pay exorbitant fees based on their waste emissions – effectively a carbon tax. These fees, an estimated $460 million annually, have driven up costs for consumers.

Another rule on the chopping block requires ludicrously strict efficiency standards for appliance manufacturers. “This rule applies to pool heaters, dishwashers, residential clothes washers, battery chargers, and lightbulbs, among other items, and will impact all Americans,” the Trump Office of Management and Budget said in a post on X. “The administration is committed to reducing regulatory burdens on American businesses and consumers, and this misguided rule imposes significant new costs each year.”

Another CRA resolution, introduced by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) reverses a last-minute Biden EPA rule which created new requirements for the tire manufacturing industry, forcing manufacturers to install expensive new equipment in factories. The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association wrote in a letter to House leadership that the rule “[imposes] a significant financial burden while providing negligible reductions in the already minimal hazardous air pollutants.”

S.J.Res.11 takes aim at a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) rule which gives that agency arbitrary power to decide whether there is an “archaeological interest” on potential seafloor drilling sites. Under the provisions of that regulation, oil and gas companies are forced to submit expensive archaeological reports for every proposed seafloor drilling site. BOEM bureaucrats can then approve or deny applications at will.

In some cases, CRA votes have even been bipartisan. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 70-27, with 17 Democrats in favor, to overturn a Biden administration rule placing added IRS reporting burdens on cryptocurrency platforms.

A flurry of other disapproval resolutions are currently pending before the House and Senate, with more expected in the coming days and weeks. But with other major priorities like government funding also looming, Congress must act quickly to avoid missing CRA’s window to block the Biden administration’s rules.

One powerful legislative tool that could expedite the CRA process is currently sitting in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. On February 12, the House passed a measure entitled the Midnight Rules Relief Act, which allows either the House or the Senate to bundle multiple disapproval resolutions together in a package that can then be passed with a single vote.

If the Senate can pass this bill, it would dramatically increase Republicans’ chances of blocking all of the Biden administration’s last-minute regulations before the 60-day window runs out. With hundreds of billions of dollars in regulatory costs and significant portions of President Trump’s agenda hanging in the balance, there is no room for error.

Kamden Mulder is a senior at Hillsdale College pursuing a degree in American Studies and Journalism. You can follow her on X @kamdenmulder_.