EXCLUSIVE — House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) is adding to efforts from Republicans to hobble the administrative state with new legislation that would sunset major rules after a decade.
The bill, dubbed the Sunset Act, will be introduced by Emmer on Monday. The legislation would require all major rules to expire 10 years after they are enacted unless approved by both chambers of Congress under a joint resolution.
Major rules are ones that the Office of Management and Budget determines have economic effects in excess of $100 million. The bill is part of a broader push by the GOP to dial back the federal bureaucracy and administrative state, an effort that has risen as a priority in light of rulemaking by the Biden administration that Republicans deem excessive.
“The Biden administration has weaponized their administrative state using major rules which can languish on the books and potentially eat up billions of taxpayer dollars,” Emmer told the Washington Examiner. “It’s time to hold these agencies accountable and ensure that the American people, not bureaucrats in Washington, have their hands on the wheel.”
Additionally, the legislation requires federal agencies to submit reports alerting Congress about pending expirations of rules at least 180 days before one expires.
The bill allows a mechanism for the president to issue executive orders to exempt rules that are deemed necessary due to an imminent threat to the health or safety of the country, for the enforcement of criminal law, or for national security. But if the president deems a rule necessary, Congress must approve of that within 30 days.
Conservative groups are expected to support the measure. In a statement, the Heritage Action praised the move.
“As the size of the federal government has ballooned, the freedoms of everyday Americans have been crushed by overbearing regulations and out-of-control spending,” said Heritage Action Executive Vice President Ryan Walker. “Rules that impact voters’ daily lives and cost taxpayers billions of dollars shouldn’t exist in perpetuity without congressional approval.”
The latest Republican foray into curbing the administrative state follows legislation introduced by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) last year, the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny, or REINS, Act.
That legislation targets rulemaking from the executive branch and would mandate that every new major rule proposed by federal agencies be approved by the House and Senate before going into effect.
Cammack said her bill is designed to hand back to Congress its Article 1 authority to legislate the proposed rules and regulations that meet the criteria for major changes. She said during an interview last year that giving Congress that power is particularly important now because the “hyperpartisan” Biden administration has been using rulemaking so aggressively.
As an example of regulation that could be affected, the Labor Department last year implemented a rule that would allow retirement plan managers to consider environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, factors when making investments. The rule allows, though doesn’t require, fiduciaries to weigh ESG factors when making investment decisions for U.S. retirement accounts.
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Congressional Republicans attempted to override the ESG rule and even got some Democratic support in their effort. The Senate voted 50-46 to rescind the rule, with backing from centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT). The House voted 216-204 to pass the rollback, with Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) being the sole Democratic defector in the lower chamber.
But President Joe Biden then vetoed the override, and there wasn’t enough support in Congress to overturn Biden’s decision, meaning the Labor Department rule moved forward.
