BRING IT ON: The time to review and kill hundreds of rules under the CRA has not yet begun. [archive]

In the first three months of the new administration, Congress and President Trump have killed 13 misguided, burdensome, and job-killing regulations that were sent to Congress near the end of Obama’s tenure. . . .

The 13 laws now forbid the respective agencies from ever issuing a “substantially similar” regulation like those disapproved again without subsequent authorization in law. . . .

The first issue that emerged after our theory was explained by Kimberley Strassel in her January 26 WSJ Potomac Watch column [archive] is whether there were many significant rules that were never sent to Congress. PLF and our partner organizations at RedTapeRollback.com [archive] have already uncovered many hundreds in a few months since we started looking. . . .

The most important remaining question is how the CRA, with its time-limited suspension of certain normal congressional procedures, could apply to rules that were originally published years ago. An examination of the statute, however, confirms that the first sentence of the CRA provides that “Before a rule can take effect” the issuing agency shall formally submit it to each house of Congress and GAO. So even if the rules were thought to be in effect before delivery to Congress, they weren’t lawfully in effect. . . .

Paul Larkin was the first to publish a thorough and careful explanation of why the expedited procedures to kill a covered rule under the CRA did not commence until it was formally submitted to Congress. We featured his scholarly paper [archive] . . .

Below is my own summation of the four reasons why the CRA special review procedures cannot run or expire before rules are submitted to Congress. Readers are invited to go on line and print the text of the CRA. [archive] Compare the analysis below to the Act’s text and you’ll then know why the agency’s failure to submit rules to Congress as the law requires will have consequences—and why the time to review and kill many hundreds of rules not previously sent to Congress under the CRA has not yet begun.