HR142-119

In Committee

Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2025

119th Congress Introduced Jan 3, 2025

Summary

What This Bill Does

The bill defines states the purpose of the REINS Act: to increase accountability and transparency in federal rulemaking by requiring Congressional votes on regulations, addressing what the bill characterizes as excessive, amends Chapter 8 of Title 5 USC to require federal agencies to publish supporting data and submit detailed reports to Congress and the Comptroller General before any rule can take effect, including cost-benefit analyses, and establishes detailed requirements for agency rule submissions to Congress: agencies must publish supporting data in Federal Register, submit reports with rule classification, related actions, and economic analyses. It relies on compliance mandates, definition changes, reporting requirements, and exemptions. The main policy areas are Finance, Agriculture, Energy, and Social Welfare.

Who Benefits and How

Congress could face reduced risk, Federal Reserve Board of Governors could face lower compliance burdens, and Federal Open Market Committee could face lower compliance burdens.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal regulatory agencies would take on compliance duties, Government Accountability Office would take on compliance duties, and Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) would take on compliance duties.

Key Provisions

  • Defines states the purpose of the REINS Act: to increase accountability and transparency in federal rulemaking by requiring Congressional votes on regulations, addressing what the bill characterizes as excessive...
  • Amends Chapter 8 of Title 5 USC to require federal agencies to publish supporting data and submit detailed reports to Congress and the Comptroller General before any rule can take effect, including cost-benefit analyses...
  • Establishes detailed requirements for agency rule submissions to Congress: agencies must publish supporting data in Federal Register, submit reports with rule classification, related actions, and economic analyses...
  • Creates mandatory Congressional approval procedure for major rules: requires joint resolution of approval before major rules take effect, with expedited floor procedures, strict timelines, and automatic committee...
  • Establishes Congressional disapproval procedure for nonmajor rules: allows Congress to nullify nonmajor rules through joint resolution within 60 days, with expedited Senate procedures and petition-based committee...

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

The bill defines states the purpose of the REINS Act: to increase accountability and transparency in federal rulemaking by requiring Congressional votes on regulations, addressing what the bill characterizes as excessive, amends Chapter 8 of Title 5 USC to require federal agencies to publish supporting data and submit detailed reports to Congress and the Comptroller General before any rule can take effect, including cost-benefit analyses, and establishes detailed requirements for agency rule submissions to Congress: agencies must publish supporting data in Federal Register, submit reports with rule classification, related actions, and economic analyses.

Key Policy Areas

Finance, Agriculture, Energy, Social Welfare

Primary Purpose

The bill defines states the purpose of the REINS Act: to increase accountability and transparency in federal rulemaking by requiring Congressional votes on regulations, addressing what the bill characterizes as excessive, amends Chapter 8 of Title 5 USC to require federal agencies to publish supporting data and submit detailed reports to Congress and the Comptroller General before any rule can take effect, including cost-benefit analyses, and establishes detailed requirements for agency rule submissions to Congress: agencies must publish supporting data in Federal Register, submit reports with rule classification, related actions, and economic analyses.

Policy Domains

Finance Agriculture Energy Social Welfare

Chapter 8 - Congressional Review

Identified Gains
  • Congress
  • Federal Reserve Board of Governors
  • Federal Open Market Committee
  • Fish and wildlife management agencies
  • Congress (legislative branch)
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
Congress: ,
Congress (legislative branch):
Federal Open Market Committee:
Federal Reserve Board of Governors:
Fish and wildlife management agencies:
Identified Costs
  • Federal regulatory agencies
  • Government Accountability Office
  • Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
  • Comptroller General (GAO)
  • Environmental advocacy groups
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: ih
Comptroller General (GAO):
Federal regulatory agencies: , , , ,
Environmental advocacy groups:
Government Accountability Office: ,
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA):

Legislative Progress

In Committee
Introduced Committee Passed
Jan 3, 2025

Mrs. Cammack (for herself, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, …

Jan 3, 2025

Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition …

Jan 3, 2025

Introduced in House

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

Government
12 mentions across 7 clauses
+4 positive -8 negative

Comptroller General, Congress, Congress (legislative branch)

Positive-direction: Congress, Congress (legislative branch), Federal courts

Negative-direction: Comptroller General, Federal regulatory agencies, Government Accountability Office

All Industries
5 mentions across 5 clauses
+5 positive

Businesses subject to federal regulation, Industries facing rules with 100M+ economic impact, Large corporations in heavily regulated industries

Advocacy Groups
3 mentions across 2 clauses
-3 negative

Consumer protection advocates, Environmental advocacy groups, Public interest litigants

Financial Services
2 mentions across 2 clauses
+2 positive

Financial markets, Financial services industry

Monetary Authorities
2 mentions across 1 clause
+2 positive

Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve Board of Governors

Oil & Gas
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Oil and gas industry

Fishing & Forestry
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Hunting and fishing industry

Amusement And Recreation
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Outdoor recreation businesses

10/12
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Finance Agriculture Energy Social Welfare
Actor Mappings
"federal_agency"
→ Any federal agency as defined in 5 USC 551(1)
"the_administrator"
→ Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
"the_comptroller_general"
→ Comptroller General of the United States (GAO)

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

4 terms
"Federal agency" §804(1)

Any agency as that term is defined in section 551(1) of title 5 USC

"major rule" §804(2)

Any rule, including an interim final rule, that has resulted in or is likely to result in: (A) an annual effect on the economy of \ million or more; (B) a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, Federal, State, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; or (C) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or the ability of United States-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises

"nonmajor rule" §804(3)

Any rule that is not a major rule

"rule" §804(4)

As defined in section 551, excluding rules of particular applicability, agency management/personnel rules, and agency organization/procedure rules that do not substantially affect non-agency parties

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology