Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Midnight Rules Relief Act changes the Congressional Review Act so Congress may place more than one late-term federal rule into a single joint resolution of disapproval. The option applies only when the report for every included rule was submitted during the final year of a President's term. It also supplies the required resolving-clause format: the resolution lists each issuing agency and rule, and states that the listed rules have no force or effect. Under current procedure, resolutions ordinarily address rules individually. The bill changes how Congress may package and consider disapprovals; it does not itself repeal a named rule. A listed rule loses effect only if Congress passes the resolution and it becomes law.
Who Benefits and How
Congressional committees and legislative clerks benefit from the ability to process several qualifying final-year rules through one joint resolution instead of preparing and advancing a separate measure for each rule. Employers and regulated entities seeking repeal of late-term rules benefit from a procedure that can expose several rules to a single up-or-down legislative package and reduce the number of resolutions needed.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal agencies whose final-year rules are grouped in an enacted resolution face a greater risk that multiple rules will lose legal effect together rather than being considered one at a time. Workers, consumers, and other beneficiaries of targeted agency rules may lose several protections at once if an en bloc disapproval becomes law, while congressional staff must accurately identify every covered rule in the prescribed text.
Key Provisions
- Expands Congressional Review Act joint resolutions so one measure may contain multiple qualifying final-year rules.
- Limits the procedure to rules whose required reports were submitted during the final year of a President's term.
- Provides mandatory model language listing each agency and rule and declaring every listed rule to have no force or effect.
- Limits the bill's immediate effect to legislative procedure; no particular federal rule is disapproved by the bill itself.
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
Allow one Congressional Review Act joint resolution to disapprove multiple federal rules reported during the final year of a President's term.
Key Policy Areas
Government Operations, Regulatory Policy
Primary Purpose
Allow one Congressional Review Act joint resolution to disapprove multiple federal rules reported during the final year of a President's term.
Policy Domains
Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2025
Identified Gains
- Congressional committees and legislative clerks
- Regulated employers seeking rule disapproval
Identified Costs
- Federal regulatory agencies
- Workers and consumers protected by targeted rules
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
ReportedCommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be …
Mr. Johnson (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn, Ms. Lummis, Mr. Schmitt, …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security …
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Congressional committees handling rule disapproval, Congressional legislative clerks, Federal agencies issuing final-year rules
Positive-direction: Congressional committees handling rule disapproval
Negative-direction: Federal agencies issuing final-year rules
Beneficiaries of targeted agency rules, Entities regulated by final-year rules
Positive-direction: Entities regulated by final-year rules
Negative-direction: Beneficiaries of targeted agency rules
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "congress"
- → Congress acting through a Congressional Review Act joint resolution
- "issuing_agency"
- → Federal agency whose rule is listed in the resolution
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