S368-119

What This Bill Does

The Bureaucratic Limitation and Overreach Control Act (BLOCK Act) fundamentally restructures how federal regulations take effect. Currently, federal agencies can issue and implement regulations after a notice-and-comment period without explicit Congressional approval. This bill rewrites Chapter 8 of Title 5 (the Congressional Review Act) to require that "major rules" -- those with an annual compliance cost of $50 million or more as determined by the Comptroller General -- cannot take effect unless Congress affirmatively passes a joint resolution of approval. Nonmajor rules can take effect but are subject to a Congressional disapproval procedure. The bill also mandates retroactive review of all existing rules over a 5-year phase-in period, with rules that Congress does not reapprove losing legal force. Monetary policy rules by the Federal Reserve are exempted.

Who Benefits and How

Regulated industries broadly are the primary beneficiaries. Any industry subject to major federal regulations -- energy companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical manufacturers, chemical producers, telecommunications firms, manufacturers -- would benefit from a structural shift that makes it significantly harder for agencies to impose new compliance costs. Major rules would require affirmative Congressional votes to take effect, and Congress has limited floor time, creating a bottleneck that would slow or prevent many regulations. The retroactive review provision (Section 808) is particularly significant: all existing regulations must be reapproved by Congress within 5 years or they expire, which could eliminate hundreds of rules that industries have long opposed. Congressional leadership gains significant power over regulatory policy, as majority leaders control whether approval resolutions reach the floor. Industry lobbying and compliance consulting firms benefit from a process that shifts regulatory battles from technical agency proceedings to Congressional politics, where lobbying is more effective.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Federal regulatory agencies (EPA, FDA, SEC, OSHA, CFPB, etc.) lose their primary tool for implementing statutory mandates. Agencies would still draft rules but cannot implement them without Congressional approval, creating massive uncertainty in regulatory programs. Public health, environmental, consumer protection, and worker safety interests bear significant risk because regulations protecting them would be harder to enact and existing protections could lapse under the retroactive review. The Congressional schedule bears a procedural burden: the 30-session-day deadline and retroactive review of thousands of existing rules would consume enormous legislative bandwidth. The Comptroller General (GAO) bears a substantial new workload in classifying every rule as major or nonmajor and reporting to Congress on each one.

Key Provisions

• Major rules ($50M+ annual cost) require affirmative Congressional approval via joint resolution before taking effect (Section 801-802)
• The Comptroller General determines whether a rule is "major" based on the $50M annual compliance cost threshold (Section 804)
• Nonmajor rules take effect but are subject to Congressional disapproval resolutions (Section 803)
• The President may allow a major rule to take temporary effect for 15 session days for national security or disaster response (Section 801)
• Expedited parliamentary procedures prevent filibuster and require votes within defined timelines (Sections 802-803)
• No judicial review of Congressional determinations under this chapter, though courts can check procedural compliance (Section 805)
• Federal Reserve monetary policy rules are fully exempt (Section 806)
• Hunting, fishing, camping regulatory programs and emergency good-cause rules may take immediate effect (Section 807)
• All existing rules must be submitted for Congressional review over 5 years; unapproved rules expire (Section 808)
• Budget scoring must assume major rules are effective unless Congress fails to approve them (Section 3)