Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2025
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The REINS Act fundamentally restructures the federal regulatory process by requiring Congress to vote on all major rules (those with $100M+ annual economic impact) before they can take effect. Without congressional approval within 70 session days, major rules are deemed disapproved. The bill also creates a regulatory budget limiting agencies' net regulatory costs, requires all guidance documents to be published online, and establishes a 10-year sunset for major rules requiring congressional renewal.
Who Benefits and How
Businesses and regulated industries benefit from requiring congressional approval for costly regulations, gaining an additional veto point in the regulatory process. Small businesses benefit from the regulatory budget provisions limiting cumulative regulatory costs. Congress gains significant power over the regulatory process. The public gains transparency through mandatory online publication of all guidance documents.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal agencies lose the ability to implement major rules without explicit congressional approval and must track regulatory costs against budgets. Congress must vote on potentially hundreds of major rules annually within tight deadlines. GAO must produce reports on each major rule within 15 days. The President's emergency rule authority is limited to 90 days. Proponents of regulatory protections (environmental, health, safety, consumer) face an additional legislative hurdle.
Key Provisions
- Major rules require joint resolution of approval within 70 session/legislative days or they fail
- Regulatory budget limits net incremental regulatory costs for each agency annually
- Major rules sunset after 10 years unless Congress enacts joint resolution of extension
- All guidance documents must be published on a single designated website
- Private right of action to challenge agency determinations that rules are not major
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires congressional approval for major federal agency rules to take effect, establishes regulatory budgeting, mandates 10-year sunset for major rules, and requires publication of agency guidance documents.
Key Policy Areas
Regulatory Policy, Congressional Oversight, Administrative Law, Government Accountability
Primary Purpose
Requires congressional approval for major federal agency rules to take effect, establishes regulatory budgeting, mandates 10-year sunset for major rules, and requires publication of agency guidance documents.
Policy Domains
Chapter 8 - Congressional Review of Agency Rulemaking
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Regulated industries
- Small businesses
- Congress
- OIRA/OMB
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Federal regulatory agencies
- GAO (rule assessments)
- Congress (voting workload)
- Proponents of regulatory protections
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Paul (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn, Mrs. Britt, Mr. Budd, …
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.
Agencies issuing deregulatory actions, Congress, Congress (approval workload)
Congress faces effects in multiple directions
Positive-direction: Agencies issuing deregulatory actions, Congress (oversight), Federal Open Market Committee, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Federal courts, Fish and Wildlife agencies
Negative-direction: Congress (approval workload), Congress (disapproval procedures), Congress (extension votes), Congress (procedural requirements), Congress (review of existing rules), Congressional committees, Federal agencies, Federal agencies (classification burden), Federal agencies (guidance publication), Federal agencies issuing guidance, Federal agencies issuing nonmajor rules, Federal agencies promulgating rules, Federal agencies with existing major rules, Federal agencies with major rules, Federal district courts, Federal regulatory agencies, GAO/Comptroller General, OIRA Administrator, OMB Director, OMB Director (website designation)
Industries benefiting from deregulation, Regulated entities, Regulated entities and persons affected by rules
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_director"
- → Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
- "the_comptroller_general"
- → Comptroller General (GAO)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any rule with $100M+ annual economic effect, major increase in costs/prices, or significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or competitiveness. Includes significant guidance documents.
Any rule that is not a major rule
Guidance document that may lead to $100M+ annual effect, create inconsistency with other agency actions, alter budgetary impact of programs, or raise novel legal/policy issues
As defined in section 551, including guidance documents, but excluding rules of particular applicability, agency management/personnel rules, and procedural rules not substantially affecting non-agency parties
Regulatory action likely to have $100M+ annual economic effect, create agency inconsistency, materially alter budgetary impact, or raise novel legal/policy issues
The repeal, replacement, or modification of an existing regulatory action
The difference between estimated cost of issuing a significant regulatory action and estimated cost saved by any deregulatory action
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