Bill Allowing Mass Review of ‘Midnight Rules’ Gains Momentum in House

The most recent legislative attempt to allow Congress to consider multiple joint resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) has cleared multiple hurdles this week as Republicans take aim at regs finalized in the waning months of the Biden administration.

This week’s votes.

Late Monday afternoon, the House Rules Committee approved a motion to send H.R. 77, the Midnight Rules Relief Act, to the full chamber by a vote of 9-2 along party lines. Two of the four minority members on the committee, Representatives Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) did not record votes. The next day, the House adopted H.Res. 122, a resolution providing for the consideration of H.R. 77 by a 216-205 margin.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ), introduced the Midnight Rules Relief Act on January 3. It would amend Chapter 8, Title 5 of the United States Code to permit en bloc consideration of disapproval resolutions for so-called midnight rules. Ten other Republicans are currently listed as cosponsors.

On December 17, 2024, the previous House passed the same bill (then numbered H.R. 115) by a 210-201 vote. The Senate did not consider it before the end of the year, but Biggs had planned on reintroducing the bill “immediately upon returning” to Capitol Hill at the onset of the 119^th Congress.

Midnight rules.

Generally, midnight rulemaking refers to regulatory actions taken by federal agencies of an outgoing president, especially during a lame-duck session when the incoming administration represents another party.

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), issues that critics of midnight rulemaking raise “include the decreased political accountability for an outgoing Administration, the potential for rules that are hurried through at the end of an Administration not to have the same opportunity for public input,” and potentially haphazard rules quickly issued “without subjecting them to rigorous review or analysis.”

Special congressional procedures under the CRA present a new president and Congress a window of opportunity to try to overturn midnight rules. Relevant now are the “look-back rule” and limited-time fast-track procedures which President Trump and fellow Republicans may use to treat Biden-era final regs as if they never took effect or prevent them from ever taking effect.

Checkpoint recently compiled a reference list of final IRS tax regs issued since August 2024 based on the CRS’ estimate of the 60-legislative-day lookback period. Notable regs that could be reviewed and the subject of joint resolutions of disapproval include final rules on Inflation Reduction Act clean energy credits and digital asset broker reporting.

Debate.

Under current law, separate resolutions need to be introduced for each rule. In total, Republicans say there are about 1,400 midnight rules across all agencies the party may seek to overturn.

Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC) in her opening remarks before the committee voted on H.R. 77 said the bill would deter outgoing administrations from inundating Congress “with regulatory blitzes” that are “often to the detriment of the very people we are here to serve: our constituents.”

Expediting reviews “by allowing Congress to consider multiple rules in one fell swoop” would be “a reasonable, commonsense remedy to this problem that has existed for decades,” said Foxx.

Representative Michelle Fischbach (R-MN), who sponsored both the committee-level motion to consider the bill and the subsequent House resolution approved Tuesday, said during one-hour debate that the Midnight Rules Relief Act “addresses an inefficiency in the government and allows Congress to retain its current authority” to review final rules “without bogging down” the legislative pipeline “when we have so much work to get done.”

Representing the Democrats during the debate hour was Ranking Rules Committee Member James McGovern (D-MA), who was unsuccessful in his attempt amend the bill by prohibiting “any resolution of disapproval from addressing two or more unrelated subjects.” The amendment was drafted by Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD).

McGovern refuted Biggs’ claim that lawmakers do not want to individually debate each midnight rule under review. “We do. What we don’t want you to do is pack 1,400 regulations into one bill where there’s no debate,” especially when “nobody” knows what “they’re voting on and the American people don’t know the harm that you are about to do to them.”

Biggs said Democrats “don’t really mean it” when making that argument. “Because the reality is: if they meant it, then they wouldn’t stack 50 bills” one at a time “when they do their omnibus spending packages the way they always do.”