House Passes Potential FCC Regulation-Blocking Bill

A recently passed House bill would make it easy for Congress to invalidate any last-minute regulations from an agency like the Federal Communications Commission or Federal Trade Commission with a single vote. The House on Nov 17 passed (240 to 179) a bill, the Midnight Rules Relief Act (HR 5982), to backstop those warnings to all federal agencies about 11th-hour votes, on or off a public meeting. The bill can't get a Senate vote until at least Nov. 28 since the Senate is not holding any business sessions until that date given the Thanksgiving holiday.

The bill "amends the Congressional Review Act to allow Congress to consider a joint resolution to disapprove multiple regulations that federal agencies have submitted for congressional review within the last 60 legislative days of a session of Congress during the final year of a President's term. Congress may disapprove a group of such regulations together (i.e., 'en bloc') instead of the current procedure of considering only one regulation at a time." The bill would apply to the FCC and FTC, according to a spokesperson for Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) who introduced the bill, as well as federal agencies like the Department of Agriculture, FDA and EPA. If passed by the Senate, it would have to wait until President-elect Donald Trump was sworn in to be submitted for a presidential signature since the current President has already signaled it would be vetoed. The Executive Office of the President said the "arbitrary packaging of rules for an up-or-down vote, as this bill does, is unnecessary."