Congressional Republicans who have spent years working toward a complete overhaul of the federal regulatory process have gamed out a battle plan that they believe could land their legislation a coveted spot in the GOP’s party-line energy, tax and border security megabill.
The provision, which the House Judiciary Committee advanced Wednesday night, would turn Congress into a gatekeeper for certain major rules and allow lawmakers to roll back countless regulations for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
It is a sweeping proposal that could drastically transform the way the federal government regulates everything from businesses and banks to health care and energy development, and its potential inclusion in Republicans’ budget reconciliation package could catapult it to Trump’s desk after more than a decade of little progress.
“For those who say it would make a radical change, a radical departure from the status quo of rulemaking, I’d say, ‘Thank heaven above for that,’” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah).
The language moving forward is based on the “REINS Act” — short for “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny” — which has become a rallying cry for the Republican base.
But even though it’s popular with conservatives, the provision’s biggest challenges are yet to come. Moderates could balk at the proposal. It could also run afoul of strict Senate rules governing the reconciliation process, which allows the majority party to bypass the filibuster on fiscal-related matters.
When asked by POLITICO’s E&E News on Wednesday whether he expects the “REINS Act” to be in the final budget package, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said simply, “I sure hope so!”
Moderate Republicans with the power to sink the bill — like Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — declined to weigh in Wednesday on whether they would back it. And Democrats didn’t put up much of a fight during the House Judiciary Committee deliberations Wednesday.
The provision’s conservative backers say they have spent the better part of the past year coming up with contingency plans and workarounds to make sure the latest iteration of the bill can pass muster.
“It is not a simple equation when it comes to the ‘REINS Act,’ so there is almost an infinite number of combinations we’re looking at to figure out how we can bring about, if not the ‘REINS Act’ itself in its entirety, [then] elements of it or features of it,” said Lee.
The proposal would require any “major rule that increases revenue” to be approved via a joint resolution of the House and Senate before taking effect. It would also allow Congress to retroactively terminate countless rules that federal agencies have already implemented by requiring them to submit them to Congress for review. Rules that Congress does not approve would automatically sunset.
The legislation would allow Congress to repeal numerous recently finalized regulations through the use of a single resolution rather than repealing them one by one, as is current practice.
“It would be a war on regulations,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Democratic whip. “To take that authority away from the executive branch would be a serious mistake.”
Democrats and progressive advocates argue the “REINS Act” could empower congressional majorities to reject regulations they oppose, allowing partisan divisions to effectively sideline rules crafted by dedicated experts across federal agencies.
Supporters say lawmakers need to be able to sign off on certain agency regulations in order to check the executive branch’s broad powers and ensure increased congressional oversight over rules that have significant impacts on individuals and industry.
‘Countless meetings’
The House has passed the “REINS Act” a number of times in recent years, but the threat of the Senate filibuster has tanked the legislation each time. That’s why backers feel the reconciliation package is their best shot for the foreseeable future.
Lee, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and other conservatives have met numerous times over the better part of the past year, holding “countless meetings, running hypothetical scenarios” to make the provision palatable to the Senate parliamentarian, Cammack said.
“The trick with this is to get it through the Byrd bath,” Cammack said, referring to lawmakers’ shorthand for the reconciliation rules developed by the late Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).
“The House is its own animal,” Cammack said. “The Senate is subject to [other] tests … and so it really was just about rearranging the language to make it so that it could survive the Byrd tests.”
Paul, who introduced the Senate version of the “REINS Act,” S. 485, earlier this year, said Republicans are prepared to defend the provision before the Senate parliamentarian, if needed.
“Our hope is to make that argument,” he said.
Cammack and Lee, who voices support for the bill in the bio of his personal X account, declined to discuss the specifics of the defense strategy before having to deploy it. But they said they expect some version of the “REINS Act” — even if heavily modified — to make it into the final package.
Moderate Republicans like Murkowski and Collins, who bucked their party on reconciliation-related votes earlier this year, declined to say Wednesday whether they would support the inclusion of the proposed language in the final bill.
Murkowski said she is “familiar with” the “REINS Act” but declined to answer questions about it. Collins said she did not want to speculate about provisions that may or may not be in the final product.
Other Republicans have said they will back the provision, even if it remains unclear that it will stay in in the end.
“I don’t know if it would survive Byrd, but I support the effort,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who first introduced the legislation in the House over a decade ago. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) called the push to get it into the GOP megabill “a splendid idea.”
But Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, said during the markup that Republicans are “trying to handcuff the agencies that work to make sure that our food and drugs are safe and our air and water are clean.”
Raskin also blasted the provision that would allow Congress to repeal numerous regulations through the use of a single resolution, asserting that such action would be used to “hide the most destructive deregulatory votes among dozens of others, completely burying it in darkness.”
“This is not what the American people are looking for,” he said.
Trump seen as on board
“REINS Act” backers in Congress expect Trump to be on board.
On Wednesday, as the Senate was preparing to vote on Congressional Review Act resolutions to overturn Biden administration rulemakings on vehicle emissions, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said regulatory rollbacks would continue under his leadership.
“We’ve made progress on reining in excessive regulation, and the American people can count on Republicans to continue our efforts,” he said.
“We believe that regulatory power should be used judiciously,” he added, “and it’s why we’re committed to eliminating rules that impose unjustified burdens.”
Trump has not explicitly endorsed the “REINS Act.” Cammack said the proposal has been “brought to him multiple times” and suggested that his deregulatory zeal all but guarantees his support.
“President Trump is one of the most aggressive regulatory reform advocates out there — if not the most,” she said. “I would say I’m pretty damn aggressive, but I’ll take No. 2 after President Trump.”
