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Featured: The Congressional Review Act

What it does

The Congressional Review Act (CRA) establishes procedures for Congress to overturn final rules issued by federal agencies. After an agency's rule is reported to Congress, members of Congress have 60 days to introduce a joint resolution disapproving of the rule. When signed into law, these resolutions of disapproval (RDs) overturn the rule in question and bar agencies from issuing a "substantially similar" rule. The CRA offers two unique mechanisms: the Senate "fast-track" procedures and the "lookback" period. For an in-depth discussion of these mechanics and more, see our Regulatory Insight A Lookback at the Law: How Congress Uses the CRA.

CRA Use Trending Upward for Both Major and Non-major Rules, 1996-2022

Line chart showing trends in the number of Congressional Review Act resolutions introduced by calendar year. The chart peaks in 2017, with 67 resolutions introduced in Congress at the beginning of the Trump administration.

CRA Window Exploratory Dashboard

This dashboard allows users to explore the set of final rules published in the Federal Register in 2024, and how various lookback dates could affect the set of rules available for congressional review at the beginning of the next session of Congress. View Dashboard.

Commentary:

Will History Repeat Itself? Forecasting CRA Use in a Second Trump Administration. Steve Balla and Sarah Hay, May 3, 2024. What policy areas are most likely to be challenged if Trump wins a second term in the 2024 presidential election?

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Our Latest Publications

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Stakeholder Participation and Regulatory Policymaking in the United States

November 7, 2014

Regulation is one of the most common and important ways in which public policy is made and implemented in the United States. Agencies of the federal government issue thousands of regulations on an annual basis. Although many of these actions deal with routine matters, impose minimal burdens, and in some instances reduce or eliminate existing regulatory requirements, agencies annually promulgate hundreds of new regulations with significant effects on the economy and political system.

NHTSA’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards: Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) Communications

October 21, 2014

In August 2014, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) and an accompanying technical report to initiate the rulemaking process to establish a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS No. 150) that would require vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capabilities in new passenger cars and light truck vehicles.

Interim Final Rules Over Time: A Brief Empirical Analysis

September 25, 2014

Interim final rules are an exception to the APA requirement that agencies use the notice-and-comment process before finalizing a rulemaking.

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