2. Executive Office of the President · Notable · Needs Congress
Use the Congressional Review Act to undo Biden-era midnight rules
Printed page 50 2. Executive Office of the President
“Finally, the next President should work with Congress to maximize the utility of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to undo midnight regulatory actions (including those disguised as "guidance") on an accelerated timeline. … Immediate and robust use of the CRA would allow the President to focus his rulemaking resources on major new regulatory reforms rather than devoting months or years to undoing the final rulemakings of the Biden Administration.”
What has happened
- Partially done
Eighteen disapproval resolutions have now become law, running from energy-conservation standards and California Clean Air Act waivers through Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rules to a string of Bureau of Land Management resource management plans in December 2025; the most recent, Public Law 119-85 on 27 April 2026, struck the withdrawal of federal lands in north-eastern Minnesota. That is robust use of the tool on a wide front. It is not the whole ask: the CRA reaches only rules submitted inside the lookback window, the guidance the Quote wanted covered has not been disapproved, and the great bulk of the previous administration's final rulemakings still stands and is being unwound by ordinary rulemaking instead.
- Partially done
Congress and the President began undoing Biden-era rules with the Congressional Review Act in the administration's second month. The first two resolutions were signed on 14 March 2025: Public Law 119-2 disapproving EPA's waste emissions charge rule for petroleum and natural gas systems, and Public Law 119-3 disapproving the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's marine archaeological resources rule. Each is a permanent repeal that also bars a substantially similar rule.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Counted from public laws (congress.gov): eighteen of the 104 public laws enacted in the window are joint resolutions of disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5. Held at partial as an open-ended ask: a directive plus documented implementing actions, with no allowlisted statement that the sweep is complete.
- Action
- repeal
- Object
- Biden Administration midnight regulatory actions (via the Congressional Review Act)
- ID
- 58