Bill of the Month: The REVIEW Act of 2022

 FreedomWorks is excited to recognize the REVIEW Act of 2022 as our Bill of the Month for August 2022. REVIEW creatively stands for “Require Evaluation before Implementing Executive Wishlists”. Introduced by Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI-1) earlier this month, it currently has five co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. 

According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in 2019, President Trump's administration promulgated "2,964 final rules, which was the lowest count since records began being kept in the 1970's and the only ever tally below 3,000." In 2020, there was a slight uptick to 3,353 final rules, but still well below the average count around 4,000.

While these regulations go into effect 30 or 60 days after being published in the federal register, plaintiffs across the country rush to get an injunction from a court to prohibit the agency from enforcing the regulation.

Some major regulations that were very costly for the economy over the past few years include: the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan that the Environmental Protection Agency estimated would cost over $8 billion, the Trump and Biden Administration's eviction moratorium that cost at least $20 billion, and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration's employer vaccine mandate that cost at minimum $3 billion in a six month period.

If the rule is unlawful, why do plaintiffs have to rush to court and hope a district court agrees with them that the agency did not have the statutory power it claims? Why should corporations and small businesses spend time and money complying with rules that almost everyone agrees are unlawful at the outset? The Solution The REVIEW Act postpones the effective date of all high-impact regulations until all cases challenging their legality are complete.

High-impact regulations are defined as regulations that the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget "Determines may impose an annual cost on the economy of not less than $1,000,000,000." In other words, if the regulation imposes a cost of more than $1 billion to the economy, it is put on hold until every case challenging its legality is complete.

The Administrator determines whether the rule is a high-impact rule.

If no one seeks judicial review of the rule, the rule becomes effective 60 days after it is published in the federal register.

https://www.freedomworks.org/bill-of-the-month-the-review-act-of-2022/