During the Newt Gingrich-led “Contract with America” of the 1990s, the Republican-controlled Congress passed an often-overlooked law that will likely come back to bite the GOP in the backside.
Called the Congressional Review Act, the law allows Congress to overturn newly implemented federal regulations with a simple majority-passed resolution in both the House and the Senate. The law, advocated by Gingrich and the “Republican Revolution” to keep in check the Clinton Administration, could be used by Democrats to undo many Trump policies for which he never sought Congressional approval.
“It’s the quickest way for rules to get off the books,” said Richard Revesz, a law professor at New York University and a regulatory expert told NBC News. “They can use it to clear the underbrush.”
Republicans are fond of using this ploy, having reversed in 2017 fourteen regulations passed by the Obama Administration relating to environmental, financial, labor and education.
Now, however, Trump vaunted roll-backs of regulations, done virtually exclusively through executive orders and department regulations. Those orders can be negated through resolutions invoking the Congressional Review Act.
There are some restrictions, however: the CRA can only be applied to regulations put in place during the last 60 days Congress is in session, but because Congress has an irregular schedule, that means Congress can go back to regulations put in place as far back as August.
That includes regulations relating to environmental protection rollbacks, the use of scientific data for public health initiatives, and Trump’s beloved show head volume standards–as well as anything he might sign in the next four days.