Demanding that Agencies Comply with the Law

Congress passed the Congressional Review Act in 1996 to prevent agency rules from going into effect before Congress had the opportunity to expeditiously review and nullify ones that it deemed unwise. None of the three Presidents since then—Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama—used the CRA to rein in the administrative state. President Donald Trump has. In April 2019, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum reading the CRA broadly for executive and independent agencies alike. This panel will discuss the potential effect that the OMB Memorandum might have on the regulatory state.