Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The Zero Based Regulations Act requires agencies to review all parts of the Code of Federal Regulations on an OIRA schedule, with roughly 20% of an agency’s regulations reviewed each year. It directs agencies to repeal a part prior to its scheduled review, perform retrospective analyses, and restricts new rulemaking during the fiscal year of enactment unless narrow conditions are met.
Progressives emphasize repeal-before-review risks to protections and safety.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill is a substantive administrative/operational restructure of agency rulemaking processes that is explicit about many procedural mechanisms and responsibilities but leaves key implementation, resourcing, and edge-case safeguards underspecified.
The Zero Based Regulations Act requires agencies to review all parts of the Code of Federal Regulations on an OIRA schedule, with roughly 20% of an agency’s regulations reviewed each year.
It directs agencies to repeal a part prior to its scheduled review, perform retrospective analyses, and restricts new rulemaking during the fiscal year of enactment unless narrow conditions are met.
Reinstating a repealed rule requires new APA rulemaking, public hearings, a retrospective analysis, and a cap limiting new regulatory costs to no more than 70 percent of the original estimate.
Sweeping procedural deregulatory reforms are controversial, invite litigation, and need cross-branch coordination; limited compromise features reduce passage odds.
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill is a substantive administrative/operational restructure of agency rulemaking processes that is explicit about many procedural mechanisms and responsibilities but leaves key implementation, resourcing, and edge-case safeguards underspecified.
Progressives emphasize repeal-before-review risks to protections and safety.
These are examples from the analysis, not a ranked list of the most-affected groups.
Progressives emphasize repeal-before-review risks to protections and safety.
This persona would likely view the bill as an aggressive deregulatory framework that risks eliminating protective rules before adequate review.
They would worry the repeal-before-review mandate could create regulatory gaps threatening public health, environment, labor, and civil protections.
They would also be concerned about the 70 percent cost cap limiting agencies’ ability to reinstate necessary protections.
This persona would see value in systematic review and clearer OIRA processes, but worry about the operational and legal implications of repealing rules before review.
They would appreciate transparency and standardized analyses, while being concerned about short-term regulatory gaps, costs of re-promulgation, and potential impacts on agencies’ ability to comply with statutes.
They would likely call for amendments to phase implementation and preserve critical rules during review.
This persona would likely view the bill favorably as a strong mechanism to reduce regulatory burdens and force agencies to justify rules from zero.
They would highlight the repeal requirement and cost cap as effective tools to shrink unnecessary regulation and improve accountability.
They may note the OIRA oversight, public hearings, and requirement to reduce net burden as positive constraints on regulatory growth.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
Sweeping procedural deregulatory reforms are controversial, invite litigation, and need cross-branch coordination; limited compromise features reduce passage odds.
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Progressives emphasize repeal-before-review risks to protections and safety.
Sweeping procedural deregulatory reforms are controversial, invite litigation, and need cross-branch coordination; limited compromise featu…
Relative to its intended legislative type, this bill is a substantive administrative/operational restructure of agency rulemaking processes that is explicit about many procedural mechanisms and responsibilities but leav…
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.