The House of Representatives cleared a bill Wednesday afternoon that would allow Congress to more efficiently repeal regulations issued during the last months of the Biden administration in a vote of to 212 to 208.
The Midnight Rules Relief Act, sponsored by Republican Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, would amend the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to allow Congress to overturn multiple regulations issued during the last 60 days of a presidential administration. Under current law, lawmakers’ attempts to overturn agency rules are limited to one regulation per resolution.
Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar was the lone Democratic lawmaker to back the bill.
“That’s important for efficiency purposes,” Speaker Mike Johnson said during the House GOP’s leadership press conference Tuesday morning. “In the waning months of the Biden administration, there were 1400 unnecessary, harmful, last minute rules that were imposed. Those are things that hurt small business owners and hardworking Americans and families.”
“The Midnight Rules Relief Act will allow Congress to clear the deck of America Last rules and regulations imposed by the Biden-Harris regime and will prevent our economy from taking a $1.34 trillion hit,” Biggs wrote in a press release following reintroduction of the bill on Jan. 13.
Biggs’ legislation targeting Biden regulations passed the House last December 210-201 with just one Democratic lawmaker, Henry Cuellar of Texas, supporting the bill.
Then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did not take up the bill, forcing Biggs to reintroduce the legislation during the 119th Congress.
The cumulative costs of Biden’s regulations throughout his presidential term amounts to nearly $2 trillion with the Environmental Protection Agency amounting for more than half of the total costs, according to analysis from the right-leaning American Action Forum. The Biden administration’s regulatory costs are greater than any preceding administration on record, according to AAF.
Republican lawmakers have introduced several CRAs to overturn Biden regulations since the start of the 119th Congress, including Republican North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven and Republican Texas Rep. August Pfluger’s joint CRA resolution to repeal the EPA’s tax on the methane emissions of oil and natural gas producers.
Biggs is serving in his fifth House term and is running in Arizona’s 2026 gubernatorial contest. He previously chaired the House Freedom Caucus.Office of Andy Biggs, US Congress_
Featured Image Credit: Office of Andy Biggs, US Congress
