From: Government Execuitve

 

By Charles S. Clark

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The Congressional Review Act “establishes a mechanism by which Congress is able to exercise direct oversight of federal agency action in real time, consistent with its role as the sole constitutionally authorized legislative authority,” Vought wrote in his April 11 memo to all agency heads intended to “ensure more consistent compliance with [the act’s] requirements across the executive branch.”

The key issue to be more closely monitored by OIRA is determining whether a proposed rule is “major,” meaning it would have annual effect on the economy estimated at $100,000,000 or more. A rule would also be “major” if it would involve a “major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, federal, state, or local government agencies, or geographic regions.” Or it would be “major” if it might have “significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation” or it could affect “the ability of United States-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic and export markets.”

 

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