Congressional Review Act Improvement Act

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 5593, the ``Congressional Review Improvement Act.'' I am proud to join my colleagues in cosponsoring this timely legislation. I would like to thank my colleague, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, for introducing this bill, and for providing leadership on this important issue.

I support this bill. It eliminates waste by minimizing the production of paper that is required to be provided to Congress. It should reduce duplicative paperwork and eliminate waste. These reduction and minimization of waste standards provided by this bill should result in a substantial cost savings to the Federal Government. In times like we are in now, it is important that the Government cut costs. I support this bill. It is a first step in cutting needless and excessive costs.

The congressional review mechanism of agency rules, known as the Congressional Review Act, CRA, requires that all agencies promulgating a rule must submit a report to both Houses of Congress and to the GAO. According to the CRA, the report must contain a copy of the rule, a concise general statement describing the rule, and the proposed effective date of the rule. A rule cannot take effect if the report is not submitted. Each House must then send a copy of the report to the chairman and the ranking member of each jurisdictional committee. The promulgating agency must then submit to the GAO: (1) a complete copy of the cost-benefit analysis; (2) a description of the agency's actions; and (3) other relevant information required under any other act or executive order. This information must also be made available to each House.

H.R. 5593 amends the current law, to reduce paperwork. The primary purpose of the legislation is to ensure that the same material is not submitted, housed, and printed at four different Government entities. H.R. 5593 eliminates the requirement that agencies submit paper copies of their rules that are printed in the Federal Register to each House while continuing a referral of all rules printed in the Federal Register and the periodic indication of those referrals in the Congressional Record. Instead, both the House and Senate would receive a weekly list of rules from the GAO and then the House and Senate would put that list in the Congressional Record.

This bill eliminates the excessive duplication and printing of rules. No longer are the rules housed at four Government agencies. Under this bill, the House would receive a weekly list of rules that would then be added to the Congressional Record. This bill adds a commonsense approach to rulemaking, the printing, publication and dissemination of those rules. It is simple and the reforms that it brings should yield a substantial cost savings to the U.S. Treasury.

I am proud to support this bill because it eliminates duplicative and needless paperwork and should provide a cost savings. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5593) to amend title 5, United States Code, to make technical amendments to certain provisions of title 5, United States Code, enacted by the Congressional Review Act, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 5593, the Congressional Review Act Improvement Act, would cut government waste by reducing duplicative paperwork and relieving some of the administrative burdens currently mandated by the Congressional Review Act, the congressional mechanism for reviewing agency rules.

The Congressional Review Act requires that all agencies promulgating a rule submit to both Houses of Congress and to the Comptroller General a report that contains a copy of the rule, a concise general statement describing the rule, and the proposed effective date of the rule. Thus, under current law, the same material is submitted to, housed in, and printed by four different governmental entities. This approach creates unnecessary burdens. For example, the House Parliamentarian has testified before the Subcommittee on Administration of the Judiciary Committee in three separate Congresses about the ever-increasing volume of executive branch communications under the Congressional Review Act and its overwhelming impact on the operations of the Parliamentarian's office.

This legislation would eliminate the requirement that agencies submit rules to each House of Congress if they are already printed in the Federal Register. Instead, the House and Senate would receive a weekly list of all rules from the Comptroller General. The House and Senate would then have that list printed in the Congressional Record with a statement of referral for each rule.

The bill would still require agencies to submit rules and reports to each House of Congress that were not printed in the Federal Register, and Congress could still employ the procedures in the Congressional Review Act to disapprove agency rules.

H.R. 5593 was introduced by Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee Chair Linda Sanchez, along with Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers. They were joined by Ranking Member Lamar Smith and Subcommittee Ranking Member Chris Cannon as original cosponsors. This bill has bipartisan support, and makes a lot of sense. I would urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I urge adoption of this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the Congressional Review Act provides Congress with a vital tool to oversee how agencies exercise their legislative authority Congress delegates to them.

The act has a great deal of promise, but unfortunately is used too little. Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have worked long, hard, and in a bipartisan fashion to help identify ways in which we can prompt its better use. Today, we begin the process of improving the act with one of those measures. H.R. 5593 streamlines the act's processing requirements, lightening the burden on the House Parliamentarian's office.

This is a measure first proposed in the 106th Congress by our much loved, revered, and respected former chairman, the late Henry Hyde. It had bipartisan support then as it does today, Mr. Speaker.

I applaud the House's consideration of this bill, and I hope that its swift enactment is but the first of key improvements we can make so that the act is both more efficient and more effective.

I urge its adoption.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.