Congressional Review Act Resolutions in the 115th Congress

A holdover from Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, the Congressional Review Act (CRA) allows Congress — by majority vote in both chambers, with limited debate, no possibility of a filibuster and the president’s signature — to overturn recently issued public protections. Health, safety, consumer and environmental standards that took years of resource-intensive analysis, comment and review can be wiped out in a matter of days or even hours.

During the 115th Congress, President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress repealed 16 public protections using the CRA process. These include:

The table below is a comprehensive list of CRA resolutions introduced, voted on and passed during the 115th Congress. Bolded votes indicate that the CRA resolution was voted down.

Addenda:

• The CRA’s carryover period for rules finalized under the Obama administration ended on May 11, 2017.
• Five resolutions were introduced before the 15th legislative day of the 115th Congress (1/30/17), rendering them invalid under the terms of the Congressional Review Act: H.J. Res. 11, 16, 22, 34 and 35.
• Contrary to some inaccurate press reports, the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Standards (S. 496) were repealed through regular order, NOT through the CRA process.