Congressional Review Act: Joint Resolutions in the 115th Congress

a post by Joshua about politics on Mar 31, 2017

Last month, I wrote a series of posts on the Congressional Review Act. At that time, I wrote that the Act had already been used to overturn three rules promulgated late in the administration of President Barack Obama. Since then, 11 other rules have been overturned under the CRA. While dozens more resolutions have been introduced in the House and Senate, the Senate Action Period has now expired. While the remaining joint resolutions could still be enacted, they will be subject to the normal rules in the Senate, making their passage much more difficult. This post lists every CRA joint resolution that has been introduced in the 115th Congress targeting rules promulgated in the last six(ish) months of President Obama's administration.

Congressional Review Act 2017: Joint Resolutions That Have Become Law

Bill No.	Date Enacted	Rule Overturned	Notes
H.J. Res. 37	Mar. 27, 2017	Federal Acquisition; Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces
H.J. Res. 38	Feb. 16, 2017¹	Stream Protection Rule	Overview of rule (PDF)
H.J. Res. 40	Feb. 28, 2017	Implementation of NICS Improvement Amendments Act	See discussion here
H.J. Res. 41	Feb. 14, 2017²	Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers
H.J. Res. 42	Mar. 31, 2017	Drug Testing of Unemployment Compensation Applicants
H.J. Res. 43	Apr. 13, 2017	Title X Requirements in Selecting Subrecipients	Senate vote was tied³
H.J. Res. 44	Mar. 27, 2017	Planning 2.0 Rule
H.J. Res. 57	Mar. 27, 2017	Every Student Succeeds Act: Accountability & State Plans
H.J. Res. 58	Mar. 27, 2017	Teacher Preparation Issues
H.J. Res. 66	May 17, 2017	Savings for Non-Governmental Employees of States
H.J. Res. 67	Apr. 13, 2017	Savings for Non-Gov'tal Employees of Pol. Subdivisions
H.J. Res. 69	Apr. 3, 2017	Non-Subsistence Take on Nat'l Wildlife Refuges in Alaska
H.J. Res. 83	Apr. 3, 2017	Employer's Obligation re: Records of Injury and Illness
S.J. Res. 34	Apr. 3, 2017	Protecting Broadband Customers' Privacy	Reuters coverage

Congressional Review Act 2017: Joint Resolutions Passed by Only One House of Congress

Bill No.	Date Passed	Rule To Be Overturned	Notes
H.J. Res. 36	Feb. 3, 2017	Waste Prevention, Royalties, and Resource Conservation	Defeated in the Senate

Congressional Review Act 2017: Other Joint Resolutions Introduced in Congress

Members of Congress have introduced 48 other joint resolutions under the CRA. The following table lists all of them. The "Dup./Companion" column lists duplicates and companion resolutions for each. A duplicate resolution is one targeting the same rule and introduced in the same house of Congress; a companion is one targeting the same rule, but introduced in the other house. If the duplicate or companion appears in one of the tables above, it is denoted by bold text if it has become law, and by italicized text if only passed by at least one house.

Bill No.	Introduced	Rule To Be Overturned	Dup./Companion
H.J. Res. 11	Jan. 3, 2017	Stream Protection Rule	H.J. Res. 16, 38/S.J. Res. 10
H.J. Res. 16	Jan. 4, 2017	Stream Protection Rule	H.J. Res. 11, 38/S.J. Res. 10
H.J. Res. 22	Jan. 6, 2017	Emission Standards for Oil & Natural Gas Sector
H.J. Res. 34	Jan. 27, 2017	Exploratory Drilling on Arctic Outer Continental Shelf	H.J. Res. 47, 70
H.J. Res. 35	Jan. 27, 2017	Non-Subsistence Take on Nat’l Wildlife Refuges in Alaska	H.J. Res. 49, 69/S.J. Res. 18
H.J. Res. 39	Jan. 30, 2017	Title X Requirements in Selecting Subrecipients	H.J. Res. 43/S.J. Res. 13
H.J. Res. 45	Jan. 30, 2017	Management of Non-Federal Oil & Gas Rights
H.J. Res. 46	Jan. 30, 2017	General Provisions & Non-Federal Oil & Gas Rights
H.J. Res. 47	Jan. 30, 2017	Exploratory Drilling on Arctic Outer Continental Shelf	H.J. Res. 34, 70
H.J. Res. 49	Jan. 30, 2017	Non-Subsistence Take on Nat’l Wildlife Refuges in Alaska	H.J. Res. 35, 69/S.J. Res. 18
H.J. Res. 52	Jan. 31, 2017	Fish & Wildlife Service Mitigation Policy
H.J. Res. 54	Jan. 31, 2017	Treatment of Certain Corporate Interests as Stock/Debt
H.J. Res. 55	Jan. 31, 2017	Amendments to Civil Penalty Regulations
H.J. Res. 56	Feb. 1, 2017	Federal and Indian Oil/Gas Leases; Site Security	S.J. Res. 29
H.J. Res. 59	Feb. 1, 2017	Accidental Release Prevention Requirements	S.J. Res. 28
H.J. Res. 60	Feb. 2, 2017	Endangered & Threatened Wildlife & Plants
H.J. Res. 62	Feb. 3, 2017	Prepaid Accounts Under EFTA & TILA	H.J. Res. 73/S.J. Res. 19
H.J. Res. 68	Feb. 7, 2017	Federal and Indian Oil/Gas Leases; Measurement of Gas
H.J. Res. 70	Feb. 9, 2017	Exploratory Drilling on Arctic Outer Continental Shelf	H.J. Res. 34, 47
H.J. Res. 71	Feb. 13, 2017	Fed. Oil/Gas & Fed. & Indian Coal Valuation Reform	S.J. Res. 69
H.J. Res. 73	Feb. 14, 2017	Prepaid Accounts Under EFTA & TILA	H.J. Res. 62/S.J. Res. 19
H.J. Res. 77	Feb. 16, 2017	Update of Water Control Manual
H.J. Res. 82	Feb. 16, 2017	Federal and Indian Oil/Gas Leases; Measurement of Oil
H.J. Res. 84	Mar. 1, 2017	Metropolitan Planning Area Reform
H.J. Res. 86	Mar. 8, 2017	Protecting Broadband Customers' Privacy	S.J. Res. 34
H.J. Res. 87	Mar. 10, 2017	Air Quality State Implementation Plans
H.J. Res. 96	Apr. 6, 2017	Eastern Interior Proposed Resource Mgmt Plan (PDF)
H.J. Res. 97	Apr. 6, 2017	Tongass Nat'l Forest Land & Resource Mgmt Plan (PDF)
S.J. Res. 9	Jan. 30, 2017	Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers	H.J. Res. 41
S.J. Res. 10	Jan. 30, 2017	Stream Protection Rule	H.J. Res. 11, 16, 38
S.J. Res. 11	Jan. 30, 2017	Waste Prevention, Royalties, and Resource Conservation	H.J. Res. 36
S.J. Res. 12	Jan. 30, 2017	Federal Acquisition; Fair Pay & Safe Workplaces	H.J. Res. 37
S.J. Res. 13	Jan. 30, 2017	Title X Requirements in Selecting Subrecipients	H.J. Res. 39, 43
S.J. Res. 14	Jan. 30, 2017	Implementation of NICS Improvement Amendments Act	H.J. Res. 40
S.J. Res. 15	Jan. 30, 2017	Planning 2.0 Rule	H.J. Res. 44
S.J. Res. 18	Feb. 1, 2017	Non-Subsistence Take on Nat’l Wildlife Refuges in Alaska	H.J. Res. 35, 49, 69
S.J. Res. 19	Feb. 1, 2017	Prepaid Accounts Under EFTA & TILA	H.J. Res. 62, 73
S.J. Res. 21	Feb. 3, 2017	Cross-State Air Pollution Rule Update
S.J. Res. 23	Feb. 16, 2017	Drug Testing of Unemployment Comp. Applicants	H.J. Res. 42
S.J. Res. 25	Feb. 28, 2017	Every Student Succeeds Act: Accountability & State Plans	H.J. Res. 57
S.J. Res. 26	Mar. 2, 2017	Teacher Preparation Issues	H.J. Res. 58
S.J. Res. 27	Mar. 2, 2017	Employer’s Obligation re: Records of Injury and Illness	H.J. Res. 83
S.J. Res. 28	Mar. 2, 2017	Accidental Release Prevention Requirements	H.J. Res. 59
S.J. Res. 29	Mar. 2, 2017	Fed. Oil/Gas & Fed. & Indian Coal Valuation Reform	H.J. Res. 71
S.J. Res. 32	Mar. 6, 2017	Savings for Non-Governmental Employees of States	H.J. Res. 66
S.J. Res. 33	Mar. 6, 2017	Savings for Non-Gov’tal Employees of Pol. Subdivisions	H.J. Res. 67
S.J. Res. 37	Mar. 9, 2017	Energy Conservation: Test Procedures for Compressors
S.J. Res. 38	Mar. 13, 2017	Utah: Revisions to Regional Haze Implementation Plan

Footnotes

Fun Fact: President Trump nearly forgot to sign the joint resolution at the signing ceremony. Return
H.J. Res. 41 was the first CRA joint resolution to be signed into law by President Trump, and only the second to ever become law since the CRA was enacted in 1996. Return
Because the vote in the Senate was tied, Vice President Pence cast the deciding vote. This was his first tie-breaking vote for legislation. Pence had earlier made history by casting the deciding vote to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of the Department of Education. Return

April 4, 2017 Update: I didn't realize it when I posted this article originally, but last Friday, March 31, 2017, was the end of the "Initiation Period" for CRA joint resolutions targeting Obama-era rules that were submitted to Congress within the CRA's reset period last year. This means that no joint resolutions introduced after Friday will qualify for the expedited Senate procedures provided by the CRA.