A ‘Regulatory Game Changer’
The potential uses of the Congressional Review Act to review and eliminate excessively burdensome or unauthorized regulations are not limited to the “midnight” rule situation alone; more powerful ways to use the act are causing great excitement in reform circles and among leaders on Capitol Hill who want to regain control over regulatory agencies run amok. Pacific Legal Foundation’s Senior Fellow in Constitutional Law, Todd Gaziano, was the chief legislative counsel to the CRA’s sponsor, then-Representative David M. McIntosh of Indiana. Mr. Gaziano helped craft many of the provisions that make it work and has testified as a scholar on the CRA. His “new idea” for Congress to more aggressively assert its power under the CRA was first announced in a Wall Street Journal piece by Kimberley Strassel, which headline called the idea a “regulatory game changer.”