I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 261
To amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to establish a Federal
regulatory budget and to impose cost controls on that budget, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY10, 2023
Mr. G
OODof Virginia (for himself, Ms. MACE, Mrs. MILLERof Illinois, and
Mr. M
OOREof Alabama) introduced the following bill; which was referred
to the Committee on the Budget, and in addition to the Committees on
Rules, the Judiciary, Oversight and Accountability, and Small Business,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to establish
a Federal regulatory budget and to impose cost controls
on that budget, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Article I Regulatory 4
Budget Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL BUDGET SUBMISSIONS. 1
Section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, is 2
amended by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(40)(A) for the first fiscal year that begins at 4
least 120 days after the date of enactment of this 5
paragraph, and every fiscal year thereafter until the 6
fifth fiscal year that begins after the date of enact-7
ment of this paragraph, a projection of the Federal 8
regulatory cost of any proposed Federal regulation, 9
rule, or statement (as such terms are defined in sec-10
tion 321 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974) 11
for the fiscal year and at least each of the 4 ensuing 12
fiscal years, which shall include— 13
‘‘(i) the projection of the Federal regu-14
latory cost by agency and program; and 15
‘‘(ii) any changes in a Federal regulation, 16
rule, or statement in the Unified Agenda of 17
Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, 18
compiled by the Regulatory Information Service 19
Center of the General Services Administration; 20
and 21
‘‘(B) for the fifth fiscal year that begins after 22
the date of enactment of this paragraph, and every 23
fiscal year thereafter, a regulatory authority budget 24
analysis of the Federal regulatory cost of complying 25
with all current and proposed Federal regulations, 26
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rules, and statements and proposals (as such terms 1
are defined in section 321 of the Congressional 2
Budget Act of 1974) for complying with section 322 3
of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 for the fis-4
cal year for which the budget is submitted and the 5
4 fiscal years after that year, which shall include a 6
regulatory authority budget analysis of the Federal 7
regulatory cost by agency and program.’’. 8
SEC. 3. ESTIMATION AND DISCLOSURE OF COSTS OF FED-9
ERAL REGULATION. 10
(a) C
OSTS TOPRIVATESECTOR OFNEWFEDERAL 11
R
EGULATIONS.—Chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code, 12
popularly known as the ‘‘Regulatory Flexibility Act’’, is 13
amended— 14
(1) in section 603— 15
(A) in subsection (a), in the second sen-16
tence, by inserting before the period the fol-17
lowing: ‘‘and shall discuss in detail whether the 18
cost to businesses of complying with the pro-19
posed rule will vary depending on the size of the 20
business and, if so, to what extent the cost will 21
vary and what factors contribute to the vari-22
ation’’; 23
(B) in subsection (c)— 24
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(i) by redesignating paragraphs (1), 1
(2), (3), and (4) as subparagraphs (A), 2
(B), (C), and (D), respectively, and adjust-3
ing the margin accordingly; 4
(ii) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after ‘‘(c)’’; and 5
(iii) by striking ‘‘Consistent with the’’ 6
and inserting the following: 7
‘‘(2) The analysis of significant alternatives to the 8
proposed rule shall include a detailed analysis of the costs 9
and benefits of the proposed rule and each alternative, 10
which shall separately address the costs and benefits for 11
each industry. 12
‘‘(3) Consistent with the’’; and 13
(C) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(e) Each initial regulatory flexibility analysis shall 15
also contain a description of the nature and amount of 16
monetary costs that will be incurred by small entities, 17
other businesses, and individuals in complying with the 18
proposed rule.’’; 19
(2) in section 604(a)— 20
(A) in the first paragraph designated as 21
paragraph (6) (relating to minimization of sig-22
nificant economic impacts), by striking ‘‘and’’ 23
at the end; 24
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(B) by redesignating the second paragraph 1
(6) (relating to covered agencies), as paragraph 2
(8); and 3
(C) by inserting after paragraph (6) the 4
following: 5
‘‘(7) a statement of the nature and amount of 6
monetary costs that will be incurred by small enti-7
ties, other businesses, and individuals in complying 8
with the rule; and’’; and 9
(3) in section 607, by inserting before the pe-10
riod the following: ‘‘, except that estimates of mone-11
tary costs under sections 603(d) and 604(a)(7) shall 12
only be in the form of a numerical description’’. 13
(b) A
GENCYREPORTS.—Each agency that prepares 14
an initial regulatory flexibility analysis under chapter 6 15
of title 5, United States Code, shall, at the same time sub-16
mit to each House of Congress, the Congressional Budget 17
Office, and the Office of Management and Budget a cost 18
estimate and cost benefit analysis of any new proposed 19
regulations, rules, or statements that would have a Fed-20
eral regulatory cost (as defined in section 321 of the Con-21
gressional Budget Act of 1974, as added by this Act) of 22
at least $100,000,000 for any fiscal year. 23
SEC. 4. GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS. 24
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 25
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(1) the terms ‘‘agency’’ and ‘‘rule’’ have the 1
meanings given such terms in section 551 of title 5, 2
United States Code; 3
(2) the term ‘‘guidance document’’ means an 4
agency statement of general applicability and future 5
effect, other than a rule, that sets forth a policy on 6
a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue or an in-7
terpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue; and 8
(3) the term ‘‘significant guidance document’’— 9
(A) means a guidance document that the 10
Office of Management and Budget determines 11
will be disseminated to regulated entities or the 12
general public and may reasonably be antici-13
pated to— 14
(i) lead to an annual effect of not less 15
than $100,000,000 on, or adversely affect 16
in a material way, the economy, a sector of 17
the economy, productivity, competition, 18
jobs, the environment, public health or 19
safety, or State, local, or tribal govern-20
ments or communities; 21
(ii) create a serious inconsistency or 22
otherwise interfere with an action taken or 23
planned by an agency other than the agen-24
cy issuing the guidance document; 25
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(iii) materially alter the budgetary im-1
pact of entitlements, grants, user fees, or 2
loan programs or the rights or obligations 3
of recipients thereof; or 4
(iv) raise novel legal or policy issues 5
arising out of legal mandates, the priorities 6
of the President, or the principles set forth 7
in Executive Order 12866 (5 U.S.C. 601 8
note; relating to regulatory planning and 9
review); and 10
(B) does not include a guidance document 11
that the Office of Management and Budget de-12
termines— 13
(i) relates to regulations issued in ac-14
cordance with the formal rulemaking provi-15
sions of sections 556 and 557 of title 5, 16
United States Code; 17
(ii) pertains to a military or foreign 18
affairs function of the United States, other 19
than procurement regulations and regula-20
tions involving the import or export of non-21
defense articles and services; 22
(iii) relates to regulations that are 23
limited to agency organization, manage-24
ment, or personnel matters; or 25
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(iv) is within a category of guidance 1
documents exempted by the Administrator 2
of the Office of Information and Regu-3
latory Affairs. 4
(b) L
IMITATION ONGUIDANCEDOCUMENTS.—An 5
agency may not issue a significant guidance document un-6
less the agency issues the significant guidance document 7
after notice and an opportunity for comment in accord-8
ance with the requirements for the promulgation of a rule 9
under chapter 5 of title 5, United States Code. 10
(c) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.—Any person ag-11
grieved of an action taken or failed to be taken under a 12
guidance document that was not issued in accordance with 13
subsection (b) may bring a civil action in an appropriate 14
district court of the United States alleging that the guid-15
ance document should have been treated as a significant 16
guidance document. 17
SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET 18
ACT OF 1974. 19
(a) F
EDERALREGULATORYBUDGETCOSTCONTROL 20
S
YSTEM.—Title III of the Congressional Budget Act of 21
1974 is amended— 22
(1) by inserting before section 300 the fol-23
lowing: 24
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‘‘PART A—GENERAL PROVISIONS’’; 1
and 2
(2) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘PART B—FEDERAL REGULATORY BUDGET COST 4
CONTROL 5
‘‘SEC. 321. DEFINITIONS. 6
‘‘In this part— 7
‘‘(1) the term ‘CBO’ means the Congressional 8
Budget Office; 9
‘‘(2) the term ‘direct cost of Federal regulation’ 10
means all costs incurred by, and expenditures re-11
quired of, the Federal Government in issuing and 12
enforcing Federal regulations, rules, and statements 13
and Federal statutes; 14
‘‘(3) the term ‘Federal regulation, rule, or 15
statement’— 16
‘‘(A) includes any guidance document 17
issued after notice and an opportunity for com-18
ment in accordance with the requirements for 19
the promulgation of a rule under chapter 5 of 20
title 5, United States Code; and 21
‘‘(B) does not include— 22
‘‘(i) a Federal regulation, rule, or 23
statement applying to— 24
‘‘(I) the military; or 25
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‘‘(II) agency organization, man-1
agement, or personnel; or 2
‘‘(ii) a Federal regulation, rule, or 3
statement designated by the President as 4
being— 5
‘‘(I) necessary because of an im-6
minent threat to health or safety or 7
other emergency; 8
‘‘(II) necessary for the enforce-9
ment of criminal laws; or 10
‘‘(III) necessary for national se-11
curity; 12
‘‘(4) the term ‘Federal regulatory cost’— 13
‘‘(A) means all costs incurred by, and ex-14
penditures required of, the private sector, 15
States, or local governments in complying with 16
any Federal regulation, rule, or statement or 17
any Federal statute; and 18
‘‘(B) does not include the value of any ben-19
efit under the Federal regulation, rule, or state-20
ment or the Federal statute; 21
‘‘(5) the term ‘gross domestic product’ means 22
the gross domestic product of the United States dur-23
ing a fiscal year, consistent with Department of 24
Commerce definitions; 25
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‘‘(6) the term ‘OMB’ means the Office of Man-1
agement and Budget; and 2
‘‘(7) the term ‘regulatory baseline’ means the 3
projection described in section 326(a) of the Federal 4
regulatory cost for the fiscal year after the date of 5
the projection and the outyears. 6
‘‘SEC. 322. ESTABLISHMENT OF LEVEL AND ALLOCATIONS. 7
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF LEVEL.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In addition to the require-9
ments under section 301, a concurrent resolution on 10
the budget for a fiscal year shall set forth the appro-11
priate level for the Federal regulatory cost for the 12
fiscal year and for at least each of the 4 ensuing fis-13
cal years. 14
‘‘(2) T
RANSITION PERIOD.— 15
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For the first fiscal 16
year that begins at least 120 days after the 17
date of enactment of this section, and each fis-18
cal year thereafter until the fiscal year de-19
scribed in section 326(a), the Committee on the 20
Budget of the Senate and the Committee on the 21
Budget of the House of Representatives shall 22
include in the concurrent resolution on the 23
budget for the fiscal year as the appropriate 24
level for the Federal regulatory cost for the fis-25
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cal year and any other fiscal year covered by 1
the resolution the proposed levels submitted by 2
the President under section 1105(a)(40) of title 3
31, United States Code. 4
‘‘(B) A
MENDMENTS.— 5
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In the Senate and 6
the House of Representatives, it shall not 7
be in order to consider an amendment to 8
a concurrent resolution on the budget that, 9
if agreed to, would result in a net increase 10
in a level included pursuant to subpara-11
graph (A). 12
‘‘(ii) W
AIVER AND APPEAL.—A point 13
of order under clause (i) may only be 14
waived by the affirmative vote of three- 15
fifths of the Members, duly chosen and 16
sworn. An affirmative vote of three-fifths 17
of Members, duly chosen and sworn, shall 18
be required to sustain an appeal of the rul-19
ing of the Chair on a point of order raised 20
under clause (i). 21
‘‘(3) D
EFAULT TOTAL.—If there is not a level 22
for the Federal regulatory cost that is in effect for 23
a fiscal year under a concurrent resolution on the 24
budget— 25
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‘‘(A) for the first fiscal year that begins at 1
least 120 days after the date of enactment of 2
this section, and every fiscal year thereafter 3
until the fiscal year described in subparagraph 4
(B), the appropriate level for the Federal regu-5
latory cost for the fiscal year shall be the pro-6
posed level submitted by the President under 7
section 1105(a)(40) of title 31, United States 8
Code; 9
‘‘(B) for the fifth fiscal year that begins 10
after the date of enactment of this section, the 11
appropriate level for the Federal regulatory cost 12
for the fiscal year shall be the amount of the 13
first regulatory baseline submitted under sec-14
tion 326; and 15
‘‘(C) for each fiscal year after the fiscal 16
year described in subparagraph (B), the appro-17
priate level for the Federal regulatory cost for 18
the fiscal year shall be the level for the most re-19
cent fiscal year for which such a level was in ef-20
fect (under subparagraph (B), this subpara-21
graph, or a concurrent resolution on the budg-22
et). 23
‘‘(b) A
LLOCATION OFTOTALS.— 24
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For the first fiscal year 1
that begins at least 120 days after the date of enact-2
ment of this section, and each fiscal year thereafter, 3
the joint explanatory statement accompanying the 4
conference report on a concurrent resolution on the 5
budget for such fiscal year shall include allocations 6
of the Federal regulatory cost in effect under sub-7
section (a) for such fiscal year and at least each of 8
the 4 ensuing fiscal years— 9
‘‘(A) among each committee of the Senate 10
and each committee of the House of Represent-11
atives; 12
‘‘(B) by major functional category; and 13
‘‘(C) by agency. 14
‘‘(2) S
UBALLOCATIONS.—As soon as practicable 15
after receiving an allocation under paragraph (1), 16
each committee shall— 17
‘‘(A) suballocate its allocation— 18
‘‘(i) among its subcommittees; 19
‘‘(ii) among programs over which the 20
committee has jurisdiction; and 21
‘‘(iii) by agency; and 22
‘‘(B) submit for printing in the Congres-23
sional Record a statement detailing each sub-24
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allocation made by the committee under sub-1
paragraph (A). 2
‘‘(c) P
OINT OFORDER.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—If a concurrent resolution 4
on the budget setting forth the appropriate level for 5
the Federal regulatory cost for a fiscal year has been 6
agreed to, it shall not be in order in the Senate or 7
the House of Representatives to consider any bill or 8
resolution, or amendment thereto, which would cause 9
an allocation or suballocation of the Federal regu-10
latory cost made under subsection (b) for that fiscal 11
year to be exceeded. 12
‘‘(2) W
AIVER AND APPEAL.—A point of order 13
under paragraph (1) may only be waived by the af-14
firmative vote of three-fifths of the Members, duly 15
chosen and sworn. An affirmative vote of three-fifths 16
of Members, duly chosen and sworn, shall be re-17
quired to sustain an appeal of the ruling of the 18
Chair on a point of order raised under paragraph 19
(1). 20
‘‘(d) D
ETERMINATIONS BY BUDGETCOMMITTEES.— 21
For purposes of this section, the amount of the Federal 22
regulatory cost for a fiscal year and the amount of the 23
Federal regulatory cost of a bill or resolution, or amend-24
ment thereto, shall be determined by the Committee on 25
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the Budget of the Senate or the Committee on the Budget 1
of the House of Representatives, as the case may be. 2
‘‘SEC. 323. ANALYSIS OF FEDERAL REGULATORY COST BY 3
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE. 4
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—CBO shall prepare for each bill 5
or resolution of a public character reported by any com-6
mittee of the Senate or the House of Representatives (ex-7
cept the Committee on Appropriations of each House), 8
and submit to such committee— 9
‘‘(1) an estimate of the costs which would be in-10
curred by the private sector in carrying out or com-11
plying with such bill or resolution in the fiscal year 12
in which it is to become effective and in each of the 13
4 fiscal years following such fiscal year, which shall 14
include— 15
‘‘(A) a net present value estimate of the 16
cost of compliance by the private sector with 17
such bill or resolution; and 18
‘‘(B) a discussion of the methodology used 19
to prepare, and the basis for, each such esti-20
mate; and 21
‘‘(2) a comparison of the estimate of costs de-22
scribed in paragraph (1) with any available esti-23
mates of costs made by such committee or by any 24
agency. 25
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‘‘(b) LOOK-BACKREVIEWS.—CBO shall periodically 1
submit to Congress a report, prepared in consultation with 2
the Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the 3
United States, that— 4
‘‘(1) reviews a sample of laws of a public char-5
acter for which an estimate was prepared under sub-6
section (a)(1); and 7
‘‘(2) compares the estimates of the costs de-8
scribed in paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (a) 9
and the actual costs incurred by the private sector 10
in carrying out or complying with the law in the fis-11
cal year in which it took effect and in each of the 12
4 fiscal years following such fiscal year. 13
‘‘SEC. 324. ENFORCEMENT. 14
‘‘(a) E
NFORCEMENT LANGUAGEREQUIRED INAP-15
PROPRIATIONACTS.—If a concurrent resolution on the 16
budget that includes levels and allocations of the Federal 17
regulatory cost for a fiscal year has been agreed to, it shall 18
not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representa-19
tives to consider a bill, joint resolution, amendment be-20
tween the Houses, or conference report making appropria-21
tions for the fiscal year that does not include a provision 22
prohibiting amounts made available under the measure 23
from being obligated or expended to enforce a Federal reg-24
ulation, rule, or statement that would cause a breach of 25
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any level or allocation of the Federal regulatory cost in 1
effect for a fiscal year. 2
‘‘(b) W
AIVER ANDAPPEAL.—Subsection (a) may be 3
waived or suspended in the Senate only by an affirmative 4
vote of two-thirds of the Members, duly chosen and sworn. 5
An affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Members of the 6
Senate, duly chosen and sworn, shall be required to sus-7
tain an appeal of the ruling of the Chair on a point of 8
order raised under subsection (a). 9
‘‘(c) R
EVIEW OFCOST.— 10
‘‘(1) D
ETERMINATIONS OF COST .— 11
‘‘(A) BEA
DETERMINATION.—The Bureau 12
of Economic Analysis of the Department of 13
Commerce shall determine the change in the 14
Federal regulatory cost attributable to each 15
newly promulgated, or amendment to a, Federal 16
regulation, rule, or statement. 17
‘‘(B) G
UIDANCE FOR AGENCIES .—The Bu-18
reau of Economic Analysis of the Department 19
of Commerce shall issue guidance to agencies 20
regarding the methodology to be used to deter-21
mine the amount of, and any change in, the 22
Federal regulatory cost attributable to each 23
newly promulgated, or amendment to a, Federal 24
regulation, rule, or statement. 25
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‘‘(C) MANDATORY USE BY AGENCIES .—For 1
purposes of any analysis conducted by an agen-2
cy (without regard to whether the analysis is 3
conducted for purposes of this Act), each agen-4
cy shall determine the amount of, and any 5
change in, the Federal regulatory cost attrib-6
utable to each newly promulgated, or amend-7
ment to a, Federal regulation, rule, or state-8
ment in accordance with the guidance issued 9
under subparagraph (B). 10
‘‘(2) OMB
DETERMINATION.—The OMB shall 11
determine whether the change in the Federal regu-12
latory cost determined under paragraph (1) would 13
cause a breach of any level or allocation of the Fed-14
eral regulatory cost in effect for a fiscal year, which 15
shall incorporate any reduction to the level or alloca-16
tion of the Federal regulatory cost attributable to a 17
revision of a Federal regulation, rule, or statement 18
during the fiscal year. 19
‘‘(3) CBO
REVIEW.—The CBO shall— 20
‘‘(A) review the methodology used by the 21
Bureau of Economic Analysis and the OMB for 22
each determination under paragraphs (1) and 23
(2); and 24
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‘‘(B) issue an opinion on whether the 1
change in the Federal regulatory cost attrib-2
utable to the applicable newly promulgated, or 3
amendment to a, Federal regulation, rule, or 4
statement would cause a breach of any level or 5
allocation of the Federal regulatory cost in ef-6
fect for a fiscal year. 7
‘‘(d) I
MPLEMENTATION.—The OMB shall issue a di-8
rective prohibiting funds from being obligated or expended 9
to enforce a newly promulgated, or amendment to a, Fed-10
eral regulation, rule, or statement during a fiscal year if— 11
‘‘(1) the OMB determines that change in the 12
Federal regulatory cost attributable to the newly 13
promulgated, or amendment to a, Federal regula-14
tion, rule, or statement, as determined by the Bu-15
reau of Economic Analysis under subsection (c)(1), 16
would cause a breach of any level or allocation of the 17
Federal regulatory cost in effect for the fiscal year; 18
and 19
‘‘(2) the appropriation Act making the applica-20
ble appropriations for the fiscal year contains a pro-21
vision described in subsection (a). 22
‘‘(e) O
FFSETTINGSAVINGS.—In making determina-23
tions under this section with respect to a newly promul-24
gated, or amendment to a, Federal regulation, rule, or 25
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statement, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the CBO, 1
and the OMB shall subtract from the amount of the Fed-2
eral regulatory cost, and any applicable allocation thereof, 3
any reduction to the Federal regulatory cost that is attrib-4
utable to a revision of another Federal regulation, rule, 5
or statement made as part of the same rulemaking. 6
‘‘(f) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.—Any person ag-7
grieved of an action taken or failed to be taken under a 8
Federal regulation, rule, or statement for which the OMB 9
has issued a directive prohibiting enforcement under sub-10
section (d) may bring a civil action in an appropriate dis-11
trict court of the United States alleging that the Federal 12
regulation, rule, or statement should not have been en-13
forced. 14
‘‘SEC. 325. OMB–CBO REPORTS. 15
‘‘Not later than 5 years after the date of enactment 16
of this section, and not later than September 15th of each 17
odd-numbered year thereafter, OMB and CBO shall joint-18
ly submit to the President, the Senate, and the House of 19
Representatives a report that includes— 20
‘‘(1) a projection of the direct cost of Federal 21
regulation and the Federal regulatory cost for the 22
first fiscal year beginning after the date of the re-23
port and at least each of the 4 ensuing fiscal years; 24
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‘‘(2) a calculation of the estimated direct cost 1
of Federal regulation and Federal regulatory cost as 2
a percentage of the gross domestic product; 3
‘‘(3) the reduction in estimated gross domestic 4
product attributable to private sector compliance 5
with all Federal regulations, rules, or statements 6
and all Federal statutes; 7
‘‘(4) a detailed description of the effect on the 8
economy of the United States of Federal regulations, 9
rules, and statements and Federal statutes, which 10
shall be categorized as relating to— 11
‘‘(A) regulation of the economy; 12
‘‘(B) security, including homeland security; 13
‘‘(C) the environment; 14
‘‘(D) health and safety; or 15
‘‘(E) the Federal budget; 16
‘‘(5) a discussion of the expected reduction in 17
personnel, administrative overhead, and pro-18
grammatic costs that would be achieved by Federal 19
agencies that issue regulations, rules, or statements 20
with a Federal regulatory cost if the Federal agen-21
cies reduced the Federal regulatory cost by 5 per-22
cent; 23
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‘‘(6) recommendations for budgeting, technical, 1
and estimating changes to improve the Federal regu-2
latory budgeting process; 3
‘‘(7) the Federal regulatory cost imposed by 4
each Executive branch agency on regulated entities; 5
‘‘(8) the direct cost of Federal regulation attrib-6
utable to each Executive branch agency; 7
‘‘(9) the Federal regulatory costs imposed by 8
each Executive branch agency on small businesses, 9
small organizations, and small governmental juris-10
dictions (as those terms are defined in section 601 11
of title 5, United States Code); and 12
‘‘(10) the sum of the costs described in para-13
graph (9). 14
‘‘SEC. 326. REGULATORY BASELINE. 15
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—For the fifth fiscal year that be-16
gins after the date of enactment of this section and for 17
every second fiscal year thereafter, CBO, in consultation 18
with OMB, shall submit to the President, the Senate, and 19
the House of Representatives a regulatory baseline, con-20
sisting of a projection of the Federal regulatory cost for 21
the fiscal year and at least each of the 4 ensuing fiscal 22
years. In preparing the projection of the regulatory base-23
line under this subsection, for the second fiscal year cov-24
ered under the projection and each fiscal year thereafter, 25
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CBO shall adjust the baseline for the estimated growth 1
during that fiscal year in the gross domestic product. 2
‘‘(b) D
EADLINE.—The CBO shall submit a regu-3
latory baseline required under subsection (a) for a fiscal 4
year not later than the date on which the CBO submits 5
the report required under section 202(e)(1) with respect 6
to that fiscal year. 7
‘‘(c) R
EGULARUPDATES ONDEVELOPMENT OF REG-8
ULATORYBASELINE.—Not later than the date on which 9
the CBO submits the report required under section 10
202(e)(1) with respect to each fiscal year during the pe-11
riod beginning on the date of enactment of this section 12
and ending on the date on which the CBO submits the 13
first projection of the Federal regulatory cost under sub-14
section (a), the CBO shall submit to the Committee on 15
the Budget of the Senate and the Committee on the Budg-16
et of the House of Representatives an annual update on 17
the progress of the CBO in developing the regulatory base-18
line.’’. 19
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 20
The table of contents set forth in section 1(b) of the Con-21
gressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 22
is amended— 23
(1) by inserting before the item relating to sec-24
tion 300 the following: 25
‘‘PARTA. GENERALPROVISIONS’’;
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and 1
(2) by inserting after the item relating to sec-2
tion 315 the following: 3
‘‘PARTB. FEDERALREGULATORYBUDGETCOSTCONTROL
‘‘Sec. 321. Definitions.
‘‘Sec. 322. Establishment of level and allocations.
‘‘Sec. 323. Analysis of Federal regulatory cost by Congressional Budget Office.
‘‘Sec. 324. Enforcement.
‘‘Sec. 325. OMB–CBO reports.
‘‘Sec. 326. Regulatory baseline.’’.
SEC. 6. STUDY OF NONMAJOR RULES.
4
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 5
(1) the term ‘‘agency’’ has the meaning given 6
that term in section 551 of title 5, United States 7
Code; 8
(2) the term ‘‘covered guidance document’’ 9
means any guidance document that has resulted or 10
is likely to result in an annual effect on the economy 11
of not less than $10,000,000; 12
(3) the term ‘‘covered nonmajor rule’’ means 13
any rule that has resulted in or is likely to result in 14
an annual effect on the economy of not less than 15
$10,000,000 and not more than $100,000,000; 16
(4) the term ‘‘guidance document’’ means an 17
agency statement of general applicability and future 18
effect, other than a rule, that sets forth a policy on 19
a statutory, regulatory, or technical issue or an in-20
terpretation of a statutory or regulatory issue; 21
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(5) the term ‘‘Federal regulatory cost’’ has the 1
meaning given that term under section 321 of the 2
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, as added by this 3
Act; and 4
(6) the term ‘‘rule’’ has the meaning given that 5
term in section 804 of title 5, United States Code. 6
(b) R
EPORTS.—Not later than 120 days after the 7
date of enactment of this Act and every 2 years thereafter, 8
the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit 9
to Congress a report regarding covered nonmajor rules 10
and covered guidance documents, which shall include, for 11
the 4-year period immediately preceding the report— 12
(1) the number of covered nonmajor rules pro-13
mulgated; 14
(2) the number of covered nonmajor rules im-15
plemented; 16
(3) the number of covered guidance documents 17
developed; 18
(4) the number of covered guidance documents 19
issued; 20
(5) the Federal regulatory cost of each covered 21
nonmajor rule implemented; 22
(6) the Federal regulatory cost of each covered 23
guidance document issued; 24
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(7) the aggregate Federal regulatory cost of all 1
covered nonmajor rules implemented; 2
(8) the aggregate Federal regulatory cost of all 3
covered guidance documents issued; and 4
(9) a discussion of any covered nonmajor rule 5
for which an initial regulatory flexibility analysis was 6
prepared under section 603 of title 5, United States 7
Code, a final regulatory flexibility analysis was pre-8
pared under section 604 of title 5, United States 9
Code, or a cost benefit analysis was prepared that 10
underestimated the actual Federal regulatory cost of 11
implementing the covered nonmajor rule. 12
Æ
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