II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 644
To improve retrospective reviews of Federal regulations, and for other
purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY20, 2025
Mr. L
EE(for himself and Ms. LUMMIS) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To improve retrospective reviews of Federal regulations, 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 ‘‘Modernizing Retro-4
spective Regulatory Review Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. IMPROVING RETROSPECTIVE REVIEWS OF FED-6
ERAL REGULATIONS. 7
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
(1) A
DMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE OF THE FED -9
ERAL REGISTER.—The term ‘‘Administrative Com-10
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•S 644 IS
mittee of the Federal Register’’ means the com-1
mittee established under section 1506 of title 44, 2
United States Code. 3
(2) A
DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-4
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Office of In-5
formation and Regulatory Affairs. 6
(3) A
GENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’ has the 7
meaning given the term in section 3502 of title 44, 8
United States Code. 9
(4) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -10
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-11
mittees’’ means— 12
(A) the Committee on Oversight and Gov-13
ernment Reform of the House of Representa-14
tives; and 15
(B) the Committee on Homeland Security 16
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate. 17
(5) D
IRECTOR OF GPO.—The term ‘‘Director of 18
GPO’’ means the Director of the Government Pub-19
lishing Office. 20
(6) M
ACHINE-READABLE.—The term ‘‘machine- 21
readable’’ has the meaning given the term in section 22
3502 of title 44, United States Code. 23
(7) R
ETROSPECTIVE REVIEW OF A REGULATION 24
OF THE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘retrospective review of 25
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•S 644 IS
a regulation of the agency’’ means a review of regu-1
lations of the agency conducted after the regulation 2
has been issued that is required by law or deter-3
mined appropriate by the head of the agency. 4
(b) R
EPORT ONAVAILABILITY OFEXISTINGREGU-5
LATIONS INMACHINE-READABLEFORMAT.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 7
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 8
of the Office of Management and Budget, acting 9
through the Administrator and in consultation with 10
the Director of GPO, the Archivist of the United 11
States, and the Director of the Federal Register, 12
shall submit to the appropriate congressional com-13
mittees, a report on the progress of the Federal Gov-14
ernment in making regulations of agencies available 15
in machine-readable format. 16
(2) C
ONTENTS OF REPORT .—The report re-17
quired by paragraph (1) shall include— 18
(A) an assessment of whether agency regu-19
lations have been made available in a machine- 20
readable format to the public; and 21
(B) information regarding the recognition 22
by the Administrative Committee of the Federal 23
Register of the eCFR maintained by the Direc-24
tor of the Federal Register and the Director of 25
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GPO as an official legal edition of the Code of 1
Federal Regulations. 2
(c) G
UIDANCE ONUSINGTECHNOLOGY TOCONDUCT 3
R
ETROSPECTIVEREVIEWS.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 5
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director 6
of the Office of Management and Budget, acting 7
through the Administrator, shall issue guidance on 8
how the head of an agency can— 9
(A) use technology (including algorithmic 10
tools and artificial intelligence) to more effi-11
ciently, cost-effectively, and accurately conduct 12
any retrospective review of the existing regula-13
tions of the agency, including how to identify, 14
procure, and use such technology to identify 15
through any such review regulations of the 16
agency that— 17
(i) are obsolete, ineffective, or insuffi-18
cient; 19
(ii) are excessively burdensome or 20
should be improved; 21
(iii) contain typographical errors; 22
(iv) contain inaccurate cross ref-23
erences; or 24
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(v) are redundant, contradict, or over-1
lap with any regulations or standards of 2
the agency; and 3
(B) adequately train personnel of the agen-4
cy on how to use such technology. 5
(2) D
EVELOPMENT OF GUIDANCE .—In devel-6
oping the guidance required pursuant to paragraph 7
(1), the Administrator shall take into account any 8
assessment or information included in the report re-9
quired by subsection (b). 10
(d) A
GENCYRETROSPECTIVEREVIEWPLAN.—Not 11
later than 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, 12
the head of each agency shall submit to the Administrator 13
and the appropriate congressional committees a plan 14
that— 15
(1) includes a detailed strategy for imple-16
menting the guidance issued pursuant to subsection 17
(c) with respect to the regulations of the agency; 18
(2) identifies any regulation of the agency, or 19
categories of regulations of the agency, that the 20
head of the agency— 21
(A) is required by law to review after the 22
applicable regulation is issued; or 23
(B) determines would benefit from being 24
reviewed after the regulation is issued; and 25
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(3) includes any additional information, data, 1
or ex-post analysis determined necessary or useful 2
by the head of the agency. 3
(e) A
GENCYIMPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 180 4
days after the date on which the head of an agency sub-5
mits the plan required by subsection (d), the head of the 6
agency shall implement the strategy included in such plan 7
with respect to any retrospective review of a regulation 8
of the agency. 9
Æ
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