II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 76
To amend title 5, United States Code, to improve the effectiveness of major
rules in accomplishing their regulatory objectives by promoting retrospec-
tive review, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY13, 2025
Mr. L
ANKFORD(for himself and Mrs. CAPITO) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to improve the effec-
tiveness of major rules in accomplishing their regulatory
objectives by promoting retrospective review, 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 ‘‘Setting Manageable 4
Analysis Requirements in Text Act of 2025’’ or the 5
‘‘SMART Act of 2025’’. 6
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SEC. 2. INCORPORATING RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW INTO 1
NEW MAJOR RULES. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 5 of title 3
5, United States Code, is amended— 4
(1) in section 551— 5
(A) in paragraph (13), by striking ‘‘and’’ 6
at the end; 7
(B) in paragraph (14), by striking the pe-8
riod at the end and inserting a semicolon; and 9
(C) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(15) ‘Administrator’ means the Administrator 11
of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs 12
of the Office of Management and Budget established 13
under section 3503 of title 44 and any successor to 14
that office; and 15
‘‘(16) ‘major rule’ means any rule that the Ad-16
ministrator finds has resulted in or is likely to result 17
in— 18
‘‘(A) an annual effect on the economy of 19
$100,000,000 or more; 20
‘‘(B) a major increase in costs or prices for 21
consumers, individual industries, Federal, 22
State, or local government agencies, or geo-23
graphic regions; or 24
‘‘(C) significant adverse effects on competi-25
tion, employment, investment, productivity, in-26
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novation, health, safety, the environment, or the 1
ability of United States-based enterprises to 2
compete with foreign-based enterprises in do-3
mestic and export markets.’’; and 4
(2) in section 553, by adding at the end the fol-5
lowing: 6
‘‘(f) M
AJORRULEFRAMEWORKS.— 7
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—On and after the date that 8
is 1 year after the date of enactment of this sub-9
section— 10
‘‘(A) with respect to a proposed rule pub-11
lished by an agency in the Federal Register 12
that the agency reasonably expects would meet 13
the definition of a major rule, the agency shall 14
include a potential framework for assessing the 15
implemented rule, which shall include a general 16
statement of how the agency intends to measure 17
the effectiveness of the rule; and 18
‘‘(B) with respect to a final major rule 19
published by an agency in the Federal Register, 20
including a major rule that the agency did not 21
initially reasonably expect would meet the defi-22
nition of a major rule under subparagraph (A), 23
the agency shall include a framework for assess-24
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ing the major rule under paragraph (2), which 1
shall include— 2
‘‘(i) a statement of the regulatory ob-3
jectives of the major rule, including a sum-4
mary of the societal benefit and cost of the 5
major rule; 6
‘‘(ii) the methodology by which the 7
agency plans to analyze the qualitative and 8
quantitative outcomes of the major rule so 9
that the agency can assess— 10
‘‘(I) the effectiveness and bene-11
fits of the major rule in producing the 12
regulatory objectives of the major 13
rule; and 14
‘‘(II) the effects and costs of the 15
major rule on regulated and other af-16
fected entities; 17
‘‘(iii) a plan for gathering data, in-18
cluding public input, regarding the meth-19
odology described in clause (ii) on an ongo-20
ing basis or at periodic times; and 21
‘‘(iv) a time frame, as appropriate to 22
the major rule and not more than 10 years 23
after the effective date of the major rule, 24
under which the agency shall conduct the 25
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assessment of the major rule in accordance 1
with paragraph (2)(A). 2
‘‘(2) A
SSESSMENT.— 3
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each agency shall as-4
sess the data gathered under paragraph 5
(1)(B)(iii), using the methodology set forth in 6
paragraph (1)(B)(ii) or any other appropriate 7
methodology developed after the issuance of a 8
final major rule— 9
‘‘(i) to analyze how the actual benefits 10
and costs of the major rule may have var-11
ied from those anticipated at the time the 12
major rule was issued; and 13
‘‘(ii) to determine whether— 14
‘‘(I) the major rule is accom-15
plishing the regulatory objective of the 16
major rule; 17
‘‘(II) the major rule has been 18
rendered unnecessary, taking into 19
consideration— 20
‘‘(aa) changes in the subject 21
area affected by the major rule; 22
and 23
‘‘(bb) whether the major 24
rule overlaps with, duplicates, or 25
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conflicts with other rules or, to 1
the extent feasible, State and 2
local government regulations; 3
‘‘(III) the major rule needs to be 4
expanded, streamlined, or otherwise 5
modified in order to accomplish the 6
regulatory objective of the major rule; 7
and 8
‘‘(IV) other alternatives to the 9
major rule or a modification of the 10
major rule could better achieve the 11
regulatory objective of the major rule 12
by increasing the benefits of the 13
major rule or imposing a smaller bur-14
den on society, or both, taking into 15
consideration any changes in the regu-16
latory environment that may have 17
made the major rule more or less nec-18
essary or effective, and any cost al-19
ready incurred. 20
‘‘(B) D
IFFERENT METHODOLOGY .—If an 21
agency uses a methodology other than the 22
methodology set forth in paragraph (1)(B)(ii) 23
to assess data under subparagraph (A), the 24
agency shall include notification of the revised 25
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methodology and an explanation of the changes 1
in circumstances that necessitated the use of 2
that other methodology as part of the notice re-3
quired under subparagraph (D). 4
‘‘(C) S
UBSEQUENT ASSESSMENTS .—If, 5
after an assessment of a major rule under sub-6
paragraph (A), an agency determines that the 7
major rule will remain in effect with or without 8
modification, the agency shall, in consultation 9
with the Administrator, include with the assess-10
ment produced under subparagraph (A) a list of 11
circumstances or events that would necessitate 12
a subsequent review in accordance with sub-13
paragraph (A) to ensure that the major rule 14
continues to meet the regulatory objective of 15
the major rule. 16
‘‘(D) P
UBLICATION.—Not later than 180 17
days after the date on which an agency com-18
pletes an assessment of a major rule under sub-19
paragraph (A), the agency shall publish promi-20
nently on the website of the agency the results 21
of the assessment, including the circumstances 22
or events that would necessitate a subsequent 23
assessment of the major rule under subpara-24
graph (C). 25
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‘‘(3) AGENCY HEAD RESPONSIBILITIES .—The 1
head of each agency shall— 2
‘‘(A) oversee the timely compliance of the 3
agency with this subsection; and 4
‘‘(B) ensure that the results of each as-5
sessment conducted under paragraph (2) are 6
published promptly in accordance with para-7
graph (2)(D). 8
‘‘(4) OMB
OVERSIGHT.—The Administrator 9
shall— 10
‘‘(A) issue guidance for agencies regarding 11
the development of the framework under para-12
graph (1) and the conduct of the assessments 13
under paragraph (2)(A); 14
‘‘(B) encourage and assist agencies to 15
streamline and coordinate the assessment of 16
major rules with similar or related regulatory 17
objectives; 18
‘‘(C) exempt an agency from including the 19
framework required under paragraph (1)(B) 20
when publishing a final major rule, if— 21
‘‘(i) the agency did not issue a notice 22
of proposed rule making for the major rule 23
in order to provide a timely response to an 24
emergency or comply with a statutorily im-25
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posed deadline, in accordance with para-1
graph (6)(B); or 2
‘‘(ii) the Administrator determines 3
that— 4
‘‘(I) the major final rule falls 5
within a category of major rules that 6
are routine or periodic in nature, in-7
cluding those issued on an annual 8
basis in order to put in place annual 9
spending programs; or 10
‘‘(II) for any other reason, the 11
conduct of an assessment would be 12
impracticable, unnecessary, or con-13
trary to the public interest; and 14
‘‘(D) extend the deadline specified by an 15
agency for an assessment of a major rule under 16
paragraph (1)(B)(iv) or paragraph (2)(C) for a 17
period of not more than 90 days if the agency 18
justifies why the agency is unable to complete 19
the assessment by that deadline. 20
‘‘(5) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 21
this subsection may be construed to affect— 22
‘‘(A) the authority of an agency to assess 23
or modify a major rule of the agency earlier 24
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than the end of the time frame specified for the 1
major rule under paragraph (1)(B)(iv); or 2
‘‘(B) any other provision of law that re-3
quires an agency to conduct retrospective re-4
views of rules issued by the agency. 5
‘‘(6) A
PPLICABILITY.— 6
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—This subsection shall 7
not apply to— 8
‘‘(i) a major rule of an agency— 9
‘‘(I) that the Administrator re-10
viewed before the date of enactment of 11
this subsection; 12
‘‘(II) for which the agency is re-13
quired to conduct a retrospective re-14
view under— 15
‘‘(aa) section 2222 of the 16
Economic Growth and Regu-17
latory Paperwork Reduction Act 18
of 1996 (12 U.S.C. 3311); 19
‘‘(bb) section 170(d) of the 20
Financial Stability Act of 2010 21
(12 U.S.C. 5370(d)); or 22
‘‘(cc) any other provision of 23
law with requirements that the 24
Administrator determines— 25
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‘‘(AA) include robust 1
public participation; 2
‘‘(BB) include signifi-3
cant agency consideration 4
and analysis of whether the 5
rule is achieving the regu-6
latory objective of the rule; 7
and 8
‘‘(CC) meet, are sub-9
stantially similar to, or ex-10
ceed the requirements of 11
this subsection; 12
‘‘(III) for which the authorizing 13
statute of the rule is subject to peri-14
odic authorization by Congress not 15
less frequently than once every 10 16
years; or 17
‘‘(IV) for which the authorizing 18
statute of the rule requires the pro-19
mulgation of a new or revised rule not 20
less frequently than once every 10 21
years; or 22
‘‘(ii) interpretative rules, general 23
statements of policy, or rules of agency or-24
ganization, procedure, or practice. 25
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‘‘(B) GOOD CAUSE EXEMPTION .—In the 1
case of a major rule for which an agency has 2
not issued a notice of proposed rule making, the 3
agency shall publish the framework required 4
under paragraph (1)(B) in the Federal Register 5
not later than 6 months after the date on which 6
the agency publishes the final major rule. 7
‘‘(7) J
UDICIAL REVIEW.— 8
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Judicial review of 9
agency compliance with this subsection— 10
‘‘(i) shall be strictly limited to— 11
‘‘(I) whether an agency published 12
the framework for assessment of a 13
major rule described in paragraph (1); 14
or 15
‘‘(II) whether an agency pub-16
lished the assessment or subsequent 17
assessment of a major rule described 18
in subparagraphs (A), (C), and (D) of 19
paragraph (2); and 20
‘‘(ii) shall not include a substantive 21
review of the framework, assessment, or 22
action of an agency under this subsection. 23
‘‘(B) R
EMEDY AVAILABLE .—In granting 24
relief in an action brought under subparagraph 25
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(A), a court may only issue an order remanding 1
the major rule to the agency to comply with 2
paragraph (1) or subparagraph (A), (C), or (D) 3
of paragraph (2), as applicable. 4
‘‘(C) E
FFECTIVE DATE OF MAJOR RULE .— 5
If, in an action brought under subparagraph 6
(A)(i), a court determines that the agency did 7
not comply, the major rule shall take effect not-8
withstanding any order issued by the court. 9
‘‘(D) A
DMINISTRATOR.—Any determina-10
tion, action, or inaction of the Administrator 11
shall not be subject to judicial review.’’. 12
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 13
are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 14
necessary to carry out the amendments made by sub-15
section (a). 16
Æ
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