II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 77
To require agencies to publish an advance notice of proposed rule making
for major rules.
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 require agencies to publish an advance notice of proposed
rule making for major rules.
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 ‘‘Early Participation 4
in Regulations Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. ADVANCE NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULE MAKING. 6
Subchapter II of chapter 5 of title 5, United States 7
Code, is amended— 8
(1) in section 551— 9
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•S 77 IS
(A) in paragraph (13), by striking ‘‘and’’ 1
at the end; 2
(B) in paragraph (14), by striking the pe-3
riod at the end and inserting a semicolon; and 4
(C) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(15) ‘major rule’ means any rule that the Ad-6
ministrator of the Office of Information and Regu-7
latory Affairs determines is likely to impose— 8
‘‘(A) an annual effect on the economy of 9
$100,000,000 or more; 10
‘‘(B) a major increase in costs or prices for 11
consumers, individual industries, Federal, 12
State, local, or Tribal government agencies, or 13
geographic regions; or 14
‘‘(C) significant effects on competition, em-15
ployment, investment, productivity, innovation, 16
health, safety, the environment, or the ability of 17
United States-based enterprises to compete with 18
foreign-based enterprises in domestic and ex-19
port markets; and 20
‘‘(16) ‘Office of Information and Regulatory Af-21
fairs’ means the office established under section 22
3503 of title 44 and any successor to that office.’’; 23
and 24
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•S 77 IS
(2) in section 553, by adding at the end the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(f) A
DVANCENOTICE OFPROPOSEDRULEMAKING 3
FORMAJORRULES.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-5
graph (3), not later than 90 days before the date on 6
which an agency publishes a notice of proposed rule 7
making for a major rule in the Federal Register, the 8
agency shall publish an advance notice of proposed 9
rule making for the major rule in the Federal Reg-10
ister. 11
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.—An advance notice of 12
proposed rule making published under paragraph (1) 13
shall— 14
‘‘(A) include a written statement identi-15
fying, at a minimum— 16
‘‘(i) the nature and significance of the 17
problem the agency may address with a 18
major rule, including any data or cat-19
egories of data that the agency has identi-20
fied as relevant or that the agency intends 21
to consult for the proposed major rule; 22
‘‘(ii) a general description of regu-23
latory alternatives under consideration; 24
and 25
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‘‘(iii) the legal authority under which 1
a major rule may be proposed; 2
‘‘(B) solicit written data, views, and argu-3
ment from interested persons concerning the in-4
formation and issues identified in the advance 5
notice; and 6
‘‘(C) provide for a period of not less than 7
30 days for interested persons to submit such 8
written data, views, or argument to the agency. 9
‘‘(3) E
XCEPTIONS.—This subsection shall not 10
apply to a major rule if— 11
‘‘(A) the agency proposing the major rule 12
is not required to publish a notice of proposed 13
rule making in the Federal Register for the 14
major rule under subparagraph (A) or (B) of 15
subsection (b); 16
‘‘(B) the Administrator of the Office of In-17
formation and Regulatory Affairs determines 18
that complying with the requirements described 19
in this subsection— 20
‘‘(i) would not serve the public inter-21
est; 22
‘‘(ii) would be duplicative of processes 23
as rigorous and effective as those pre-24
scribed in paragraph (2) and would be un-25
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necessary to ensure meaningful public par-1
ticipation; or 2
‘‘(iii) would not be practicable due to 3
a statutory or court-imposed deadline; or 4
‘‘(C) the Administrator of the Office of In-5
formation and Regulatory Affairs determines 6
that the major rule falls within a category of 7
major rules that are routine or periodic in na-8
ture. 9
‘‘(4) J
UDICIAL REVIEW.— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—A determination made 11
by the Administrator of the Office of Informa-12
tion and Regulatory Affairs in accordance with 13
subparagraph (B) or (C) of paragraph (3) shall 14
not be subject to judicial review. 15
‘‘(B) A
RBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS .—Any 16
difference between policies set forth in the writ-17
ten statement of an agency under paragraph 18
(2)(A) and the notice of proposed rule making 19
shall not be reviewable under section 20
706(2)(A).’’. 21
Æ
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