Congress Report Card

Analysis ยท October 21, 2026

How the Congressional Review Act works, and why it produced 23 new laws

Nearly one in five laws sponsored by current members this Congress cancelled a federal regulation. Here is how the Congressional Review Act works and what it was used for.

Look at the list of bills that have become law in the 119th Congress and one kind of title appears again and again: "Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by..." Twenty-three laws sponsored by current members have that form. Each one cancelled a regulation that a federal agency had already issued. Together they make up almost a fifth of the 126 laws on the full list.

These laws come from the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that gives Congress a fast way to overturn agency rules. Understanding how it works explains why so many of these resolutions passed, and why they cluster at the start of a new administration.

What the Congressional Review Act does

Federal agencies write regulations that carry out the laws Congress passes. Before a major rule takes effect, the agency must send it to Congress. The Congressional Review Act then gives Congress a window to reject the rule by passing a joint resolution of disapproval. Like any law, the resolution needs to pass both chambers and be signed by the President, or survive a veto.

What makes the act powerful is its procedure in the Senate. Most legislation in the Senate effectively needs 60 votes, because that is what it takes to end a filibuster. A disapproval resolution under the Congressional Review Act cannot be filibustered, and debate on it is limited, so it can pass with a simple majority. In a closely divided Senate, that difference is decisive.

A disapproved rule doesn't just disappear. The act also bars the agency from issuing a new rule that is "substantially the same" unless Congress later authorizes it. That makes a disapproval more lasting than a rule change made by a later administration, which can itself be reversed.

Why these resolutions cluster at the start of a term

For most of the act's history, it was rarely used successfully. The reason is simple: a President won't usually sign a resolution cancelling a rule written by their own administration. Disapprovals succeed when a new President of a different party takes office alongside a friendly Congress and the previous administration's late rules are still within reach.

The act includes a "lookback" provision that makes this possible. Rules submitted to Congress in roughly the last 60 days that the House or Senate was in session before the end of a session can be reviewed again in the next session, as though they had just been submitted. Rules finalized in the last months of an outgoing administration therefore remain open to disapproval in the first months of the next one. That is what happened in 2017, and it is what happened again in 2025.

What Congress disapproved this time

The 23 regulatory disapprovals sponsored by current members fall into a few groups.

Seventeen of the 23 were sponsored in the House and six in the Senate. The land management resolutions were all sponsored by members from the states affected: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and Minnesota. Two members sponsored more than one successful disapproval: Nicholas J. Begich III of Alaska and John Kennedy of Louisiana.

A related power: reviewing District of Columbia laws

One more disapproval resolution on the list is different. Under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, laws passed by the D.C. Council go to Congress for review before they take effect, and Congress can block them by passing a joint resolution of disapproval. This Congress used that power to overturn a D.C. law conforming the District's income and franchise taxes to federal changes. The resolution was sponsored by Brandon Gill of Texas. Congress rarely uses this power successfully, though it has done so more often in recent years.

How these laws affect members' grades

A disapproval resolution that becomes law counts the same as any other bill on a member's report card: 10 points under "bills written." That has a visible effect. A single law is worth as much as ten bills that were introduced and went nowhere, so sponsors of successful disapproval resolutions get a real boost in their legislative score.

Is that fair? Congress Report Card's grades measure legislative results, not the merits of a policy, and a joint resolution that becomes law is a law. Sponsoring one takes the same work any bill does: drafting, building support, and getting floor time in both chambers. At the same time, these resolutions are easier to pass than ordinary bills because of their protected Senate procedure, and almost all of them are sponsored by members of the party that controls Congress and the White House. Readers can weigh that context themselves. The member pages list every bill that advanced, so you can see whether a member's laws were disapprovals, spending bills or standalone policy.

What comes next

The lookback window for rules from the previous administration has closed, so the pace of disapprovals has slowed. Congress can still disapprove rules issued by the current administration, but that rarely succeeds when the President's own party controls Congress. The next large wave, if there is one, would come at the start of the next change in administration.

To see every law sponsored by a member of your delegation, open your state page and select a member. For the full scoring rules, see the methodology.

Figures are from the Congress Report Card data as of October 21, 2026. Grades change as Congress votes, so the numbers on member pages may have moved since. How grades are calculated.

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