S 164

Introduced

Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2025

To amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for en bloc consideration in resolutions of disapproval for ``midnight rules'', and for other purposes.

Introduced Jan 21, 2025

Latest action (Aug 6, 2026) Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.

Referred to

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee

Policy area

Government Operations and Politics

Legislative subjects (4)

Administrative law and regulatory procedures Congressional oversight Legislative rules and procedure Presidents and presidential powers, Vice Presidents

Summary

Amends the Congressional Review Act to permit joint resolutions of disapproval to contain multiple "midnight rules" submitted during the final year of a President's term.
Allows a single joint resolution of disapproval to disapprove more than one rule if reports for each rule were submitted during the final year of a presidential term.
Changes the required text of joint resolutions to specify all rules being disapproved in a single resolution with a format listing each rule and stating that such rules shall have no force or effect.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Sen. Johnson, Ron [R-WI] (R-WI)

6 cosponsors

Actions (3)

Aug 6, 2026 Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably. · senate
Jan 21, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. · senate
Jan 21, 2025 Introduced in Senate

More bills on these subjects (8)

Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Text versions (1)

Introduced in Senate · Jan 21, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Committee action

What happened to this bill in committee — the meetings where it was considered and every recorded vote taken on it.

Meetings where this bill was on the agenda

Business meeting to consider an original resolution regarding Contempt of Congress, S.2732, to strengthen employee cost savings suggestions programs within the Federal Government, S.2733, to require the Comptroller General of the United States to analyze certain legislation in order to prevent duplication of and overlap with existing Federal programs, offices, and initiatives, S.252, to increase access to agency guidance documents, S.164, to amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for en bloc consideration in resolutions of disapproval for "midnight rules", H.R.5235, to amend title 41, United States Code, to prohibit minimum educational requirements for proposed contractor personnel in certain contract solicitations, S.3175, to establish a pilot program for ZIP Code boundary changes, S.4505, to require the United States Postal Service to designate ZIP Codes for certain communities, S.1735, to require certain agencies to include a page on the website of the agency relating to permit applications, S.5163, to amend title 39, United States Code, to prevent the awarding of bonuses to the Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General for a fiscal year in which the United States Postal Service does not meet or exceed each on-time mail delivery target, S.2542, to direct the Director of the Federal Protective Service to establish guidance relating to emergency protocols for buildings, S.3211, to require the Office of Management and Budget to consider revising the Standard Occupational Classification system to establish a separate code for direct support professionals, S.4079, to establish in U.S. Customs and Border Protection a pilot program to adopt dogs from local animal shelters to be trained as support dogs, S.3296, to amend chapter 81 of title 5, United States Code, to cover, for purposes of workers' compensation under such chapter, services by physician assistants and nurse practitioners provided to injured Federal workers, S.388, to amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act with respect to the implementation of building codes, S.3226, to provide for the creation of the missing Armed Forces and civilian personnel Records Collection at the National Archives, to require the expeditious public transmission to the Archivist and public disclosure of missing Armed Forces and civilian personnel records, S.24, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 154 First Avenue East in Jerome, Idaho, as the "Representative Maxine Bell Post Office", S.58, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 107 North Hoyne Avenue in Fritch, Texas, as the "Chief Zeb Smith Post Office", S.829, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 840 Front Street in Casselton, North Dakota, as the "Commander Delbert Austin Olson Post Office", S.917, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 620 East Pecan Boulevard in McAllen, Texas, as the "Agent Raul H. Gonzalez Jr. Memorial Post Office", S.2394, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 505 East 9th Avenue in Amarillo, Texas, as the "Mayor Jerry H. Hodge Post Office Building", S.2432, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 6444 San Fernando Road in Glendale, California, as the "Paul Ignatius Post Office", S.3270 and H.R.6310, bills to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3570 Olney Laytonsville Road in Olney, Maryland, as the "Edward L. Ramsey Olney Post Office Building", S.3294 and H.R.6332, bills to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 10660 Page Avenue in Fairfax, Virginia, as the "Congressman Gerald E. Connolly Post Office Building", S.3331, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 50 East 100 North in Moab, Utah, as the "2nd Lieutenant Mitch Williams Post Office", S.3373, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 14855 South Van Dyke Road in Plainfield, Illinois, as the "Staff Sergeant Jose Duenez Jr. Post Office Building", S.3444, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service at 1300 East Northwest Highway in Palatine, Illinois, as the "Bernie Bluestein Post Office Building", S.3630, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 46164 Westlake Drive in Sterling, Virginia, as the "Firefighter Trevor Brown Post Office Building", S.3835, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 10 East Main Street in Mahaffey, Pennsylvania, as the "Robert Allen Bishop, Sr., Post Office Building", S.4052, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 203 North Clay Street in Marshfield, Missouri, shall be known and designated as the "Edwin P. Hubble Post Office", S.4523, to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 111 SouHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs CommitteeAug 6, 2026Business meeting

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 21, 2025

Mr. Johnson (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn, Ms. Lummis, Mr. Schmitt, Mr. Sheehy, and Mr. Lankford) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To amend chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, to provide for en bloc consideration in resolutions of disapproval for “midnight rules”, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Midnight Rules Relief Act of 2025”.

SEC. 2. EN BLOC CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTIONS OF DISAPPROVAL PERTAINING TO “MIDNIGHT RULES”.

(a) In General.—Section 801(d) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

“(4) In applying section 802 to rules described under paragraph

(1), a joint resolution of disapproval may contain one or more such rules if the report under subsection (a)(1)(A) for each such rule was submitted during the final year of a President’s term.”.

(b) Text of Resolving Clause.—Section 802(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended—

(1) by inserting “(1) In general.—” after “(a)”;

(2) by inserting after “resolving clause of which is” the following: “(except as otherwise provided in this subsection)”; and

(3) by adding at the end the following:

“(2) Joint Resolutions Under Section 801(d)(4).—In the case of a joint resolution under section 801(d)(4), the matter after the resolving clause of such resolution shall be as follows: ‘That Congress disapproves the following rules: the rule submitted by the __ relating to __; and the rule submitted by the __ relating to __. Such rules shall have no force or effect.’ (The blank spaces being appropriately filled in and additional clauses describing additional rules to be included as necessary).”. <all>

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Summary

Sponsor (1)

Actions (3)

Related bills (1)

More bills on these subjects (8)

Similar bills (6)

Text versions (1)

Committee action

Meetings where this bill was on the agenda

Full text

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