Markup Wrap Up: Cutting Red Tape, Reining in Regulatory Overreach, Unleashing American Innovation

WASHINGTON—The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a markup today and passed a series of bills to support the Trump Administration’s efforts to cut red tape and rein in regulatory overreach by the administrative state. In 2024, the Committee released a detailed report indicating that the Biden-Harris Administration imposed a historic $1.7 trillion in new federal regulatory costs, resulting in significant economic harm to American households and businesses.

“The Biden Administration abandoned successful regulatory reforms implemented by President Trump in his first term to advance an overreaching regulatory agenda. This regulatory blitz made it harder for Americans to find quality jobs, drove up costs for families, and placed crushing burdens on small businesses. Today, the House Oversight Committee acted to restore a regulatory system that is guided by commonsense, efficiency, and real results. Alongside the Trump Administration, the Committee will continue to advance legislative solutions that remove red tape and allow our economy to soar to new heights,” said Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).

The following bills were reported favorably by the House Oversight Committee:

H.R. 2409, Guidance Clarity Act: Introduced by Representative Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), this bill requires federal agencies to state prominently on the opening page of any guidance document that: (1) agency guidance does not have the force and effect of law and is not binding on the public; and (2) the document is intended only to provide clarity to the public about existing legal requirements or agency policies.

“The Guidance Clarity Act is an important reform that clarifies what agency regulatory guidance is, and what it is not. Often, it is unclear how federal statutes or regulations will be administered by a federal agency. Federal agencies sometimes use guidance documents to intimidate entities into compliance with agency views. Recognizing the problem, the first Trump Administration’s Justice Department issued a formal policy and adopted regulations to prevent its lawyers from bringing such enforcement actions based merely on guidance documents. President Biden’s Justice Department rescinded the policy and related regulations. H.R. 2409 solves this problem by requiring regulatory guidance documents to stipulate that they do not have the force and effect of law. I want to thank Rep. Eric Burlison, the bill’s sponsor, for reintroducing the bill this Congress and working to ensure this bipartisan reform is enacted into law,” said Chairman James Comer.

“This bipartisan bill ensures transparency and fairness. This is about clarity. Agency guidance plays a vital role in helping the public understand how agencies interpret law and policies but too often the agencies abuse this tool. Many lack the legal resources to know what guidance is not binding and they feel forced to comply with what’s merely an agency’s opinion. How is that transparent? This bill will fix this,” said Rep. Eric Burlison.

H.R. 67, Modernizing Retrospective Regulatory Review: Introduced by Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), this bill requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), acting through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), to issue guidance on how agencies can use technology to more efficiently, cost-effectively, and accurately carry out retrospective review of existing federal regulations that are obsolete, redundant, contain typographic errors, or overlap with other such regulations.

“As the regulatory state grows, Congress must ensure agencies review the regulations that currently exist. Retrospective review helps agencies decide if the current regulations impacting the lives of American businesses and consumers need to be revisited. Modern technology, including artificial intelligence, has the potential to make these agency reviews more efficient and cost-effective and can also improve the accuracy of the final assessments. The Modernizing Retrospective Regulatory Review Act requires the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance on how agencies can use modern technology in the retrospective review process. I thank Rep. Andy Biggs for reintroducing this necessary legislation again this Congress,” said Chairman James Comer.

“This bill builds on President Trump’s deregulatory agenda, cutting red tape, restoring accountability, and putting American businesses first. Under his leadership, we’ve seen how pro-growth policies lift burdens and unleash opportunity. H.R. 67 carries that mission forward. American businesses must be free to grow without being buried under outdated duplicative rules from the D.C. swamp,” said Rep. Andy Biggs.

H.R. 689, Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement (FREE) Act: Introduced by Representative Celeste Maloy (R-Wash.), this bill streamlines federal permitting government-wide by expanding use of ‘permits-by-rule’ (PBR) rather than case-by-case application for and review of individual permit applications. The FREE Act directs federal agencies to evaluate their permitting systems and report to Congress within a year, identifying for which types of permits PBR can replace current systems and thoroughly justifying any determinations that PBR cannot be used.

“Federal permitting has been far too slow for far too long. The FREE Act promises relief for all permit applicants—whether for infrastructure, home construction, critical minerals mining, farming, ranching, building out domestic manufacturing capabilities, or a host of other worthy activities. This bill allows agencies to provide permits for common activities using the permitting-by-rule process. I thank Rep. Celeste Maloy for her leadership on this issue,” said Chairman James Comer.

H.R. 884, To prohibit individuals who are not citizens of the United States from voting in elections in the District of Columbia: Introduced by Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), this bill prohibits noncitizens from voting in D.C. local elections and repeals the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act (D.C. Law 24-242).

“On November 21, 2022, the D.C. government enacted the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act, permitting noncitizen residents to vote in D.C. local elections. This includes illegal immigrants and even foreign diplomats, whose interests may be opposed to the interests of Americans. This radical change to D.C.’s election laws upset lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The right to vote is a defining privilege of American citizenship. Diluting that right by extending it to noncitizens—whether here legally or illegally—undermines the voice of D.C. residents. The House Oversight Committee is charged with ensuring responsible governance in the District, including its election laws. I urge my colleagues to support Representative Pfluger’s bill to restore commonsense protections and ensure that only U.S. citizens have the right to vote in local D.C. elections,” said Chairman James Comer.

H.R. 2096, Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act: Introduced by Representative Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), this bill amends the D.C. Government Comprehensive Merit Personnel Act of 1978 to restore two provisions recently removed by the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 (D.C. Law 24-345), including Metro Police Department officer union bargaining in matters of officer discipline as well as the timeline under which such discipline must be carried out for alleged wrongdoing.

“The men and women of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department serve their community every day to keep the District safe and secure. And yet, progressive D.C. Council policies have targeted District police officers and needlessly placed them in unsafe situations. H.R. 2096 restores D.C. police officers’ right to collectively bargain over disciplinary matters and restores clear timelines for disciplinary investigations—putting them back on equal footing with other unionized employees in the District. H.R. 2096 also repeals the D.C. Council’s requirement that the time and place of some adverse action hearings be posted to a public website. This public posting requirement would allow activists to harass officers attempting to pursue their due process in the workplace. This legislation is necessary to support the recruitment and retention of the Metropolitan Police Department. The District cannot afford to lose police officers during the ongoing crime crisis. Everyone should feel safe in their capital city,” said Chairman James Comer.

H.R. 672: Introduced by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), the bill establishes new ZIP Codes for certain communities.
“There are currently over 41 thousand ZIP Codes in the United States. In some cases, ZIP Codes are misaligned with local boundaries. H.R. 672 designates single, unique ZIP Codes for communities across the nation,” said Chairman James Comer. 

H.R. 3095: Introduced by Representative Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), the bill directs the United States Postal Service to designate single, unique ZIP Codes for certain communities.

“The Postal Service structures the delivery of mail around ZIP Codes—five-digit numbers that organize how to deliver the mail. H.R. 3095, which will create new ZIP Codes for communities across the nation, is the product of various Members’ advocacy. I thank Rep. Boebert for her work on this bill,” said Chairman James Comer.

“We have these communities who are stripped of their identity and so much more. This is a large issue and when cities petition the United States Postal Service they are often just blanket denied and it takes 10 years for them to begin the appeals process. I support my bill H.R. 3095. This bipartisan bill directs the United States Postal Service to assign single unique zip codes to specific communities across the nation including 15 from my home state of Colorado. Too many towns and cities have gone far too long without a zip code of their own. This may sound like a minor inconvenience to some but for the people living in these communities it creates a very real and very frustrating problem. We can finally resolve these long-standing problems,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert.

H.R. 580, Unfunded Mandates Accountability and Transparency Act: Introduced by Representative Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), this bill amends the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) of 1995 (P.L. 104-4) to require agencies to prepare regulatory impact analyses—including analysis of costs, benefits, alternatives, disproportionate impacts, and effects on jobs—for major rules that mandate economic impacts of $100 million or more, present major increases in costs or prices, or have significant adverse effects on competition, employment, or markets.

“In all, the Biden-Harris administration churned out nearly $2 trillion in new regulatory burdens. Thankfully, the Unfunded Mandates Accountability and Transparency Act provides a solution. It increases earlier stakeholder engagement on rules that may impose costly mandates—better positioning stakeholders to help agencies identify ways to achieve goals at lower costs. It extends UMRA to independent agencies. It requires agencies to prepare regulatory impact analyses—including analysis of costs, benefits, alternatives, disproportionate impacts, and effects on jobs—for major rules that mandate economic impacts of $100 million or more, present major increases in costs or prices, or have significant adverse effects on competition, employment, or markets. I thank Dr. Foxx for her unwavering efforts over several Congresses to enact this bill into law. I urge my colleagues to support this critical, bipartisan reform bill,” said Chairman James Comer.

Various Postal Naming bills passed en bloc.