POWERS Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 395 To amend title 5, United States Code, to require agencies to respond to comments from congressional committees about proposed rulemaking, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 9, 2019 Mr. MULLIN (for himself, Mr. MEADOWS, Mr. LOUDERMILK, Mr. WESTERMAN, Mr. PALAZZO, Mr. COLE, and Mr. LUCAS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend title 5, United States Code, to require agencies to respond to comments from congressional committees about proposed rulemaking, 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 ‘‘Preventing Overreach 4 Within the Executive Rulemaking System Act of 2019’’ 5 or the ‘‘POWERS Act of 2019’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:07 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H395.IH H395 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 395 IH SEC. 2. REQUIRING AGENCY RESPONSE TO COMMENTS 1 FROM CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES ABOUT 2 PROPOSED RULEMAKING. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 553(c) of title 5, United 4 States Code, is amended— 5 (1) by striking ‘‘After notice’’ and inserting 6 ‘‘(1) After notice’’; and 7 (2) by adding at the end the following: 8 ‘‘(2) No publication or service of a rule may be made 9 during the period beginning on the date of the publication 10 of a notice of proposed rulemaking under subsection (b) 11 with respect to such rule and ending on the date that is 12 60 days after such date of publication, subject to para- 13 graph (3). 14 ‘‘(3)(A) With respect to a rule, if a committee of the 15 House of Representatives or the Senate that has jurisdic- 16 tion under the Rules of the House of Representatives or 17 the Senate, respectively, over the provision of law that au- 18 thorizes the agency to issue the rule submits written data, 19 views, or arguments to the head of the agency through 20 electronic mail and physical mail during the period de- 21 scribed in paragraph (2), not later than 10 days after the 22 date of such submission, the head of the agency shall pub- 23 lish in the Federal Register a response that addresses the 24 content of such submission and answers any questions 25 posed in such submission. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:07 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H395.IH H395 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 395 IH ‘‘(B) The period beginning on the date of such sub- 1 mission and ending on the date of such publication (or 2 a notification under paragraph (4)(B)) shall not count as 3 part of the period described in paragraph (2). 4 ‘‘(4) Paragraph (3)(A) shall not apply with respect 5 to a subsequent submission with respect to a rule to the 6 head of an agency under such paragraph by a committee 7 that has made an initial submission to such head and re- 8 ceived a response under such paragraph if the head— 9 ‘‘(A) determines that such subsequent submis- 10 sion— 11 ‘‘(i) fails to address the content of such re- 12 sponse; or 13 ‘‘(ii) raises issues that were not raised in 14 the initial submission or the response; and 15 ‘‘(B) notifies the committee of such determina- 16 tion.’’. 17 (b) APPLICABILITY.—The amendments made by this 18 section shall apply with respect to a rule for which the 19 notice of proposed rulemaking is published under section 20 553(b) of title 5, United States Code, on or after the date 21 of enactment of this Act. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 18:07 Jan 19, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H395.IH H395 pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS