I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2804 

To amend title 5, United States Code, to require the Administrator of the 

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to publish information 

about rules on the Internet, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 24, 2013 

Mr. HOLDING (for himself, Mr. BACHUS, Mr. COBLE, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, 

Mr. CHABOT, Mr. MARINO, Mr. COLLINS of Georgia, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, and Mr. LAMALFA) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in 

addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 

provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To amend title 5, United States Code, to require the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to publish information about rules on the Internet, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘All Economic Regula5 tions are Transparent Act of 2013’’ or the ‘‘ALERT Act 

6 of 2013’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. OIRA PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION RELATING 

2 TO RULES. 

3 Title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting 

4 after chapter 6, the following new chapter: 

5 ‘‘CHAPTER 6A.—OIRA PUBLICATION OF 

6 INFORMATION RELATING TO RULES 

7 ‘‘§ 650. Agency monthly submission to OIRA 

8 ‘‘Not later than 30 days after the date of the enact9 ment of the All Economic Regulations are Transparent 

10 Act of 2013, and monthly thereafter, the head of each 

11 agency shall submit to the Administrator of the Office of 

12 Information and Regulatory Affairs (referred to in this 

13 chapter as the ‘Administrator’), in such a manner as the 

14 Administrator may reasonably require, for each rule that 

15 the agency expects to propose or finalize during the up16 coming year— 

17 ‘‘(1) a summary of the nature of the rule, in18 cluding the regulation identifier number and the 

19 docket number for the rule; 

20 ‘‘(2) the objectives of and legal basis for the 

21 issuance of the rule, including— 

22 ‘‘(A) any statutory or judicial deadline; 

23 ‘‘(B) whether the legal basis restricts or 

24 precludes the agency from conducting an anal25 ysis of the costs or benefits of the rule during 

26 the rule making, and if not, whether the agency 


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1 plans to conduct an analysis of the costs or 

2 benefits of the rule during the rule making; 

3 ‘‘(3) whether the agency plans to claim an ex4 emption from the requirements of section 553 pursu5 ant to section 553(b)(B); 

6 ‘‘(4) the stage of the rule making as of the date 

7 of submission; 

8 ‘‘(5) whether the rule is subject to review under 

9 section 610; 

10 ‘‘(6) for any rule for which the agency has 

11 issued a general notice of proposed rule making— 

12 ‘‘(A) an approximate schedule for com13 pleting action on the rule; 

14 ‘‘(B) an estimate of whether the rule will 

15 cost— 

16 ‘‘(i) less than $50,000,000; 

17 ‘‘(ii) $50,000,000 or more but less 

18 than $100,000,000; 

19 ‘‘(iii) $100,000,000 or more but less 

20 than $500,000,000; 

21 ‘‘(iv) $500,000,000 or more but less 

22 than $1,000,000,000; 

23 ‘‘(v) $1,000,000,000 or more but less 

24 than $5,000,000,000; 


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1 ‘‘(vi) $5,000,000,000 or more but less 

2 than $10,000,000,000; or 

3 ‘‘(vii) $10,000,000,000 or more. 

4 ‘‘§ 651. OIRA publications 

5 ‘‘(a) AGENCY-SPECIFIC INFORMATION PUBLISHED

6 MONTHLY.—Not later than 60 days after the date of the 

7 enactment of the All Economic Regulations are Trans8 parent Act of 2013, and monthly thereafter, the Adminis9 trator shall make publicly available on the Internet the 

10 information that the Administrator receives from the head 

11 of each agency under section 650. 

12 ‘‘(b) CUMULATIVE ASSESSMENT OF AGENCY RULE

13 MAKING PUBLISHED ANNUALLY.— 

14 ‘‘(1) PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REG15 ISTER.—Beginning on April 1 or October 1, which16 ever comes first, and annually thereafter, the Ad17 ministrator shall publish in the Federal Register, for 

18 the preceding year— 

19 ‘‘(A) the information that the Adminis20 trator received from the head of each agency 

21 under section 650; 

22 ‘‘(B) the number of rules and a list of each 

23 such rule— 

24 ‘‘(i) that was proposed by each agen25 cy, including, for each such rule, an indicaVerDate Mar 15 2010 19:22 Jul 29, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2804.IH H2804

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1 tion of whether the issuing agency con2 ducted an analysis of the costs or benefits 

3 of the rule; 

4 ‘‘(ii) that was finalized by each agen5 cy, including, for each such rule, an indica6 tion of whether— 

7 ‘‘(I) the issuing agency conducted 

8 an analysis of the costs or benefits of 

9 the rule; 

10 ‘‘(II) the agency claimed an ex11 emption from the procedures under 

12 section 553 pursuant to section 

13 553(b)(B); and 

14 ‘‘(III) the rule was issued pursu15 ant to a statutory mandate or the rule 

16 making is committed to agency discre17 tion by law; 

18 ‘‘(C) the number of agency actions and a 

19 list of each such action taken by each agency 

20 that— 

21 ‘‘(i) repealed a rule; 

22 ‘‘(ii) reduced the scope of a rule; 

23 ‘‘(iii) reduced the cost of a rule; or 

24 ‘‘(iv) accelerated the expiration date 

25 of a rule; and 


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1 ‘‘(D) the total cost (without reducing the 

2 cost by any offsetting benefits) of all rules pro3 posed or finalized, and the number of rules for 

4 which an estimate of the cost of the rule was 

5 not available. 

6 ‘‘(2) PUBLICATION ON THE INTERNET.—Begin7 ning on April 1 or October 1, whichever comes first, 

8 and annually thereafter, the Administrator shall 

9 make publicly available on the Internet— 

10 ‘‘(A) the analysis of the costs or benefits, 

11 if conducted, for each proposed rule or final 

12 rule issued by an agency for the preceding year 

13 (as well as, for the first publication, any anal14 ysis of the costs or benefits conducted for a 

15 proposed or final rule, for the 10 years pre16 ceding the date of the enactment of the All 

17 Economic Regulations are Transparent Act of 

18 2013); 

19 ‘‘(B) the docket number and regulation 

20 identifier number for each proposed or final 

21 rule issued by an agency for the preceding year; 

22 ‘‘(C) the number of rules and a list of each 

23 such rule reviewed by the Director of the Office 

24 of Management and Budget for the preceding 


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1 year, and the authority under which each such 

2 review was conducted; 

3 ‘‘(D) the number of rules and a list of each 

4 such rule for which the head of an agency com5 pleted a review under section 610 for the pre6 ceding year; 

7 ‘‘(E) the number of rules and a list of each 

8 such rule submitted to the Comptroller General 

9 under section 801; and 

10 ‘‘(F) the number of rules and a list of each 

11 such rule for which a resolution of disapproval 

12 was introduced in either the House of Rep13 resentatives or the Senate under section 802. 

14 ‘‘(3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—Paragraphs (1) and 

15 (2) shall take effect on the date that is 60 days after 

16 the date of the enactment of the All Economic Regu17 lations are Transparent Act of 2103. 

18 ‘‘§ 652. Requirement for rules to appear in agency19 specific monthly publication 

20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subsection (b), a rule 

21 may not take effect until the information required to be 

22 made publicly available on the Internet regarding such 

23 rule pursuant to section 651(a) has been so available for 

24 not less than 6 months. 


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1 ‘‘(b) EXCEPTIONS.—The requirement of subsection 

2 (a) shall not apply in the case of a rule— 

3 ‘‘(1) for which the agency issuing the rule 

4 claims an exception under section 553(b)(B); or 

5 ‘‘(2) which the President determines by Execu6 tive Order should take effect because the rule is— 

7 ‘‘(A) necessary because of an imminent 

8 threat to health or safety or other emergency; 

9 ‘‘(B) necessary for the enforcement of 

10 criminal laws; 

11 ‘‘(C) necessary for national security; or 

12 ‘‘(D) issued pursuant to any statute imple13 menting an international trade agreement. 

14 ‘‘§ 653. Definitions 

15 ‘‘In this chapter, the terms ‘agency’, ‘agency action’, 

16 and ‘rule’ have the meanings given those terms in section 

17 551.’’. 

Æ 


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