IV 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 67 
Establishing a joint select committee to address regulatory reform. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 29, 2015 
Mr. BISHOP of Michigan (for himself, Mr. PETERSON, Mrs. NOEM, Mr. 
MOOLENAAR, and Mr. POLIQUIN) submitted the following concurrent res-
olution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Establishing a joint select committee to address regulatory 
reform. 
Whereas there are more than 3,500 rules issued every year 
by more than 50 Federal agencies; 
Whereas a rule is defined in section 551 of title 5, United 
States Code, as ‘‘the whole or part of an agency state-
ment of general or particular applicability and future ef-
fect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or 
policy’’; 
Whereas subchapter II of chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 
5, United States Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Admin-
istrative Procedure Act’’) established standards for the 
issuance of rules using formal rulemaking and informal 
rulemaking procedures; 
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Whereas informal rulemaking, also known as ‘‘notice and 
comment’’ rulemaking or ‘‘section 553’’ rulemaking, is 
the most common type of rulemaking; 
Whereas in rulemaking proceedings, formal hearings must be 
held and interested parties must be given the chance to 
comment on the proposed rule or regulation, and once 
adopted, the rule or regulation is required to be published 
in the Federal Register; 
Whereas, according to a 2005 study commissioned by the 
Small Business Administration, the cost of all rules in ef-
fect was approximately $1,100,000,000,000 per year, 
more than the people of the United States paid in Fed-
eral income taxes in 2009; 
Whereas, according to the 2014 Ten Thousand Command-
ments report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the 
top 6 Federal rulemaking agencies (which, in 2013, were 
the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Interior, 
Health and Human Services, and Transportation and the 
Environmental Protection Agency) account for 49.3 per-
cent of all Federal rules; 
Whereas, according to the 2014 Ten Thousand Command-
ments report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, 
small businesses pay more in per-employee regulatory 
costs, and firms with fewer than 20 employees pay an av-
erage of $10,585 per employee, compared to $7,755 for 
those with 500 or more employees; 
Whereas, according to the 2014 Ten Thousand Command-
ments report by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, 
regulatory costs amount to an average of $14,974 per 
household, which is 23 percent of the average household 
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income of $65,596 and 29 percent of the expenditure 
budget of $51,442; 
Whereas, according to a 2011 study by the Weidenbaum Cen-
ter at Washington University, it is estimated that the 
budgetary cost of administering and enforcing Federal 
regulations by Federal agencies for fiscal year 2012 
amounted to more than $57 billion (in 2005 dollars), 
which represents a 10.5-percent increase in 2 years; 
Whereas chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code (commonly 
known as the ‘‘Congressional Review Act’’) established a 
mechanism through which Congress could overturn Fed-
eral regulations by enacting a joint resolution of dis-
approval; 
Whereas the Congressional Review Act requires that rules 
that have a $100,000,000 effect or more on the economy 
are submitted by agencies to both Houses of Congress 
and the Government Accountability Office and have a de-
layed effective date of not less than 60 days to pass a 
resolution of disapproval rejecting the rule, which must 
be approved by the President; and 
Whereas, since the enactment of the Congressional Review 
Act in 1996, the procedures under the Act have been 
used 1 time to overturn a rule: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This resolution may be cited as the ‘‘Regulation Sen-
sibility Through Oversight Restoration Resolution of 
2015’’ or the ‘‘RESTORE Resolution of 2015’’. 
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SEC. 2. JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE ON REGULATORY RE-
FORM. 
There is established a joint select committee to be 
known as the Joint Select Committee on Regulatory Re-
form (hereinafter in this concurrent resolution referred to 
as the ‘‘Joint Select Committee’’). 
SEC. 3. DUTIES OF JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘‘agen-
cy’’ and ‘‘rule’’ have the meanings given those terms in 
section 551 of title 5, United States Code. 
(b) DUTIES.—The Joint Select Committee shall— 
(1) conduct a systematic review of the process 
by which rules are promulgated by agencies; 
(2) hold hearings on the effects of and how to 
reduce regulatory overreach in all sectors of the 
economy; 
(3) conduct a review of the Code of Federal 
Regulations to identify rules and sets of rules that 
should be repealed; and 
(4) submit to the Senate and the House of Rep-
resentatives— 
(A) recommendations for legislation— 
(i) to create a process under which an 
agency, before promulgating a rule, shall— 
(I) seek advice from Congress; 
(II) publish the proposed rule; 
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(III) hold a public comment pe-
riod on the proposed rule; 
(IV) seek advice from Congress 
based on the public comments; and 
(V) hold issuance of the rule 
until Congress can review the rule for 
a period of not more than 1 year; and 
(ii) to create a process to appro-
priately sunset as many rules as possible; 
(B) recommendations for ways to reduce 
the financial burden placed on the various sec-
tors of the economy in order to comply with 
rules; 
(C) an analysis of the feasibility of the cre-
ation of a permanent Joint Committee on Rules 
Review in accordance with subsection (c); 
(D) an analysis of the feasibility of requir-
ing each agency to submit each proposed rule of 
the agency to the appropriate committees of 
Congress for review in a similar manner as set 
forth for a permanent Joint Committee on 
Rules Review under subsection (c); and 
(E) a list of rules and sets of rules that 
the Joint Select Committee recommends should 
be repealed. 
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