Federal agencies are required by law to submit final rules to both houses of Congress and Government Accountability Office before the rules can take effect. But according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service, agencies have failed to meet this requirement more than 1,000 times in the past 10 years as they issued final regulations without providing any notification. According to CRS, these failures bring into question the legality of the regulations.
CRS found that despite repeated reminders by GAO since 1999, neither the White House Office of Management and Budget nor the agencies have taken steps to notify Congress or the GAO of 1,031 final rules.
The topics covered by the rules varied, CRS found, and included designation of critical habitats for endangered species, oil and gas lease operations, changes to workplace drug and alcohol programs, and rules listing chemicals that the Department of Homeland Security placed on its chemical facility anti-terrorism standards.
The CRS report, in PDF format, can be accessed at this link.
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