Alex Schuman, Congressional Correspondent – WASHINGTON (MEDIA GENERAL) -- House Republicans passed a bill aimed at reversing "midnight" or last-minute regulations created in the waning months of a presidential administration on Wednesday.
The Midnight Rules Relief Act, which passed the House mostly along party lines 238-184, would allow Congress to repeal rules finalized in the last 60 legislative days of President Obama's administration.
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"We are prioritizing to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said on the House floor in favor of the bill.
If passed by the Senate and signed by President-elect Donald Trump, Congress would be allowed to bundle together multiple regulations and remove a large number at once by passing a joint resolution of disapproval.
A similar bill passed the House in November, but President Obama threatened to veto the legislation.
"The bill is an unnecessary abdication of legislative responsibility by the Republican-led Congress," Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said. "This Republican scheme sets a dangerous precedent... to disprove hundreds of carefully crafted policies at one time with very little notice or debate."
The President's midnight rules are a blatant abuse of power. We passed @DarrellIssa's bill to stop them and restore the will of the people. pic.twitter.com/oIRaf8cUBr
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) January 4, 2017
"An end to the abuse of midnight rules will stop the current and future administrations from issuing new regulations just to further a political agenda, with costly impacts that could outlast the administration itself," Goodlatte said in a statement applauding the legislation's passage.