For those who are not familiar with the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which is not well known, it is part of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. While many laws are not generally followed by the public, this one holds special interest and importance this coming year.
According to the Congressional Quarterly, CRA “allows senators to hold an up-or-down vote on a regulation within 60 calendar days of its publication in the Federal Register or after the administration sends the rule to Congress. Floor debate is limited to 10 hours. No filibusters, amendments or motions to proceed to other business are allowed and if Congress passes a disapproval resolution and the President signs it, the executive branch is then banned from trying to get around lawmaker’s wishes by issuing a new rule that is substantially similar to the one that was overturned.”
The significance of this is that generic ventolin hfa Republications can use the CRA to prevent implementation of Obamacare regulations. While the idea of President Obama signing it is just a fantasy, Dean Rosen, the former health adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Frist, points out that the vote would “highlight real concerns and perhaps force the administration to make some changes that they would otherwise not be willing to make.”
Already Senator Michael Enzi, of the Senate Health,Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee from Wyoming, has attempted to use the CRA to throw out a regulation that according to Congressional Quarterly “would have exempted insurance plans that were in existence when the health care law was passed from some, but not all, insurance market changes.
Although Sen.Enzi’s proposal was rejected (40-59), you will be hearing a lot more about CRA this coming year.
