Sunset Provisions

A sunset provision sets an expiration date for a law or part of a law. The idea gained popularity in the 1970s as a way to force legislatures to review agencies and programs rather than letting them continue indefinitely, and Colorado adopted the first state sunset law for regulatory agencies in 1976. Many states now periodically review their agencies under sunset laws. In Congress, sunsets are common for controversial powers, temporary programs, and tax provisions, and many authorizations of federal programs expire after a set number of years.

Major examples include the Voting Rights Act's preclearance requirement, which was temporary and renewed in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006, the 1994 federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, and surveillance powers in the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001, some of which were renewed several times before Section 215 lapsed in 2020. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been renewed for limited periods, most recently in 2024, and it lapsed on June 12, 2026 after Congress failed to agree on a renewal, although collection continued under existing court-approved certifications. Many individual tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act were set to expire after 2025, and the 2025 budget reconciliation law made most of them permanent.

Sunsets are also used for budget reasons, because setting provisions to expire lowers their estimated long-term cost under congressional scoring rules, even when lawmakers expect to extend them. Supporters say sunsets force periodic review, make controversial measures easier to pass, and let lawmakers test policies. Critics say they create uncertainty for businesses and families, produce last-minute fiscal cliffs, and disguise the real cost of legislation. Proposals to put sunsets on all federal regulations have been introduced in Congress but not enacted.