Federal Rulemaking

Congress often writes laws in general terms and directs agencies to fill in the details through regulations, which carry the force of law. The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 sets the default process, known as notice-and-comment rulemaking. The agency publishes a proposed rule in the Federal Register, explaining its legal authority and reasoning. The public, businesses, and other governments submit comments, now usually through Regulations.gov. The agency must consider significant comments, publish a final rule with its responses, and generally wait at least thirty days before it takes effect.

Significant rules from executive agencies also go through review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget, under an executive order first issued in 1981 and revised in 1993, which requires cost-benefit analysis for major rules. Under the Congressional Review Act of 1996, Congress can overturn a new rule by joint resolution within sixty legislative days, passed by simple majority in both chambers and signed by the President, and the agency is then barred from issuing a substantially similar rule. The act was used once before 2017 and dozens of times since, typically by a new majority against rules issued at the end of the previous administration.

Agencies issue roughly 3,000 final rules a year, compiled in the Code of Federal Regulations. Courts review rules under the APA and can set them aside as arbitrary and capricious, beyond statutory authority, or procedurally flawed. Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo in 2024 ended the Chevron doctrine, so courts no longer defer to an agency's reasonable reading of an ambiguous statute. In 2025 the President directed agencies to repeal ten regulations for every new one issued, the latest of several efforts across administrations to shrink the regulatory burden.