# What This Bill Actually Does

This bill is about making it easier for federal agencies to review and clean up their existing rules and regulations. Think of it like a spring cleaning project for government bureaucracy—the bill gives agencies better tools and a structured process to go through their rulebooks, identify problems, and fix them.

Right now, federal agencies have thousands of regulations on the books, many of which have been around for years or even decades. Some might be outdated, contradictory, full of typos, or just plain ineffective. The problem is that reviewing all these rules manually is time-consuming and expensive. This bill tackles that by requiring the government to use modern technology—including artificial intelligence and algorithmic tools—to speed up the process. Instead of people manually reading through thousands of pages of regulations, computers can help identify which rules are obsolete, redundant, confusing, or contain errors like broken cross-references.

Here's what the bill actually requires: First, within six months, the Office of Management and Budget has to report on whether federal regulations are available in a format that computers can easily read and analyze. Then, within 18 months, they need to create guidance telling agencies how to use technology to review their regulations more efficiently. Finally, every federal agency has two years to create a plan for how they'll use these new tools to review their own rules, and then they have six months after that to actually start implementing their plan.

For everyday people, this could mean simpler, clearer, and less contradictory regulations down the road. It might also mean faster action when rules genuinely aren't working anymore. However, the bill doesn't force agencies to actually change or eliminate any rules—it just makes the review process more efficient. So while this could lead to better regulations, the actual impact depends on what agencies do with the information they find.

Modernizing Retrospective Regulatory Review

Biggs, Andy

Modernizing Retrospective Regulatory Review ActThis bill requires the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to issue guidance for using technology to retrospectively review existing federal regulations and, in consultation with relevant agencies, report on the progress of the federal government in making agency regulations available in a machine-readable format.Specifically, the OIRA&nbsp;report must (1) assess whether regulations of agencies have been made available to the public in a machine-readable format, and (2) provide information about the recognition by the Administrative&nbsp;Committee of the Federal Register of the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) as an official legal edition of the Code of Federal Regulations. Currently, the content of the eCFR is authoritative but unofficial.Additionally, not later than 18 months after the enactment of this bill, the OIRA must issue guidance about how a federal agency can use technology to retrospectively review the agency's existing regulations. Each agency must plan and implement a strategy to comply with the&nbsp;OIRA's guidance for the retrospective review.