# Plain Language Summary: Congressional Disapproval of Environmental Policy Rule

Congress is voting to reject new environmental rules that the Council on Environmental Quality recently created. These rules updated how the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) works—a major law from 1970 that requires the government to study and publicly disclose the environmental impacts of big federal projects before approving them. Think of NEPA as a requirement that the government has to show its homework on environmental effects before making major decisions about things like highways, dams, pipelines, or other large construction projects.

The new rules that Congress is trying to block would have changed how these environmental reviews work. Without seeing the actual details of what changed, this resolution essentially says Congress wants to keep the old rules instead of letting the new ones take effect. If this resolution passes, the updated regulations would be canceled and the previous version would remain in place. This is a procedural tool Congress uses when it disagrees with rules created by government agencies—it's one of the few ways lawmakers can directly overturn agency decisions without the president's signature.

Who this affects depends on which rules changed. Environmental reviews impact anyone involved in large federal projects—construction companies, developers, environmental groups, and communities near proposed projects. If the new rules made reviews faster or easier, rejecting them means projects will take longer to approve. If the new rules added more requirements, rejecting them means fewer environmental studies will be required. The practical outcome depends entirely on what the Council on Environmental Quality actually changed in those regulations, which isn't detailed in this resolution title alone.

A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Council on Environmental Quality relating to "National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations Revisions".

Sullivan, Dan

This joint resolution nullifies the final rule issued by the Council on Environmental Quality titled National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations Revisions and published on April 20, 2022. The rule restores regulatory provisions issued under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) that were in effect before being modified in 2020 by the Update to the Regulations Implementing the Procedural Provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act rule.