President Trump’s first address to Congress will consume lawmakers early next week but won’t stop Republicans from picking up their agenda after a week off, which includes confirming more of Trump’s Cabinet in the Senate and rolling back Obama-era regulations in the House.
Trump is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, a day after the Senate is expected to confirm his Commerce secretary pick, Wilbur Ross.
Trump will “present his vision to Congress and the American people,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said.
Regulatory reform is high on Trump’s list. On Friday the president signed an executive order requiring executive agencies to review all regulations and remove the ones they consider unnecessary.
But the bulk of regulatory reform must be codified by legislation passed in Congress. Republicans this year have been rapidly repealing Obama-era regulations and have passed more than a dozen rollback measures in recent weeks.
Next week, Congress will give Trump more of what he wants, and has scheduled several measures aimed at easing the burden of government regulations.
For example, the House will take up the SCRUB act, which would establish a commission to scrutinize federal regulations and identify those that should be repealed, “with the goal of reducing the cost of regulations on the economy,” according to the bill text. The bill would also require individual agencies to review all regulations within a decade.
“My mission with the SCRUB Act is to require a full evaluation of all 175,000-plus pages of the Federal Register and identify outdated and ineffective regulations for removal,” said Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who is the sponsor of the bill. “This streamlining will lessen regulatory burdens on small businesses and give them the freedom to innovate and grow.”
The House will vote on a bill that would reform the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which oversees implementing government policies related to information technology. The legislation would require a new working group to find ways to streamline and improve the regulatory process.
The House will also consider the Regulatory Integrity Act, which would require agencies to “make publicly available in a searchable format,” all pending regulations and would prevent the government form illegally lobbying in favor of a new rule. The bill was drafted after a Government Accountability Office report recently found that the EPA “violated provisions [of law] through its use of social media in association with its rule making efforts,” for a new Clean Water Act regulation.
And, the House will consider a measure to repeal a new Department of Labor regulation requiring specific record keeping for work-related injuries.
The rule was issued Dec. 16, about a month before the end of President Obama’s term in office. The GOP plans to repeal it under the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the power to undo executive branch rules within 60 legislative days after the rule is finalized with a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate.
The House has so far repealed 13 Obama-era rules under the Congressional Review Act and the Senate plans on clearing them for Trump’s signature in the coming weeks.
The Senate’s primary focus, however, is to confirm the remainder of Trump’s cabinet picks.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has lined up three additional nominees after Monday’s vote on Ross. The list starts with Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., Trump’s nominee to serve as Secretary of the Interior. Lawmakers will next consider Housing and Urban Development nominee Ben Carson, followed by Department of Energy nominee Rick Perry, the former Texas governor.
Democrats have threatened to drag out debate time, however, which could delay some confirmation votes until March.
