President Donald Trump signed five Congressional Review Act resolutions into law on Dec. 11, bringing the total number he has approved in 2025 to 22. That total marks the most CRA resolutions signed by any president in a single year since the law took effect in 1996, surpassing the combined total of all previous presidents.
The five resolutions disapproved of Bureau of Land Management resource management plans covering parts of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and northern and central Alaska, Ballotpedia reported.
The Congressional Review Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, allows Congress to review and reject newly issued federal agency rules.
Under the law, Congress has 60 working days to review a rule once it is formally submitted.
Both the House and Senate may pass a joint resolution of disapproval, which is then sent to the president for signature or veto.
If the president signs the resolution, the rule is overturned and the issuing agency is barred from issuing a substantially similar rule in the future.
The CRA applies broadly to agency rules, with exceptions for certain internal agency matters. Agencies themselves determine which actions qualify as rules and are therefore subject to congressional review.
When lawmakers dispute an agency’s decision not to submit an action, they may seek an opinion from the Government Accountability Office on whether the action should be treated as a rule under the CRA.
The 60-day review window begins once an agency submits the rule to Congress, even if the agency action occurred earlier. Congressional use of the CRA has increased sharply since 2017.
In the nearly 30 years since its enactment, Congress has repealed 42 rules under the CRA, with the vast majority occurring in recent years.
Between his two administrations, Trump has now signed 38 of the 42 CRA resolutions that have become law, accounting for approximately 95 percent of all successful CRA actions.
From 1996 through 2016, Congress passed six resolutions of disapproval. President George W. Bush signed one of those resolutions, while President Barack Obama vetoed the remaining five.
During Trump’s first term, Congress passed 17 CRA resolutions. Trump signed 16 and vetoed one. During the Biden administration, Congress passed 14 CRA resolutions. Former President Joe Biden signed three and vetoed 11. Congress has also expanded the scope of its CRA use in 2025.
The five resolutions targeting BLM resource management plans marked the first time the CRA has been used to overturn a BLM plan of that type.
Lawmakers also disapproved three Environmental Protection Agency notices of decision this year.
Those notices had granted California waivers under the Clean Air Act, allowing the state to implement its own vehicle emissions standards.
While Congress has previously used the CRA to overturn EPA rules, this marked the first time it has been used to disapprove a Clean Air Act waiver.
Trump also signed the first CRA resolutions disapproving rules from the National Park Service, Department of Energy, Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Senate Republicans confirmed nearly 100 of President Donald Trump’s nominees, outpacing previous administrations and even his own first term, as they raced to wrap up the year.
A 53–43 vote Thursday approved 97 of Trump’s picks, marking some of the final floor action in the Senate after a frenetic stretch driven by Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., once Republicans took control of the chamber in January.
Along the way, Republicans navigated internal divisions to pass the president’s signature “one big, beautiful bill” and reopened the government following the longest shutdown in U.S. history, Fox News reported.
Confirming Trump’s nominees, however, often proved nearly impossible under Senate rules, as Democrats imposed blanket objections to even the lowest-level positions across the government.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Republicans began the year confirming Trump’s Cabinet at a breakneck pace, only to run headlong into what he described as “unprecedented obstruction from the Democratic minority.”
