Midnight Rules Relief Act

This section would give the Act its short title, the Midnight Rules Relief Act.

This section would change how Congress can use its rule-disapproval process under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, for the rules described in paragraph (1) of section 801(d) of that title, which the section heading refers to as midnight rules. It would add a new paragraph (4) to section 801(d) stating that when section 802 is applied to those rules, a single joint resolution of disapproval could cover one or more of them, as long as the report on each rule required under subsection (a)(1)(A) was submitted during the final year of a President's term. It would also amend section 802(a) of title 5 in two ways. First, it would add the phrase "(except as otherwise provided in this subsection)" right after the existing reference to the resolution's resolving clause, marking that the single-rule wording described there is no longer the only option. Second, it would set the required wording for the resolving clause of a combined resolution filed under the new section 801(d)(4): the clause must read that Congress disapproves the listed rules, naming by blank the agency that submitted each rule and the subject each rule relates to, with additional clauses added as needed to cover further rules, and stating that the disapproved rules would have no force or effect.