Tagged: administrative law and regulatory procedures

Veterans, Women, Families with Children, Race, and Persons with Disabilities Housing Fairness Act of 2025 or the Housing Fairness Act of 2025This bill expands efforts to detect and address housing discrimination.Specifically, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must conduct a nationwide testing program to (1) detect and document differences in the treatment of prospective renters, homebuyers, or mortgage borrowers; (2) measure patterns of adverse treatment because of the race, color, religion, sex, familial status, disability status, or national origin of a renter, homebuyer, or borrower; and (3) measure the prevalence of such discriminatory practices across housing and mortgage lending markets.The bill also reauthorizes through FY2028 the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which supports organizations that provide direct assistance to individuals who have been victims of housing discrimination.Additionally, HUD must implement a grant program to assist public and private nonprofit organizations in (1) conducting comprehensive studies on the causes or effects of housing discrimination and segregation, and (2) implementing pilot projects that test solutions to help prevent or alleviate housing discrimination and segregation.

Helping Owners with Unaffordable Shoddy Edicts Act of 2025 or the HOUSE Act of 2025This bill directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to withdraw the final determination titled Adoption of Energy Efficiency Standards for New Construction of HUD- and USDA-Financed Housing and published on April 26, 2024.The determination adopted updated minimum energy efficiency standards for newly built homes (except manufactured housing) financed through certain HUD and USDA programs. Specifically, it adopted the (1) 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), which applies to single family homes and multifamily low-rise buildings up to three stories; and (2) 2019 American National Standards Institute/American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers/Illuminating Electrical Society (ANSI/ASHRAE/IES) Standard 90.1, which applies to multifamily residential buildings with four or more stories. HUD and USDA must also revert to using the energy efficiency standards required before the determination.In addition, the bill prohibits HUD, USDA, and the Department of Veterans Affairs from taking actions or using federal funds to implement or enforce the determination or any substantially similar determination. It also prohibits the Federal Housing Finance Agency from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing a determination or rule relating to energy efficiency standards for single and multifamily housing.Finally, the bill prohibits HUD and USDA from adopting updates to the IECC or ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1 in certain circumstances unless at least 26 states have adopted codes or standards that meet or exceed the update's requirements.

Midnight Rules Relief ActThis bill allows Congress to disapprove multiple regulations under one joint resolution of disapproval if the regulations were submitted for review during a portion of the final year of a President's term. Under current law, the Congressional Review Act generally provides for a period of additional review during the succeeding Congress for regulations that were submitted during the last 60 legislative days of the prior Congress. However, each joint resolution may disapprove of only one regulation.

This resolution establishes rules for the House of Representatives for the 119th Congress.The resolution adopts the rules from the 118th Congress with specified changes, includingproviding that a resolution vacating the Office of Speaker is only privileged (takes precedence over all matters other than motions to adjourn) if it is offered by a sponsor of the majority party joined by eight cosponsors from the majority party; providing that the Speaker may only entertain a motion to suspend the rules on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays; prohibiting waiver (by rule or by order) of the germaneness rule (which requires amendments to be of the same subject matter as the measure under consideration); and prohibiting consideration of measures that exceed a specified long-term budget impact according to the Congressional Budget Office.Additional changes includeauthorizing the use of electronic voting within a committee;authorizing remote appearances by non-executive branch witnesses and their counsel in committee proceedings; eliminating the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion; eliminating certain collective bargaining rights for employees of the House of Representatives; reauthorizing the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party; reauthorizing the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission; and reauthorizing the House Democracy Assistance Commission (an entity that advises democratic parliaments in other countries) and renaming it the House Democracy Partnership. The resolution provides for the consideration of H.R. 21, H.R. 22, H.R. 23, H.R. 26, H.R. 27, H.R. 28, H.R. 29, H.R. 30, H.R. 31, H.R. 32, H.R. 33, and H.R. 35.