CRA Lookback Period: How the Date Is Set and the Clock Resets

The Congressional Review Act lookback period is the stretch at the end of a congressional session during which finalized rules submitted to Congress get carried into the next Congress with a fresh review clock, giving newly seated lawmakers a full window to overturn them by simple majority. For the current cycle, the estimated start date is August 19, 2025: rules submitted to Congress on or after that date can be challenged by the 120th Congress when it convenes in January 2027.¹

How the Lookback Date Is Calculated

The window is defined by counting backward from the day Congress adjourns at the end of a session. Under 5 U.S.C. § 801(d), a rule falls into the lookback if it was submitted to Congress within 60 session days of adjournment in the Senate or 60 legislative days in the House, whichever produces the earlier calendar date.² The statute uses “or,” so a rule needs to fall within only one chamber’s window to qualify.¹

The two chambers count days differently. A House “legislative day” starts when the chamber convenes and ends when it adjourns, and because the House usually adjourns at the end of each calendar day, its legislative days and calendar days line up. The Senate often recesses overnight rather than adjourning, so one Senate legislative day can stretch across many calendar days. To prevent that distortion, the CRA counts Senate “session days,” meaning each calendar day the Senate is actually in session.³

Neither chamber publishes an official lookback date in advance. The House and Senate Parliamentarians are the definitive authorities on day counts, but the Congressional Research Service issues unofficial estimates that members and the public rely on for planning.⁴ Because congressional schedules shift with recesses and unplanned breaks, the exact date can move.

How the Review Clock Resets in the Next Congress

Rules caught in the window get treated as new when the next session begins. Under 5 U.S.C. § 801(d)(2), each lookback rule is treated as if it were published on the 15th session day (Senate) or 15th legislative day (House) of the new session, and as if the agency’s report had been submitted on that same date.² From there, the standard 60-day review window runs, giving lawmakers a full clock rather than an inherited, already-expiring one.

The 15-day buffer exists for a practical reason: a new Congress needs time to organize committees, hire staff, and set priorities before it can meaningfully evaluate anything. The reset runs independently in each chamber, so the House and Senate each get their own full window counted from their respective 15th day.⁵

Which Rules Qualify

Two things must have happened for a rule to fall into the lookback. First, the issuing agency must have submitted the rule to the House, the Senate, and the Government Accountability Office. The CRA requires all three, and filing with the GAO alone does not count as filing with Congress.⁶ Second, that submission must have occurred on or after the applicable lookback date.

To match a specific rule to the window, compare the agency’s submission date against the estimated lookback date. If it lands on or after that date, the rule carries forward. The GAO maintains a searchable database of rules submitted under the CRA, which lets the public identify eligible carryover regulations.⁷

Rules an Agency Never Submitted

Some agencies have issued rules without submitting them to Congress, usually because the agency did not consider the action a “rule” under the CRA’s broad definition. In that situation, the review clock technically never starts. Members of Congress have asked the GAO to issue formal opinions on whether an agency action qualifies as a CRA rule, and the Senate has developed a practice where publishing such a GAO opinion in the Congressional Record triggers the CRA’s special procedures even without an agency filing.⁸ Declining to file the paperwork does not, by itself, keep a rule out of reach.

How Disapproval Works Once a Rule Is in the Window

Any member of Congress can introduce a joint resolution of disapproval, using language written into the statute that identifies the agency and the rule. The resolution must be introduced within 60 days of the rule’s submission date, or of its reset date in the lookback situation.⁹

The Senate side is where the CRA has real force. If the assigned committee hasn’t acted within 20 calendar days, 30 senators can sign a discharge petition to bring the resolution to the floor.⁹ Floor debate is capped at 10 hours, no amendments are allowed, and the motion to proceed cannot be filibustered. Passage requires only a simple majority. The House has no comparable fast-track procedure, so resolutions go through regular House processes there.

If both chambers pass the resolution, it goes to the president. A signature voids the rule immediately. A veto sends the question back to Congress, which needs a two-thirds vote in each chamber to override.¹⁰ The CRA is at its most potent when the same party controls both Congress and the White House, which is precisely the alignment that often follows a presidential transition.

What Disapproval Does to the Agency

A successful disapproval does more than cancel one regulation. Under 5 U.S.C. § 801(b)(2), the agency is barred from reissuing a rule in “substantially the same form” unless a new law specifically authorizes it.² That is what makes the CRA a blunter tool than an executive order reversal: an executive order can be undone by the next president, while a CRA disapproval creates a lasting constraint on the agency regardless of who occupies the White House.

The catch is that “substantially the same” has no clear definition. The statute doesn’t define it, and no court has interpreted it. The only guidance comes from a statement CRA sponsors placed in the Congressional Record when the law was enacted, suggesting agencies should review the congressional record to understand what specifically concerned lawmakers. Agencies trying to regulate the same policy area after a disapproval are left to estimate how different a replacement rule must be, and the uncertainty sometimes deters them from returning to the topic at all.

Courts stay out of it. Section 805 of the CRA states that no action taken under the statute is subject to judicial review.¹¹ An agency cannot challenge a disapproval in court, and regulated parties cannot sue to decide whether a replacement rule crosses the “substantially the same” line. Enforcement of the reissuance ban happens inside Congress: if lawmakers believe a new rule is too close to the old one, the remedy is another disapproval resolution, not litigation.

The Track Record

For most of its history, the CRA sat unused. Between its enactment in 1996 and the end of 2016, only one rule was successfully overturned. That changed in 2017, when the 115th Congress used the lookback to overturn 16 Obama-era rules in the first months of the Trump administration.¹² Three more rules were overturned at the start of the 117th Congress in 2021. In 2025, the 119th Congress overturned more than 20 Biden-era rules, including the first CRA disapproval of a tax regulation.

The common thread is a change in party control. The outgoing administration finalizes as many rules as possible before leaving; the incoming Congress inherits a fast-track tool to undo the ones caught in the window. Rules finalized before the lookback date are outside the mechanism. Rules finalized on or after it are exposed.

1
Congress.gov. August 19, 2025, Is Estimated to Be the Beginning of the Congressional Review Act Lookback Period
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 801 – Congressional Review
3
GW Regulatory Studies Center. How to Count: Congressional Day Counting and the CRA
4
EveryCRSReport.com. The Congressional Review Act: The Lookback Mechanism and Presidential Transitions
5
EveryCRSReport.com. Disapproval of Regulations by Congress: Procedure Under the Congressional Review Act
6
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Submitting a Rule to GAO
7
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Congressional Review Act
8
Congress.gov. The Congressional Review Act (CRA): A Brief Overview
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 802 – Congressional Disapproval Procedure
10
National Archives. The Presidential Veto and Congressional Veto Override Process
11
EveryCRSReport.com. Congressional Review Act Issues for the 117th Congress: The Lookback Mechanism and Effects of Disapproval
12
Congress.gov. The Congressional Review Act (CRA): Frequently Asked Questions