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HR 3863 113th Congress House Government Operations and Politics Administrative law and regulatory procedures Competitiveness, trade promotion, trade deficits Congressional oversight Economic performance and conditions Government studies and investigations Property rights

Sound Regulation Act of 2014

Introduced: February 3, 2014 See on congress.gov
This bill died when the 113th Congress ended
It never became law before the 113th Congress (2013–2014) adjourned, and bills don't carry over to the next Congress. It would have to be reintroduced. You can still save it for reference, but it won't receive updates.
 Everywhere this bill has been 3 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Mar 20, 2014
Referred to the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial And Antitrust Law.
Jan 14, 2014
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Jan 14, 2014
Introduced in House
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 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Sound Regulation Act of 2014 - Establishes additional requirements for rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), including:

  • identification by a federal agency, in the context of a coherent conceptual framework and supported with objective data, of the nature and significance of the market failure, regulatory failure, or other problem that necessitates regulatory action and why other alternatives, such as market forces or state or local regulations, could not address the problem better than federal regulation; 
  • establishment by an agency of an achievable objective for its regulatory action;
  • development of at least three regulatory options, in addition to not regulating, that the agency estimates will provide the greatest benefits for the least cost in meeting the regulatory objective;
  • an estimate by each agency of the costs and benefits of each regulatory option developed, at least to the extent the agency is able to exclude options whose costs exceed their benefits, and rank such options by cost from lowest to highest;
  • publication for public comment of all analyses, documentation, and data relating to the requirements of this Act for a public comment period of at least 30 days;
  • establishment, by rule, of the specific cost-benefit analysis methodology appropriate to the functions and responsibilities of the agency and establishment of an appropriate period for review of new rules to assess their cost-effectiveness; and
  • justification of why the agency does not select the least-cost regulatory option as its proposed rule.

Requires the Comptroller General (GAO), for purposes of congressional review, to examine and report on: (1) each agency cost-benefit analysis for compliance with the requirements of this Act, including the agency methodology for such analysis; (2) risk analysis pertaining to the cost-benefit analysis; and (3) agency quadrennial regulatory reviews for consistency with the requirements of this Act.

What's happening now March 20, 2014

Referred to the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial And Antitrust Law.

 Related & companion bills 1
 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 2
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). H.R. 3863: Sound Regulation Act of 2014. 113th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/113-HR-3863/
MLA
"H.R. 3863: Sound Regulation Act of 2014." 113th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/113-HR-3863/.
Bluebook (legal)
H.R. 3863, 113th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/113-HR-3863/.
Markdown link
[H.R. 3863: Sound Regulation Act of 2014](https://openamerica.io/bill/113-HR-3863/)
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