The Congressional Review Act

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

I finally found some good source material on the process by which new regulations are drafted once a bill (such as the UIGEA) is passed.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/w...lfedregs_c.htm

In general, once a bill is passed by Congress and signed by the President, authority for drafting and enforcing regulations transfers from the Legislative Branch to agencies within the Executive Branch. In this case, I believe the relevant agency is the Federal Reserve.

However, Congress does retain the right of review, both in informal ways and in formal ways as codified by the Congressional Review Act. In fact, there is actually a backdoor way to kill the bill. Specifically, a "Resolution of Disapproval" can be introduced into each chamber. If this resolution passes both the House and the Senate, and the President signs the bill, then the bill is effectively killed.

Now, I don't want to get anyone's hopes up. The Congressional Review Act has been successfully enacted exactly once, and that was in regards to a piece of legislation that had barely passed through the Congress. Interesting find, though.