Values for America · Brief for congressional offices

To the office of U.S. Representative Brad Finstad

Re: HR 1163 (119th Congress), Prove It Act · Latest action (2026-05-04): Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 552.
VFA SI Solution #2 · published 2026-05-13 · https://www.valuesforamerica.com/solutions/2
Office of record (Congress.gov): 2418 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC · (202) 225-2472

Enhanced Prove It Act

The measure, as described from the official record: Require federal executive agencies to periodically review and justify their existing regulations, repeal those that are obsolete or lack sufficient justification, and take steps to improve overall administrative efficiency.

The proposal

Every federal executive agency must conduct a comprehensive review of all its active regulations every four years. For each regulation, the agency shall prepare a plain-English justification report assessing its current necessity, benefits, costs to the public and businesses, and alignment with statutory goals. Agencies must propose repeal or simplification for any regulation that fails to demonstrate net benefits or has become obsolete due to changed circumstances. Within 180 days after each review cycle, agencies submit these reports and proposed repeal lists to Congress and publish them online for public comment. Congress may enact joint resolutions to block proposed repeals of essential rules, ensuring protection for public health, safety, and environmental standards. Agencies must complete at least 10% of proposed repeals per cycle unless Congress directs otherwise. To improve efficiency, agencies establish internal 'regulatory improvement teams' with diverse staff to identify redundancies across agencies. Annual efficiency scorecards, measuring reduction in regulatory paperwork and compliance costs, are published by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). This Act promotes evidence-based governance without mandating new regulations, focusing solely on existing ones. Small businesses (under 50 employees) are exempt from compliance cost calculations in justifications to reduce burden.

Operative provisions (VFA proposal)

funding source
Reallocated from participating agencies' existing administrative budgets via annual appropriations riders
funding amount
$40 million cap over 8 years (averaging $5 million/year)
sunset years
8 years
oversight body
Government Accountability Office (GAO), with annual audits and public reports
enforcement mechanism
Agency heads certify compliance in annual reports to congressional committees; non-compliance triggers 5% budget holdback by Appropriations Committees
effective date
October 1, 2026 (start of FY2027)

Constitutional basis

Why both sides can back it (VFA’s assessment)

Honors Democratic priorities of evidence-based protection for essential public health/safety rules and efficient use of taxpayer dollars for better services; Republican priorities of slashing obsolete regulatory burdens on businesses and strengthening congressional oversight of unelected bureaucrats.

Values for America is a nonpartisan, constitution-first SI think tank. This brief is informational. It is a policy proposal, not law, and it does not support or oppose any candidate or party. Full analysis and sources: https://www.valuesforamerica.com/solutions/2 · Methodology: https://www.valuesforamerica.com/methodology