ALERT Act Demands 12-Month Rulemaking Forecast and Six-Month Delay for Most New Federal Regulations

The All Economic Regulations are Transparent Act, or the ALERT Act, is a massive procedural overhaul aimed at shining a spotlight on the federal government’s regulatory pipeline. Essentially, this bill forces every federal agency to give a detailed, 12-month heads-up about every new rule they plan to propose or finalize, and then it imposes a mandatory waiting period before most of those rules can actually take effect. It’s all about transparency and giving the public—and industry—a much longer look at what’s coming down the pike.

The Mandatory 12-Month Forecast

Under the ALERT Act, federal agencies will now have to send monthly reports to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), detailing their regulatory plans for the next year. This isn't just a vague wish list; they must provide the rule’s identifier, the legal reason for making it, and, crucially, a cost estimate. If a rule is already proposed, the agency has to slot its potential economic impact into specific cost brackets, ranging from under $50,000 all the way up to $10 billion or more. If you’re a small business owner, an industry group, or even just a concerned citizen, this means you get a rolling, standardized forecast of every rule that might affect your operations or daily life, complete with the agency’s own economic analysis. OIRA must then post all this data online within 30 days, making the entire regulatory process searchable and visible.

The Six-Month Waiting Game

Perhaps the biggest practical change in the ALERT Act is the mandatory delay built into the system. Once an agency has published all the required information about a new rule—including its estimated costs and scientific basis—the rule generally cannot become effective for at least six months. Think of it as a mandatory cooling-off period. For businesses, this is a clear win because it provides a guaranteed period to adjust supply chains, update compliance procedures, or train staff before a new requirement kicks in. For example, if the EPA finalizes a new standard for industrial emissions, a manufacturer gets a full half-year to prepare, rather than the 30 or 60 days currently typical.

When Waiting Isn't an Option

While the six-month delay is the new default, the bill includes several significant exceptions that allow agencies to bypass the waiting period. A rule can take effect immediately if the agency claims an exemption from standard public notice procedures, or if the President issues an Executive Order declaring the rule necessary for things like national security, enforcing criminal laws, implementing international trade agreements, or addressing an “imminent health or safety threat.” This means that if a new infectious disease pops up, or if the Department of Justice needs a new rule to track financial crimes, those rules can be fast-tracked. However, these exceptions are broad, and whether an agency uses them sparingly or frequently will largely determine how effective the transparency and delay provisions actually are.

The Administrative Backlog

While the goal of transparency is laudable, the bill imposes a serious administrative lift on federal agencies. Not only do they have to produce detailed monthly reports and cost estimates going forward, but the very first annual OIRA summary requires them to dig up and publish cost/benefit analyses for every proposed and finalized rule going back ten years. This retrospective requirement is a massive data retrieval and reporting burden, essentially forcing agencies to audit a decade's worth of regulatory paperwork. For the public, this means a flood of historical data will become available, but for the agencies, it means diverting significant resources from current work to compliance.