I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1163
To amend title 5, United States Code, to require greater transparency for
Federal regulatory decisions that impact small businesses, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY10, 2025
Mr. F
INSTAD(for himself, Ms. HAGEMAN, Mr. MORAN, Ms. SALAZAR, Mr.
M
EUSER, Mr. NUNNof Iowa, Mr. STEIL, and Mr. STAUBER) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary,
and in addition to the Committee on Small Business, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to require greater
transparency for Federal regulatory decisions that impact
small businesses, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prove It Act of 2025’’. 4
SEC. 2. INITIAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANALYSIS. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 6 of title 5, United 6
States Code, is amended— 7
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(1) in section 603(b)— 1
(A) in paragraph (5), by striking the pe-2
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 3
(B) by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(6) where feasible, any reasonably foreseeable 5
potential indirect costs the proposed rule may im-6
pose on small entities, including small entities 7
that— 8
‘‘(A) purchase products or services from, 9
sell products or services to, or otherwise con-10
duct business with entities directly regulated by 11
the rule; 12
‘‘(B) are directly regulated by other gov-13
ernmental entities as a result of the rule; or 14
‘‘(C) are not directly regulated by the 15
agency as a result of the rule but are otherwise 16
subject to other agency rules as a result of the 17
rule.’’; 18
(2) in section 605(b), by striking ‘‘The agency’’ 19
and inserting ‘‘Not later than 10 days after com-20
pleting the certification described in this subsection, 21
the agency’’; and 22
(3) by inserting after section 605 the following: 23
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‘‘§ 605A. Review procedures relating to initial regu-1
latory flexibility analysis certifications 2
‘‘(a) F
ILING APETITIONTOREVIEWAGENCYCER-3
TIFICATION OF APROPOSEDRULE.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any small entity, group of 5
small entities, or organization representing the inter-6
ests of small entities may petition the Chief Counsel 7
for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration 8
(in this section referred to as the ‘Chief Counsel’) to 9
review a certification published under section 605(b) 10
that a proposed rule will not, if promulgated, have 11
a significant economic impact on a substantial num-12
ber of small entities. 13
‘‘(2) F
ORM.—The Chief Counsel shall— 14
‘‘(A) determine the method, timing, and 15
form of disseminating a petition described in 16
paragraph (1); and 17
‘‘(B) display the information described in 18
subparagraph (A) on the website of the Office 19
of Advocacy of the Small Business Administra-20
tion in a conspicuous manner. 21
‘‘(3) C
ONTENTS.—Each petition described in 22
paragraph (1) with respect to a certification pub-23
lished under section 605(b) for a proposed rule shall 24
clearly and concisely— 25
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‘‘(A) specify the name of the petitioner and 1
a telephone number, a mailing address, and an 2
email address that the Chief Counsel may use 3
to communicate with the petitioner; 4
‘‘(B) if the petitioner is an organization, 5
provide additional identifying information, as 6
applicable, including the organizational or cor-7
porate status of the petitioner, the State of in-8
corporation of the petitioner, the registered 9
agent of the petitioner, the interest of the peti-10
tioner in representing small entities affected by 11
the proposed rule and the certification at issue, 12
and the name and authority of the individual 13
who signed the petition on behalf of the organi-14
zational or corporate petitioner; 15
‘‘(C) present the specific problems or 16
issues that the petitioner believes should be ad-17
dressed or considered through a review of the 18
certification, such as— 19
‘‘(i) any specific circumstances in 20
which the determination of the certification 21
that the proposed rule will not, if promul-22
gated, have a significant economic impact 23
on a substantial number of small entities is 24
incorrect, incomplete, or inadequate; or 25
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‘‘(ii) why the proposed rule would, if 1
promulgated, have a significant economic 2
impact on a substantial number of small 3
entities; 4
‘‘(D) cite, enclose, or reference any rel-5
evant and non-protected or confidential tech-6
nical, scientific, or other data or information 7
supporting any assertion of the problems or 8
issues with the certification; 9
‘‘(E) present a proposed solution to the 10
problems or issues raised in the petition, includ-11
ing potential regulatory or compliance alter-12
natives to the proposed rule; 13
‘‘(F) provide an analysis, discussion, or ar-14
gument that explains how the proposed solution 15
described in subparagraph (E) solves the prob-16
lems or issues raised in the petition; and 17
‘‘(G) cite, enclose, or reference any other 18
publicly available data or information sup-19
porting the proposed solution described in sub-20
paragraph (E). 21
‘‘(b) C
ONSULTATION.— 22
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Any entity or organization 23
desiring to file a petition under subsection (a) may 24
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request a consultation with the Chief Counsel before 1
or after filing the petition. 2
‘‘(2) F
ORM.—The Chief Counsel shall— 3
‘‘(A) determine the method, timing, and 4
form of requesting a consultation with the Chief 5
Counsel under paragraph (1); and 6
‘‘(B) display the information described in 7
subparagraph (A) on the website of the Office 8
of Advocacy of the Small Business Administra-9
tion in a conspicuous manner. 10
‘‘(3) L
IMITATIONS ON ASSISTANCE .—In any 11
consultation regarding a petition under paragraph 12
(1), the Chief Counsel— 13
‘‘(A) may only— 14
‘‘(i) describe the process for filing, 15
docketing, tracking, closing, amending, 16
withdrawing, and resolving the petition; 17
and 18
‘‘(ii) assist the petitioner to clarify the 19
petition so that the Chief Counsel is able 20
to understand the issues of concern to the 21
petitioner; and 22
‘‘(B) may not advise a petitioner on wheth-23
er the petition should be amended or with-24
drawn. 25
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‘‘(c) PRIMAFACIEREVIEW.— 1
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Upon receipt of a petition 2
filed under this section with respect to the certifi-3
cation of a proposed rule, the Chief Counsel shall 4
make an initial prima facie determination on the 5
merit of the issues raised in the petition as to the 6
properness of the certification and whether the pro-7
posed rule in question would, if promulgated, have 8
a significant economic impact on a substantial num-9
ber of small entities. 10
‘‘(2) N
O FURTHER REVIEW .—If, following the 11
prima facie review of a petition under paragraph (1), 12
the Chief Counsel determines that the issues raised 13
in the petition do not merit further review by the 14
Chief Counsel, the Chief Counsel shall, not later 15
than 10 days after receipt of the petition, inform the 16
petitioner of that determination and the matter shall 17
be closed. 18
‘‘(3) F
URTHER REVIEW .—If, following the 19
prima facie review of a petition under paragraph (1), 20
the Chief Counsel determines that the issues raised 21
in the petition do merit further review by the Chief 22
Counsel, the Chief Counsel shall, not later than 10 23
days after receipt of the petition, inform the peti-24
tioner and the agency that promulgated the pro-25
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posed rule that the Chief Counsel shall conduct a 1
full review of the certification and proposed rule to 2
which the petition relates under subsection (d). 3
‘‘(d) F
ULLREVIEW.— 4
‘‘(1) C
ONSIDERATIONS; MEETING.—In con-5
ducting a full review under this subsection with re-6
spect to the certification made under section 605(b), 7
the Chief Counsel shall— 8
‘‘(A) consider— 9
‘‘(i) whether the agency that promul-10
gated the proposed rule correctly deter-11
mined which small entities will be affected 12
by the proposed rule; 13
‘‘(ii) whether the agency considered 14
adequate economic data to assess whether 15
the proposed rule will have a significant 16
impact on a substantial number of small 17
entities; and 18
‘‘(iii) the economic implications of the 19
proposed rule; and 20
‘‘(B) convene a virtual or in-person meet-21
ing between the Chief Counsel, the petitioner, 22
representatives of the agency that promulgated 23
the proposed rule who are determined appro-24
priate by the Chief Counsel, and the Adminis-25
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trator of the Office of Information and Regu-1
latory Affairs to— 2
‘‘(i) provide positions and support for 3
those positions regarding the certification 4
of the proposed rule; and 5
‘‘(ii) allow the Chief Counsel to ask 6
questions as the Chief Counsel determines 7
necessary to make a final determination as 8
to the validity of the certification. 9
‘‘(2) P
UBLICATION.—Not later than 30 days 10
after the date on which the Chief Counsel begins a 11
full review of a certification made with respect to a 12
proposed rule under paragraph (1), the Chief Coun-13
sel shall submit to the petitioner and the agency that 14
promulgated the proposed rule, and publish in the 15
Federal Register and on the website of the Office of 16
Advocacy of the Small Business Administration, the 17
results of the review conducted under paragraph (1). 18
‘‘(3) R
EQUIREMENT TO PERFORM ANALYSES .— 19
If, after a full review of a certification made with re-20
spect to a proposed rule under paragraph (1), the 21
Chief Counsel determines that the proposed rule 22
will, if promulgated, have a significant economic im-23
pact on a substantial number of small entities, the 24
agency that promulgated the proposed rule shall per-25
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form an initial regulatory flexibility analysis and a 1
final regulatory flexibility analysis for the proposed 2
rule under sections 603 and 604, respectively. 3
‘‘(4) P
ENALTY.—If an agency fails to attend 4
the required meeting under paragraph (1)(B) or in 5
any other way fails to assist the Chief Counsel in a 6
full review under paragraph (1) with respect to a 7
proposed rule of the agency, as determined by the 8
Chief Counsel, the final rule shall not apply to small 9
entities. 10
‘‘(5) J
UDICIAL REVIEW.—For purposes of judi-11
cial review under chapter 7 of this title, a certifi-12
cation made by an agency under section 605(b) for 13
which a petition is filed under subsection (a) shall 14
be considered final agency action as of the date on 15
which the Chief Counsel— 16
‘‘(A) makes a determination under sub-17
section (c)(2) that the issues raised in the peti-18
tion do not merit further review; or 19
‘‘(B) publishes the results of a full review 20
of the certification under paragraph (1).’’. 21
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 22
The table of sections for chapter 6 of title 5, United States 23
Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 24
section 605 the following: 25
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‘‘605A. Review procedures relating to initial regulatory flexibility analysis certifi-
cations.’’.
SEC. 3. PUBLICATION OF GUIDANCE.
1
Section 609 of title 5, United States Code, is amend-2
ed by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(f) With respect to any rule that an agency deter-4
mines is likely to have a significant economic impact on 5
a substantial number of small entities, the head of the 6
agency shall, on regulations.gov or any similar internet 7
website— 8
‘‘(1) publish all guidance documents and other 9
relevant documents, as determined by the agency, 10
including any updated guidance documents that set 11
forth interpretations of the rule; and 12
‘‘(2) allow for comments on the documents de-13
scribed in paragraph (1) to ensure that small enti-14
ties may access and provide feedback on those docu-15
ments.’’. 16
SEC. 4. REVIEW PROCEDURES FOR SECTION 610 PERIODIC 17
REVIEW OF RULES. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 610 of title 5, United 19
States Code, is amended— 20
(1) in subsection (b)— 21
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 22
by striking ‘‘the following factors’’; 23
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(B) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 1
the end; 2
(C) in paragraph (5), by striking the pe-3
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4
(D) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(6) any indirect costs described in the initial 6
regulatory flexibility analysis under section 7
603(b)(6), and any other indirect costs that may 8
have arisen during the 10-year period described in 9
subsection (a).’’; and 10
(2) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(d) If an agency fails to conduct a review of a rule 12
as required under this section within the 10-year period 13
described in subsection (a)— 14
‘‘(1) the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 15
Small Business Administration shall notify the agen-16
cy that the rule has ceased to be effective; 17
‘‘(2) the agency shall publish in the Federal 18
Register a notification that the rule has ceased to be 19
effective, and solicit comments for why the rule 20
should be reinstated; and 21
‘‘(3) if, based on the comments received under 22
paragraph (2), the agency determines that the rule 23
should be reinstated— 24
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‘‘(A) the agency shall have 180 days begin-1
ning on the date of that determination to com-2
plete the review of the rule under this section; 3
and 4
‘‘(B) upon completion of the review under 5
subparagraph (A), the rule shall be reinstated, 6
notwithstanding the notice and comment rule-7
making procedures under section 553 of this 8
title.’’. 9
(b) A
PPLICATION.—The amendment made by sub-10
section (a)(2) shall apply with respect to any final rule 11
issued by an agency— 12
(1) during the 5-year period preceding the date 13
of enactment of this Act; or 14
(2) on or after the date of enactment of this 15
Act. 16
SEC. 5. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS. 17
No additional funds are authorized to be appro-18
priated for the purpose of carrying out this Act or the 19
amendments made by this Act. 20
Æ
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