I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 421
To amend chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code (commonly known as
the ‘‘Regulatory Flexibility Act’’), to ensure complete analysis of potential
impacts on small entities of rules, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY15, 2025
Mr. C
LINE(for himself, Ms. HAGEMAN, Mr. ELLZEY, Mr. BRECHEEN, and
Mr. F
ITZGERALD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Small
Business, and Oversight and Government Reform, for a period to be sub-
sequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of
such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code (com-
monly known as the ‘‘Regulatory Flexibility Act’’), to
ensure complete analysis of potential impacts on small
entities of rules, 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 ‘‘Small Business Regu-4
latory Flexibility Improvements Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION AND EXPANSION OF RULES COV-1
ERED BY THE REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY 2
ACT. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 601(2) of title 5, United 4
States Code, is amended to read as follows: 5
‘‘(2) R
ULE.—The term ‘rule’— 6
‘‘(A) has the meaning given the term in 7
section 551(4); and 8
‘‘(B) does not include— 9
‘‘(i) a rule pertaining to the protection 10
of the rights of and benefits for veterans 11
or part 232 of title 32, Code of Federal 12
Regulations (as in effect on July 1, 2014), 13
or any successor provisions thereto; or 14
‘‘(ii) a rule of particular (and not gen-15
eral) applicability relating to rates, wages, 16
corporate or financial structures or reorga-17
nizations thereof, prices, facilities, appli-18
ances, services, or allowances therefor or to 19
valuations, costs or accounting, or prac-20
tices relating to such rates, wages, struc-21
tures, prices, appliances, services, or allow-22
ances.’’. 23
(b) I
NCLUSION OF RULESWITHINDIRECTEF-24
FECTS.—Section 601 of title 5, United States Code, is 25
amended by adding at the end the following: 26
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‘‘(9) ECONOMIC IMPACT.—The term ‘economic 1
impact’ means, with respect to a proposed or final 2
rule— 3
‘‘(A) any direct economic effect on small 4
entities of such rule; and 5
‘‘(B) any indirect economic effect (includ-6
ing compliance costs and effects on revenue) on 7
small entities which is reasonably foreseeable 8
and results from such rule (without regard to 9
whether small entities will be directly regulated 10
by the rule).’’. 11
(c) I
NCLUSION OFRULESWITHBENEFICIALEF-12
FECTS.— 13
(1) I
NITIAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANAL -14
YSIS.—Section 603(c) of title 5, United States Code, 15
is amended by striking the first sentence and insert-16
ing ‘‘Each initial regulatory flexibility analysis shall 17
also contain a detailed description of alternatives to 18
the proposed rule which minimize any adverse sig-19
nificant economic impact or maximize any beneficial 20
significant economic impact on small entities.’’. 21
(2) F
INAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANAL -22
YSIS.—Section 604(a) of title 5, United States Code, 23
is amended— 24
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(A) by redesignating the second paragraph 1
designated as paragraph (6) (relating to cov-2
ered agencies) as paragraph (7); and 3
(B) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘mini-4
mize the significant economic impact’’ and in-5
serting ‘‘minimize the adverse significant eco-6
nomic impact or maximize the beneficial signifi-7
cant economic impact’’. 8
(d) I
NCLUSION OFRULESAFFECTINGTRIBALORGA-9
NIZATIONS.—Section 601(5) of title 5, United States 10
Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘and tribal organizations 11
(as defined in section 4(l) of the Indian Self-Determina-12
tion and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304(l))),’’ 13
after ‘‘special districts,’’. 14
(e) I
NCLUSION OFLANDMANAGEMENTPLANS AND 15
F
ORMALRULEMAKING.— 16
(1) I
NITIAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANAL -17
YSIS.—Section 603(a) of title 5, United States Code, 18
is amended in the first sentence— 19
(A) by striking ‘‘or’’ after ‘‘proposed 20
rule,’’; and 21
(B) by inserting ‘‘or publishes a revision or 22
amendment to a land management plan,’’ after 23
‘‘United States,’’. 24
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(2) FINAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANAL -1
YSIS.—Section 604(a) of title 5, United States Code, 2
is amended in the first sentence— 3
(A) by striking ‘‘or’’ after ‘‘proposed rule-4
making,’’; and 5
(B) by inserting ‘‘or adopts a revision or 6
amendment to a land management plan,’’ after 7
‘‘section 603(a),’’. 8
(3) L
AND MANAGEMENT PLAN DEFINED .—Sec-9
tion 601 of title 5, United States Code, as amended 10
by subsection (b), is amended by adding at the end 11
the following: 12
‘‘(10) L
AND MANAGEMENT PLAN .— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘land man-14
agement plan’ means— 15
‘‘(i) any plan developed by the Sec-16
retary of Agriculture under section 6 of 17
the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Re-18
sources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 19
1604); and 20
‘‘(ii) any plan developed by the Sec-21
retary of the Interior under section 202 of 22
the Federal Land Policy and Management 23
Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712). 24
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‘‘(B) REVISION.—The term ‘revision’ 1
means any change to a land management plan 2
which— 3
‘‘(i) in the case of a plan described in 4
subparagraph (A)(i), is made under section 5
6(f)(5) of the Forest and Rangeland Re-6
newable Resources Planning Act of 1974 7
(16 U.S.C. 1604(f)(5)); or 8
‘‘(ii) in the case of a plan described in 9
subparagraph (A)(ii), is made under sec-10
tion 1610.5–6 of title 43, Code of Federal 11
Regulations (or any successor regulation). 12
‘‘(C) A
MENDMENT.—The term ‘amend-13
ment’ means any change to a land management 14
plan which— 15
‘‘(i) in the case of a plan described in 16
subparagraph (A)(i), is made under section 17
6(f)(4) of the Forest and Rangeland Re-18
newable Resources Planning Act of 1974 19
(16 U.S.C. 1604(f)(4)) and with respect to 20
which the Secretary of Agriculture pre-21
pares a statement described in section 22
102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 23
Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 24
4332(2)(C)); or 25
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‘‘(ii) in the case of a plan described in 1
subparagraph (A)(ii), is made under sec-2
tion 1610.5–5 of title 43, Code of Federal 3
Regulations (or any successor regulation), 4
and with respect to which the Secretary of 5
the Interior prepares a statement described 6
in section 102(2)(C) of the National Envi-7
ronmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 8
4332(2)(C)).’’. 9
(f) I
NCLUSION OFCERTAININTERPRETIVERULES 10
I
NVOLVING THEINTERNALREVENUELAWS.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 603(a) of title 5, 12
United States Code, is amended by striking the pe-13
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘or a recordkeeping re-14
quirement, and without regard to whether such rec-15
ordkeeping requirement is imposed by statute or reg-16
ulation.’’. 17
(2) C
OLLECTION OF INFORMATION .—Section 18
601(7) of title 5, United States Code, is amended to 19
read as follows: 20
‘‘(7) C
OLLECTION OF INFORMATION .—The term 21
‘collection of information’ has the meaning given the 22
term in section 3502 of title 44.’’. 23
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(3) RECORDKEEPING REQUIREMENT .—Section 1
601(8) of title 5, United States Code, is amended to 2
read as follows: 3
‘‘(8) R
ECORDKEEPING REQUIREMENT .—The 4
term ‘recordkeeping requirement’ has the meaning 5
given the term in section 3502 of title 44.’’. 6
(g) D
EFINITION OFSMALLORGANIZATION.—Section 7
601(4) of title 5, United States Code, is amended to read 8
as follows: 9
‘‘(4) S
MALL ORGANIZATION.— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘small orga-11
nization’ means any nonprofit enterprise which, 12
as of the issuance of a notice of proposed rule-13
making— 14
‘‘(i) in the case of an enterprise which 15
is described by a classification code of the 16
North American Industrial Classification 17
System, does not exceed the size standard 18
established by the Administrator of the 19
Small Business Administration pursuant to 20
section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 21
U.S.C. 632) for small business concerns 22
described by such classification code; and 23
‘‘(ii) in the case of any other enter-24
prise, has a net worth that does not exceed 25
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$7,000,000 and has not more than 500 1
employees. 2
‘‘(B) L
OCAL LABOR ORGANIZATIONS .—In 3
the case of any local labor organization, sub-4
paragraph (A) shall be applied without regard 5
to any national or international organization of 6
which such local labor organization is a part. 7
‘‘(C) A
GENCY DEFINITIONS .—Subpara-8
graphs (A) and (B) shall not apply to the ex-9
tent that an agency, after consultation with the 10
Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Ad-11
ministration and after opportunity for public 12
comment, establishes one or more definitions 13
for such term which are appropriate to the ac-14
tivities of the agency and publishes such defini-15
tions in the Federal Register.’’. 16
SEC. 3. EXPANSION OF REPORT OF REGULATORY AGENDA. 17
Section 602 of title 5, United States Code, is amend-18
ed— 19
(1) in subsection (a)— 20
(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘, and’’ 21
at the end and inserting a semicolon; 22
(B) by redesignating paragraph (3) as 23
paragraph (4); and 24
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(C) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 1
following: 2
‘‘(3) a brief description of the sector of the 3
North American Industrial Classification System 4
that is primarily affected by any rule which the 5
agency expects to propose or promulgate which is 6
likely to have a significant economic impact on a 7
substantial number of small entities; and’’; and 8
(2) in subsection (c), to read as follows: 9
‘‘(c)(1) Not later than 3 days after the date on which 10
an agency publishes a regulatory flexibility agenda in the 11
Federal Register under subsection (a), the agency shall 12
prominently display on the website of the agency a plain 13
language summary of the information contained in the 14
regulatory flexibility agenda. 15
‘‘(2) The Office of Advocacy of the Small Business 16
Administration shall compile, by agency, and prominently 17
display on the website of the Small Business Administra-18
tion a plain language summary of each regulatory flexi-19
bility agenda published under subsection (a) not later than 20
3 days after the date of publication in the Federal Reg-21
ister.’’. 22
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SEC. 4. REQUIREMENTS PROVIDING FOR MORE DETAILED 1
ANALYSES. 2
(a) I
NITIALREGULATORYFLEXIBILITYANALYSIS.— 3
Section 603(b) of title 5, United States Code, is amended 4
to read as follows: 5
‘‘(b) Each initial regulatory flexibility analysis re-6
quired under this section shall contain a detailed state-7
ment— 8
‘‘(1) describing the reasons why action by the 9
agency is being considered; 10
‘‘(2) describing the objectives of, and legal basis 11
for, the proposed rule; 12
‘‘(3) estimating the number and type of small 13
entities to which the proposed rule will apply; 14
‘‘(4) describing the projected reporting, record-15
keeping, and other compliance requirements of the 16
proposed rule, including an estimate of the classes of 17
small entities which will be subject to the require-18
ment and the type of professional skills necessary 19
for preparation of the report and record; 20
‘‘(5) describing all relevant Federal rules which 21
may duplicate, overlap, or conflict with the proposed 22
rule, or the reasons why such a description could not 23
be provided; 24
‘‘(6) estimating the additional cumulative eco-25
nomic impact of the proposed rule on small entities 26
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beyond that already imposed on the class of small 1
entities by the agency or why such an estimate is 2
not available; 3
‘‘(7) describing any disproportionate economic 4
impact on small entities or a specific class of small 5
entities; and 6
‘‘(8) describing any impairment of the ability of 7
small entities to have access to credit.’’. 8
(b) F
INALREGULATORYFLEXIBILITYANALYSIS.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 604(a) of title 5, 10
United States Code, is amended— 11
(A) in paragraph (4)— 12
(i) by inserting ‘‘detailed’’ before ‘‘de-13
scription’’; and 14
(ii) by striking ‘‘an explanation’’ and 15
inserting ‘‘a detailed explanation’’; 16
(B) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘de-17
tailed’’ before ‘‘description’’; 18
(C) in paragraph (6)— 19
(i) by inserting ‘‘detailed’’ before ‘‘de-20
scription’’; and 21
(ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end; 22
(D) in paragraph (7), as so redesignated, 23
by striking the period at the end and inserting 24
‘‘; and’’; and 25
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(E) by adding at the end the following: 1
‘‘(8) a detailed description of any dispropor-2
tionate economic impact on small entities or a spe-3
cific class of small entities.’’. 4
(2) I
NCLUSION OF RESPONSE TO COMMENTS ON 5
CERTIFICATION OF PROPOSED RULE .—Section 6
604(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code, is amended 7
by inserting ‘‘(or certification of the proposed rule 8
under section 605(b))’’ after ‘‘initial regulatory flexi-9
bility analysis’’. 10
(3) P
UBLICATION OF ANALYSIS ON WEBSITE .— 11
Section 604(b) of title 5, United States Code, is 12
amended to read as follows: 13
‘‘(b) The agency shall make copies of the final regu-14
latory flexibility analysis available to the public, including 15
placement of the entire analysis on the website of the 16
agency, and shall publish in the Federal Register the final 17
regulatory flexibility analysis, or a summary thereof which 18
includes the telephone number, mailing address, and link 19
to the website where the complete analysis may be ob-20
tained.’’. 21
(c) C
ROSS-REFERENCES TO OTHERANALYSES.— 22
Section 605(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended 23
to read as follows: 24
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‘‘(a) A Federal agency shall be treated as satisfying 1
any requirement regarding the content of a regulatory 2
flexibility agenda or regulatory flexibility analysis under 3
section 602, 603, or 604 if the Federal agency provides 4
in the agenda or analysis a cross-reference to the specific 5
portion of another agenda or analysis which is required 6
by any other law and which satisfies the requirement.’’. 7
(d) C
ERTIFICATIONS.—Section 605(b) of title 5, 8
United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘statement 9
providing the factual basis for such certification.’’ and in-10
serting ‘‘detailed statement providing the factual and legal 11
basis for such certification. The detailed statement shall 12
include an economic assessment or a summary thereof 13
that is sufficiently detailed to support the certification of 14
the agency.’’. 15
(e) Q
UANTIFICATIONREQUIREMENTS.—Section 607 16
of title 5, United States Code, is amended to read as fol-17
lows: 18
‘‘§ 607. Quantification requirements 19
‘‘In complying with sections 603 and 604, an agency 20
shall provide— 21
‘‘(1) a quantifiable or numerical description of 22
the effects of the proposed or final rule and alter-23
natives to the proposed or final rule; or 24
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‘‘(2) a more general descriptive statement and 1
a detailed statement explaining why quantification is 2
not practicable or reliable.’’. 3
SEC. 5. REPEAL OF WAIVER AND DELAY AUTHORITY; ADDI-4
TIONAL POWERS OF THE CHIEF COUNSEL 5
FOR ADVOCACY. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 608 of title 5, United 7
States Code, is amended to read as follows: 8
‘‘§ 608. Additional powers of Chief Counsel for Advo-9
cacy 10
‘‘(a)(1) Not later than 270 days after the date of en-11
actment of the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Im-12
provements Act, the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 13
Small Business Administration shall, after opportunity for 14
notice and comment under section 553, issue rules gov-15
erning agency compliance with this chapter. The Chief 16
Counsel may modify or amend such rules after notice and 17
comment under section 553. This chapter (other than this 18
subsection) shall not apply with respect to the issuance, 19
modification, and amendment of rules under this para-20
graph. 21
‘‘(2) An agency shall not issue rules which supple-22
ment the rules issued under paragraph (1) unless such 23
agency has first consulted with the Chief Counsel for Ad-24
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vocacy to ensure that the supplemental rules comply with 1
this chapter and the rules issued under paragraph (1). 2
‘‘(b) Notwithstanding any other law, the Chief Coun-3
sel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration 4
may intervene in any agency adjudication (unless such 5
agency is authorized to impose a fine or penalty under 6
such adjudication) and may inform the agency of the im-7
pact that any decision on the record may have on small 8
entities. The Chief Counsel shall not initiate an appeal 9
with respect to any adjudication in which the Chief Coun-10
sel intervenes under this subsection. 11
‘‘(c) The Chief Counsel for Advocacy may file com-12
ments in response to any agency notice requesting com-13
ment, regardless of whether the agency is required to file 14
a general notice of proposed rule making under section 15
553.’’. 16
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—Section 611(a) of 17
title 5, United States Code, is amended— 18
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘608(b),’’; 19
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘608(b),’’; 20
and 21
(3) in paragraph (3)— 22
(A) by striking subparagraph (B); and 23
(B) by striking ‘‘(3)(A) A small entity’’ 24
and inserting the following: 25
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‘‘(3) A small entity’’. 1
SEC. 6. PROCEDURES FOR GATHERING COMMENTS. 2
Section 609 of title 5, United States Code, is amend-3
ed by striking subsections (b) through (e) and inserting 4
the following: 5
‘‘(b)(1) Prior to publication of any proposed rule de-6
scribed in subsection (e), an agency making the rule shall 7
notify the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Busi-8
ness Administration and provide the Chief Counsel with— 9
‘‘(A) all materials prepared or utilized by the 10
agency in making the proposed rule, including the 11
draft of the proposed rule; and 12
‘‘(B) information on the potential adverse and 13
beneficial economic impacts of the proposed rule on 14
small entities and the type of small entities that 15
might be affected. 16
‘‘(2) An agency shall not be required under para-17
graph (1) to provide the exact language of any draft if 18
the rule— 19
‘‘(A) relates to the internal revenue laws of the 20
United States; or 21
‘‘(B) is proposed by an independent regulatory 22
agency. 23
‘‘(c) Not later than 15 days after the receipt of the 24
materials and information under subsection (b), the Chief 25
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Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administra-1
tion shall— 2
‘‘(1) identify small entities or representatives of 3
small entities or a combination of both for the pur-4
pose of obtaining advice, input, and recommenda-5
tions from those persons about the potential eco-6
nomic impacts of the proposed rule and the compli-7
ance of the agency with section 603; and 8
‘‘(2) convene a review panel consisting of an 9
employee from the Office of Advocacy of the Small 10
Business Administration, an employee from the 11
agency making the rule, and, in the case of an agen-12
cy other than an independent regulatory agency, an 13
employee from the Office of Information and Regu-14
latory Affairs of the Office of Management and 15
Budget to review the materials and information pro-16
vided to the Chief Counsel under subsection (b). 17
‘‘(d)(1) Not later than 60 days after the review panel 18
described in subsection (c)(2) is convened, the Chief Coun-19
sel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration 20
shall, after consultation with the members of the panel, 21
submit a report to the agency and, in the case of an agen-22
cy other than an independent regulatory agency, the Office 23
of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of 24
Management and Budget. 25
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‘‘(2) Each report described in paragraph (1) shall in-1
clude an assessment of the economic impact of the pro-2
posed rule on small entities, including— 3
‘‘(A) an assessment of the impact of the pro-4
posed rule on the cost that small entities pay for en-5
ergy; 6
‘‘(B) an assessment of the impact of the pro-7
posed rule on startup costs for small entities; and 8
‘‘(C) a discussion of any alternatives that will 9
minimize adverse significant economic impacts or 10
maximize beneficial significant economic impacts on 11
small entities. 12
‘‘(3) Each report described in paragraph (1) shall be-13
come part of the rulemaking record. In the publication of 14
the proposed rule, the agency shall explain what actions, 15
if any, the agency took in response to the report. 16
‘‘(e) A proposed rule is described by this subsection 17
if the Administrator of the Office of Information and Reg-18
ulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, 19
the head of the agency (or the delegatee of the head of 20
the agency), or an independent regulatory agency deter-21
mines that the proposed rule is likely to result in— 22
‘‘(1) an annual effect on the economy of 23
$100,000,000 or more; 24
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‘‘(2) a major increase in costs or prices for con-1
sumers, individual industries, the Federal Govern-2
ment, State or local governments, tribal organiza-3
tions, or geographic regions; 4
‘‘(3) significant adverse effects on competition, 5
employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or 6
the ability of United States-based enterprises to 7
compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic 8
and export markets; or 9
‘‘(4) a significant economic impact on a sub-10
stantial number of small entities. 11
‘‘(f) Upon application by the agency, the Chief Coun-12
sel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration 13
may waive the requirements of subsections (b) through (e) 14
if the Chief Counsel determines that compliance with the 15
requirements of such subsections is impracticable, unnec-16
essary, or contrary to the public interest. 17
‘‘(g) A small entity or a representative of a small enti-18
ty may submit a request that the agency provide a copy 19
of the report prepared under subsection (d) and all mate-20
rials and information provided to the Chief Counsel for 21
Advocacy of the Small Business Administration under 22
subsection (b). The agency receiving such request shall 23
provide the report, materials, and information to the re-24
questing small entity or representative of a small entity 25
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not later than 10 business days after receiving such re-1
quest, except that the agency shall not disclose any infor-2
mation that is prohibited from disclosure to the public 3
pursuant to section 552(b) of this title. 4
‘‘(h) In this section, the term ‘independent regulatory 5
agency’ has the meaning given the term in section 3502 6
of title 44.’’. 7
SEC. 7. PERIODIC REVIEW OF RULES. 8
Section 610 of title 5, United States Code, is amend-9
ed to read as follows: 10
‘‘§ 610. Periodic review of rules 11
‘‘(a) Not later than 180 days after the date of enact-12
ment of the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Im-13
provements Act, each agency shall publish in the Federal 14
Register and place on the website of the agency a plan 15
for the periodic review of rules issued by the agency which 16
the head of the agency determines have a significant eco-17
nomic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 18
Such determination shall be made without regard to 19
whether the agency performed an analysis under section 20
604. The purpose of the review shall be to determine 21
whether such rules should be continued without change, 22
or should be amended or rescinded, consistent with the 23
stated objectives of applicable statutes, to minimize any 24
adverse significant economic impacts or maximize any 25
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beneficial significant economic impacts on a substantial 1
number of small entities. Such plan may be amended by 2
the agency at any time by publishing the revision in the 3
Federal Register and subsequently placing the amended 4
plan on the website of the agency. 5
‘‘(b) The plan shall provide for the review of all such 6
agency rules existing on the date of enactment of the 7
Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act 8
within 10 years of the date of publication of the plan in 9
the Federal Register and for review of rules adopted after 10
the date of enactment of the Small Business Regulatory 11
Flexibility Improvements Act within 10 years after the 12
publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. If 13
the head of the agency determines that completion of the 14
review of existing rules is not feasible by the established 15
date, the head of the agency shall so certify in a statement 16
published in the Federal Register and may extend the re-17
view for not longer than 2 years after publication of notice 18
of extension in the Federal Register. Such certification 19
and notice shall be sent to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy 20
of the Small Business Administration and Congress. 21
‘‘(c) The plan shall include a section that details how 22
an agency will conduct outreach to and meaningfully in-23
clude small businesses (including small business concerns 24
owned and controlled by women, small business concerns 25
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owned and controlled by veterans, and small business con-1
cerns owned and controlled by socially and economically 2
disadvantaged individuals (as such terms are defined in 3
section 3 and section 8(d)(3)(C) of the Small Business Act 4
(15 U.S.C. 632, 637(d)(3)(C)))) for the purposes of car-5
rying out this section. The agency shall include in this sec-6
tion a plan for how the agency will contact small busi-7
nesses and gather their input on existing agency rules. 8
‘‘(d) Each agency shall annually submit a report re-9
garding the results of its review pursuant to such plan 10
to Congress, the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small 11
Business Administration, and, in the case of agencies 12
other than independent regulatory agencies (as defined in 13
section 3502 of title 44), to the Administrator of the Of-14
fice of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office 15
of Management and Budget. Such report shall include the 16
identification of any rule with respect to which the head 17
of the agency made a determination described in para-18
graph (5) or (6) of subsection (e) and a detailed expla-19
nation of the reasons for such determination. 20
‘‘(e) In reviewing a rule pursuant to subsections (a) 21
through (d), the agency shall amend or rescind the rule 22
to minimize any adverse significant economic impact on 23
a substantial number of small entities or disproportionate 24
economic impact on a specific class of small entities, or 25
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maximize any beneficial significant economic impact of the 1
rule on a substantial number of small entities to the great-2
est extent possible, consistent with the stated objectives 3
of applicable statutes. In amending or rescinding the rule, 4
the agency shall consider the following factors: 5
‘‘(1) The continued need for the rule. 6
‘‘(2) The nature of complaints received by the 7
agency from small entities concerning the rule. 8
‘‘(3) Comments by the Regulatory Enforcement 9
Ombudsman and the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of 10
the Small Business Administration. 11
‘‘(4) The complexity of the rule. 12
‘‘(5) The extent to which the rule overlaps, du-13
plicates, or conflicts with other Federal rules and, 14
unless the head of the agency determines it to be in-15
feasible, State, territorial, and local rules. 16
‘‘(6) The contribution of the rule to the cumu-17
lative economic impact of all Federal rules on the 18
class of small entities affected by the rule, unless the 19
head of the agency determines that such calculations 20
cannot be made and reports that determination in 21
the annual report required under subsection (d). 22
‘‘(7) The length of time since the rule has been 23
evaluated or the degree to which technology, eco-24
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nomic conditions, or other factors have changed in 1
the area affected by the rule. 2
‘‘(f) Each year, each agency shall publish in the Fed-3
eral Register and on its website a list of rules to be re-4
viewed pursuant to such plan. The agency shall include 5
in the publication a solicitation of public comments on any 6
further inclusions or exclusions of rules from the list and 7
shall respond to such comments. Such publication shall 8
include a brief description of the rule, state the reason 9
why the agency determined that it has a significant eco-10
nomic impact on a substantial number of small entities 11
(without regard to whether it had prepared a final regu-12
latory flexibility analysis for the rule), and request com-13
ments from the public, the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of 14
the Small Business Administration, and the Regulatory 15
Enforcement Ombudsman concerning the enforcement of 16
the rule.’’. 17
SEC. 8. JUDICIAL REVIEW OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE RE-18
QUIREMENTS OF THE REGULATORY FLEXI-19
BILITY ACT AVAILABLE AFTER PUBLICATION 20
OF THE FINAL RULE. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 611(a) of title 5, United 22
States Code, is amended— 23
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘final agency 24
action’’ and inserting ‘‘such rule’’; 25
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(2) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘(or which 1
would have such jurisdiction if publication of the 2
final rule constituted final agency action)’’ after 3
‘‘provision of law,’’; and 4
(3) in paragraph (3)— 5
(A) by striking ‘‘final agency action’’ and 6
inserting ‘‘publication of the final rule’’; and 7
(B) by inserting ‘‘, in the case of a rule for 8
which the date of final agency action is the 9
same date as the publication of the final rule,’’ 10
after ‘‘except that’’. 11
(b) I
NTERVENTION BY CHIEFCOUNSEL FORADVO-12
CACY.—Section 612(b) of title 5, United States Code, is 13
amended by inserting before the first period ‘‘or agency 14
compliance with section 601, 603, 604, 605(b), 609, or 15
610’’. 16
SEC. 9. JURISDICTION OF COURT OF APPEALS OVER RULES 17
IMPLEMENTING THE REGULATORY FLEXI-18
BILITY ACT. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 2342 of title 28, United 20
States Code, is amended— 21
(1) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 22
end; 23
(2) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at 24
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 25
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(3) by inserting after paragraph (7) the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(8) all final rules under section 608(a) of title 3
5.’’. 4
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.—Section 2341(3) 5
of title 28, United States Code, is amended— 6
(1) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘and’’ at 7
the end; 8
(2) in subparagraph (E), by striking the period 9
at the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 10
(3) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(F) the Office of Advocacy of the Small 12
Business Administration, when the final rule is 13
under section 608(a) of title 5.’’. 14
(c) A
UTHORIZATIONTOINTERVENE AND COMMENT 15
ONAGENCYCOMPLIANCEWITHADMINISTRATIVEPROCE-16
DURE.—Section 612(b) of title 5, United States Code, is 17
amended by inserting ‘‘chapter 5, and chapter 7,’’ after 18
‘‘this chapter,’’. 19
SEC. 10. ESTABLISHMENT AND APPROVAL OF SMALL BUSI-20
NESS CONCERN SIZE STANDARDS BY CHIEF 21
COUNSEL FOR ADVOCACY. 22
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 3(a)(2)(A) of the Small 23
Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a)(2)(A)) is amended to read 24
as follows: 25
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—In addition to the cri-1
teria specified in paragraph (1)— 2
‘‘(i) the Administrator may specify de-3
tailed definitions or standards by which a 4
business concern may be determined to be 5
a small business concern for purposes of 6
this Act or the Small Business Investment 7
Act of 1958 (15 U.S.C. 661 et seq.); and 8
‘‘(ii) the Chief Counsel for Advocacy 9
may specify such definitions or standards 10
for purposes of any other Act.’’. 11
(b) A
PPROVAL BY CHIEFCOUNSEL.—Section 12
3(a)(2)(C)(iii) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 13
632(a)(2)(C)(iii)) is amended to read as follows: 14
‘‘(iii) except in the case of a size 15
standard prescribed by the Administrator, 16
is approved by the Chief Counsel for Advo-17
cacy.’’. 18
(c) I
NDUSTRYVARIATION.—Section 3(a)(3) of the 19
Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a)(3)) is amended— 20
(1) by inserting ‘‘or Chief Counsel for Advo-21
cacy, as appropriate,’’ before ‘‘shall ensure’’; and 22
(2) by inserting ‘‘or Chief Counsel for Advo-23
cacy’’ before the period at the end. 24
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(d) JUDICIALREVIEW OFSIZESTANDARDSAP-1
PROVED BYCHIEFCOUNSEL.—Section 3(a) of the Small 2
Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a)) is amended by adding 3
at the end the following: 4
‘‘(10) J
UDICIAL REVIEW OF STANDARDS AP -5
PROVED BY CHIEF COUNSEL .—In the case of an ac-6
tion for judicial review of a rule which includes a 7
definition or standard approved by the Chief Counsel 8
for Advocacy under this subsection, the party seek-9
ing such review shall be entitled to join the Chief 10
Counsel as a party in such action.’’. 11
SEC. 11. CLERICAL AMENDMENTS. 12
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 601 of title 5, United 13
States Code, is amended— 14
(1) in paragraph (1)— 15
(A) by striking the semicolon at the end 16
and inserting a period; and 17
(B) by striking ‘‘(1) the term’’ and insert-18
ing the following: 19
‘‘(1) A
GENCY.—The term’’; 20
(2) in paragraph (3)— 21
(A) by striking the semicolon at the end 22
and inserting a period; and 23
(B) by striking ‘‘(3) the term’’ and insert-24
ing the following: 25
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‘‘(3) SMALL BUSINESS.—The term’’; 1
(3) in paragraph (5)— 2
(A) by striking the semicolon at the end 3
and inserting a period; and 4
(B) by striking ‘‘(5) the term’’ and insert-5
ing the following: 6
‘‘(5) S
MALL GOVERNMENTAL JURISDICTION .— 7
The term’’; and 8
(4) in paragraph (6)— 9
(A) by striking ‘‘; and’’ and inserting a pe-10
riod; and 11
(B) by striking ‘‘(6) the term’’ and insert-12
ing the following: 13
‘‘(6) S
MALL ENTITY.—The term’’. 14
(b) I
NCORPORATIONS BY REFERENCE AND CERTIFI-15
CATIONS.—The heading of section 605 of title 5, United 16
States Code, is amended to read as follows: 17
‘‘§ 605. Incorporations by reference and certifi-18
cations’’. 19
(c) T
ABLE OFSECTIONS.—The table of sections for 20
chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code, is amended as 21
follows: 22
(1) By striking the item relating to section 605 23
and inserting the following new item: 24
‘‘605. Incorporations by reference and certifications.’’.
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(2) By striking the item relating to section 607 1
and inserting the following new item: 2
‘‘607. Quantification requirements.’’.
(3) By striking the item relating to section 608 3
and inserting the following: 4
‘‘608. Additional powers of Chief Counsel for Advocacy.’’.
(d) OTHERCLERICALAMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 5
6.—Chapter 6 of title 5, United States Code, is amend-6
ed— 7
(1) in section 603(d)— 8
(A) by striking paragraph (2); 9
(B) by striking ‘‘(1) For a covered agency, 10
as defined in section 609(d)(2), each initial reg-11
ulatory flexibility analysis’’ and inserting ‘‘Each 12
initial regulatory flexibility analysis by an agen-13
cy’’; 14
(C) by striking ‘‘(A) any’’ and inserting 15
‘‘(1) any’’; 16
(D) by striking ‘‘(B) any significant’’ and 17
inserting ‘‘(2) any significant’’; and 18
(E) by striking ‘‘(C) advice’’ and inserting 19
‘‘(3) advice’’; and 20
(2) in paragraph (7) of section 604(a), as so re-21
designated by section 2(c)(2)(A) of this Act, by 22
striking ‘‘for a covered agency, as defined in section 23
609(d)(2),’’. 24
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SEC. 12. AGENCY PREPARATION OF GUIDES. 1
Section 212(a)(5) the Small Business Regulatory En-2
forcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601 note) is 3
amended to read as follows: 4
‘‘(5) A
GENCY PREPARATION OF GUIDES .—The 5
agency shall, in its sole discretion, taking into ac-6
count the subject matter of the rule and the lan-7
guage of relevant statutes, ensure that the guide is 8
written using sufficiently plain language likely to be 9
understood by affected small entities. Agencies may 10
prepare separate guides covering groups or classes of 11
similarly affected small entities and may cooperate 12
with associations of small entities to distribute such 13
guides. In developing guides, agencies shall solicit 14
input from affected small entities or associations of 15
affected small entities. An agency may prepare 16
guides and apply this section with respect to a rule 17
or a group of related rules.’’. 18
SEC. 13. COMPTROLLER GENERAL REPORT. 19
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment 20
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 21
shall complete and publish a study that examines whether 22
the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Ad-23
ministration has the capacity and resources to carry out 24
the duties of the Chief Counsel under this Act and the 25
amendments made by this Act. 26
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SEC. 14. WAIVER OF FINES FOR FIRST-TIME PAPERWORK 1
VIOLATIONS BY SMALL BUSINESSES. 2
Section 3506 of title 44, United States Code (com-3
monly referred to as the ‘‘Paperwork Reduction Act’’), is 4
amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(j) S
MALLBUSINESSES.— 6
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 7
‘‘(A) F
IRST-TIME VIOLATION.—The term 8
‘first-time violation’ means a violation by a 9
small business concern of a requirement regard-10
ing collection of information by an agency, 11
where the small business concern has not pre-12
viously violated any similar requirement regard-13
ing collection of information by that same agen-14
cy during the 5-year period preceding the viola-15
tion. 16
‘‘(B) S
MALL BUSINESS CONCERN .—The 17
term ‘small business concern’ has the meaning 18
given the term in section 3 of the Small Busi-19
ness Act (15 U.S.C. 632). 20
‘‘(2) F
IRST-TIME VIOLATION.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 22
subparagraph (C), in the case of a first-time 23
violation by a small business concern of a re-24
quirement regarding the collection of informa-25
tion by an agency, the head of the agency shall 26
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not impose a civil fine on the small business 1
concern. 2
‘‘(B) D
ETERMINATION.—For purposes of 3
determining whether to impose a civil fine on a 4
small business concern under subparagraph (A), 5
the head of an agency shall not take into ac-6
count any violation by the small business con-7
cern of a requirement regarding collection of in-8
formation by another agency. 9
‘‘(C) E
XCEPTION.—An agency may impose 10
a civil fine on a small business concern for a 11
first-time violation if the head of the agency de-12
termines that— 13
‘‘(i) the violation has the potential to 14
cause serious harm to the public interest; 15
‘‘(ii) failure to impose a civil fine 16
would impede or interfere with the detec-17
tion of criminal activity; 18
‘‘(iii) the violation is a violation of an 19
internal revenue law or a law concerning 20
the assessment or collection of any tax, 21
debt, revenue, or receipt; 22
‘‘(iv) the violation was not corrected 23
on or before the date that is 6 months 24
after the date on which the small business 25
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concern receives notification of the viola-1
tion in writing from the agency; or 2
‘‘(v) except as provided in paragraph 3
(3), the violation presents a danger to the 4
public health or safety. 5
‘‘(3) D
ANGER TO PUBLIC HEALTH OR SAFE -6
TY.— 7
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In any case in which 8
the head of an agency determines under para-9
graph (2)(C)(v) that a violation presents a dan-10
ger to the public health or safety, the head of 11
the agency may determine not to impose a civil 12
fine on the small business concern if the viola-13
tion is corrected not later than 24 hours after 14
receipt by the owner of the small business con-15
cern of notification of the violation in writing. 16
‘‘(B) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In determining 17
whether to allow a small business concern 24 18
hours to correct a violation under subparagraph 19
(A), the head of an agency shall take into ac-20
count all of the facts and circumstances regard-21
ing the violation, including— 22
‘‘(i) the nature and seriousness of the 23
violation, including whether the violation is 24
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technical or inadvertent or involves willful 1
or criminal conduct; 2
‘‘(ii) whether the small business con-3
cern had made a good faith effort to com-4
ply with applicable laws and to remedy the 5
violation within the shortest practicable pe-6
riod of time; and 7
‘‘(iii) whether the small business con-8
cern has obtained a significant economic 9
benefit from the violation. 10
‘‘(C) N
OTICE TO CONGRESS.—In any case 11
in which the head of an agency imposes a civil 12
fine on a small business concern for a violation 13
that presents a danger to the public health or 14
safety and does not allow the small business 15
concern 24 hours to correct the violation under 16
subparagraph (A), the head of the agency shall 17
notify Congress regarding the determination 18
not later than 60 days after the date on which 19
the civil fine is imposed by the agency.’’. 20
Æ
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