# 119-s-5178: Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act

119-s-5178, Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Scott, Rick [R-FL] (R-FL); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-08-15).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5178
- As of: 2026-08-15
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-5178
- Congress: 119
- Title: Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-07-30
- Sponsor: Sen. Scott, Rick [R-FL] (R-FL)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-08-15

## Summary

**Strengthens small business protections in federal rulemaking.** It broadens what counts as a rule and as an economic impact, forces agencies to measure or explain costs, creates regular reviews of costly rules, boosts SBA Advocacy power, and limits fines for first-time small-business paperwork errors. - Small businesses, tribal organizations, and newly defined "small organizations" gain broader coverage and must be considered for both direct and indirect rule costs. Agencies must quantify impacts or explain why they cannot. First-time information-collection violations by small businesses generally cannot trigger civil fines, subject to narrow exceptions and correction windows (6 months and a 24-hour option for health or safety issues). - Federal agencies must prepare much more detailed initial and final regulatory-flexibility analyses and either provide numerical estimates or a clear explanation for why numbers are impracticable. Agencies must post plain-language summaries within 3 business days and publish periodic-review plans within 180 days, with reviews of covered rules at least every 10 years. - The SBA Chief Counsel for Advocacy gets expanded authority to set and defend size standards and to intervene in litigation. The Government Accountability Office must complete a study of the Advocacy office's capacity within 90 days.

## Provisions PRIA read

- Stronger small-business review rules: benefit, medium. If enacted, this bill would expand which rules get special small-business review and tighten those reviews. Agencies would have to publish a periodic review plan within 180 days and review covered rules every 10 years. Agencies would need much stronger initial and final analyses, publish them onlin…
- Land-plan changes covered for small entities: benefit, medium. If enacted, this bill would treat certain Forest Service and BLM land-management plan revisions and amendments as rules covered by the small-business review law. Where applicable, those plan amendments would need a NEPA section 102(2)(C) statement and a regulatory-flexibility analysis. Agencies wou…
- New paperwork and fine limits: mixed, medium. If enacted, this bill would bar civil fines for a small business's first-time information-collection violation by the same agency in the prior five years. Exceptions would allow fines for tax or debt collection rules, serious public harm or criminal-detection issues, failures not fixed within 6 mon…

## Related bills

- 119-s-2120: Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2025
- 119-s-1541: SHIPS for America Act of 2025
- 119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act
- 119-s-4782: ReportScams.gov Act
- 119-s-4280: SAFE Act
- 119-s-690: Overdose RADAR Act

## Sources
- [119-s-5178 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5178)

## Related
- [119-s-2120: Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2120)
- [119-s-1541: SHIPS for America Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1541)
- [119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1748)
- [119-s-4782: ReportScams.gov Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4782)
- [119-s-4280: SAFE Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4280)
- [119-s-690: Overdose RADAR Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-690)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5178 (as of 2026-08-15).