Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act
Sponsored By: Senator Scott, Rick [R-FL]
Introduced
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.
Show full summary
- 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.
Personalized for You
How does this bill affect your finances?
Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.
Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Stronger small-business review rules
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 online, and provide numeric estimates or explain why numbers are impracticable. The SBA Chief Counsel would get new review powers, must issue rules within 270 days, and must convene panels and report on big proposed rules. The bill would also add coverage tests such as a $100,000,000 annual-effect flag and a nonprofit small-organization test of net worth ≤ $7,000,000 and ≤ 500 employees.
Land-plan changes covered for small entities
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 would need to analyze impacts on small entities when planning land-use changes. This can affect small farmers and other rural residents who use public land.
New paperwork and fine limits
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 months, or dangers to public health or safety. For health-or-safety cases, agencies could allow up to 24 hours to correct and must notify Congress within 60 days if they fine without that time. The bill would also bring recordkeeping and information-collection rules under the small-business review law by aligning definitions with the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Scott, Rick [R-FL]
FL • R
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov