WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) along with Vice Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) issued the following statements regarding recent oversight efforts inquiring how the Biden Administration is cooperating with the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), and Executive Order 13272.

“In the first two years in office, President Biden has issued nearly $360 billion in new regulatory costs on small businesses,” said Chairman Williams. “When the private sector is forced to spend time on additional paperwork requirements, it takes valuable resources away from their core operations and thinking about how to grow and expand their businesses. As our nation’s job creators deal with unprecedented levels of inflation, supply chain disruptions, and an inability to find quality workers, it is imperative we are not adding additional layers of compliance to further limit their ability to grow.  These letters are simply the starting point as the committee works to ensure that the safeguards in place to protect small businesses are working as intended and not improperly harming our nation’s entrepreneurs.”

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“Burdensome regulations and government red-tape create a headache for all Americans, but they’re especially harmful for our nation’s small businesses who often lack the resources or manpower to navigate them. It is our job as members of this committee to conduct the necessary oversight to ensure the Biden Administration is properly implementing the laws designed to safeguard small businesses in the regulatory process. These letters will help us do just that, and I look forward to timely responses from the respective agencies,” said Vice Chairman Luetkemeyer.

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“During the last two years of one-party rule in Washington, Democrats rammed through crushing regulations, hurting millions of small business owners in the process,” said Rep. Van Duyne. “The federal government have done a shameful job of meeting their statutory requirement to consider the impact that proposed regulations will have on small businesses. Unfortunately, it appears that this requirement has been willfully ignored. As the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations, I’m glad to take this important step to continue exposing the federal government’s failures and abuses to provide accountability for Main Street.”

Key excerpt from letters:

“The RFA, SBREFA, and EO13272 were designed to provide small businesses notice of proposed agency rules that affected their business and provide them the opportunity to participate in the process.  Despite this stated goal, it seems that some agencies are failing to properly implement these measures to the detriment of small businesses across the country.”

Background:

The House Committee on Small Business began this investigation last year with the initial inquiry into 27 federal agencies.

• According to the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, there have been 27 violations of the RFA & SBREFA rulemaking clauses.
• In those 27 violations, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Labor (DOL), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) had the most violations.
  • EPA – 9 violations
  • DOL – 5 violations.
  • CPSC – 2 violations.
  • SEC – 2 violations.

Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) agencies are required to consider the economic impact their regulations may have on small entities, conduct regulatory analyses outlining these impacts, and consider alternative rules which accomplish the stated objectives of applicable statutes and minimize any significant economic impact of the proposed rule on small entities. SBA’s Office of Advocacy has documented 27 instances where the Biden Administration agencies have failed to or been deficient in complying with the RFA.

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