WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Dan Meuser, Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, and Congressman Roger Williams (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business issued the following statements after sending a letter to Commissioner Califf of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding a new regulation and its potentially adverse impacts on small businesses.

This letter builds on the House Committee on Small Business’ work to ensure federal agencies adhere to the Regulatory Flexibility Act and Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act to protect small businesses from burdensome regulations and rulemaking.

Read the full letter to the Food and Drug Administration here.

Read excerpts from the letter below:

“The House Committee on Small Business (Committee) writes to inquire about the recent proposed rule to create a product standard for cigars that would result in a product ban of all cigars with a ‘characterizing flavor’ other than tobacco. The Committee has followed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) process as it relates to this rulemaking and seeks to further understand FDA’s consideration of the economic impacts on small entities that would result from implementation of this proposed rule.

“Small businesses make up 99.9 percent of all businesses in the United States. This is why the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) requires regulatory agencies to consider the impact of their rules on small businesses, and to evaluate alternatives that would accomplish the objectives of the rule without unduly burdening small entities. We have reviewed the FDA’s May 2022 Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis and identified several unanswered questions which we believe should have been considered when assessing the economic impact of the proposed rule.”

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