Sponsors (30)
Introduced February 10, 2025 by Brad Finstad · Last progress February 10, 2025
The bill increases transparency, participation, and procedural protections that can reduce regulatory burdens for small businesses and improve agency accountability, but it raises the risk of regulatory gaps, more litigation, administrative strain, and underfunded implementation by forcing faster reviews and use of existing funds.
Small businesses: gain a clearer, faster, and enforceable path to challenge agency certifications and obtain regulatory relief, plus requirements that trigger initial/final regulatory flexibility analyses and consideration of alternatives that can reduce compliance burdens.
Small businesses and the public: increased transparency and participation because agencies must disclose foreseeable indirect costs, post certifications and review determinations quickly, and publish interpretive guidance with opportunity to read and comment—reducing uncertainty about how rules are implemented.
Taxpayers and implementers: the law prevents new federal spending tied to its requirements and forces use of existing funds, which limits immediate budgetary increases and can encourage more efficient allocation of current resources.
Consumers, workers, small-business customers and the public: rules could lapse automatically if agencies miss mandatory reviews or fail to participate in review processes, creating regulatory gaps that remove protections until agencies reinstate rules.
Beneficiaries of programs, state and local implementers, and taxpayers: requiring implementation within existing funds risks underfunding, reduced or delayed services, and shifting costs to other programs or levels of government.
Small businesses and taxpayers: expanded procedural opportunities to challenge certifications and agency guidance may increase litigation and procedural contests, raising legal costs and prolonging regulatory uncertainty.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Strengthens requirements that agencies identify indirect costs to small entities, publish guidance for comment, and submit certifications to SBA review with deadlines and remedial procedures.
Requires federal agencies to do more to prove that new rules won’t hurt small entities and gives the SBA’s Chief Counsel for Advocacy a formal petition-and-review role when agencies certify no significant impact. It also forces agencies to publish guidance and invite comment for rules likely to affect many small entities, expands 10-year rule reviews to look for indirect costs, and creates a procedure that can render a rule ineffective if an agency fails to do its required review. No new money is authorized to implement these changes.