Sponsors
The bill increases transparency and gives small businesses stronger tools and opportunities to challenge costly rules, at the expense of added administrative burdens, potential delays or gaps in protections when agencies miss reviews, and risks that implementation will be underfunded or public input limited.
Small businesses can petition for review of agency certifications and obtain timely judicial or administrative review, giving them a direct tool to block or revise agency rules that would impose significant costs.
Agencies must analyze and publicly disclose foreseeable indirect costs and post certifications and guidance more quickly, improving regulatory transparency and the economic assessment behind rules.
Small businesses get consolidated access to agency guidance and formal opportunities to comment on guidance, helping them reduce compliance uncertainty and influence how rules are interpreted before final implementation.
If agencies fail to cooperate or miss required reviews, rules may not apply to some small entities or may automatically lapse, creating regulatory gaps and uneven protections for businesses and the public.
New review, posting, and comment requirements will increase administrative workload and compliance costs for agencies, which can slow rule development and shift costs onto taxpayers or regulated entities.
Added procedural steps (e.g., post-publication posting, IRFA/FRFA after petitions, comment periods on guidance) can delay issuance or implementation of protective rules, creating policy uncertainty and slowing enforcement of safety or compliance measures.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Strengthens analysis and transparency for rules affecting small entities, adds an SBA Chief Counsel petition review, tightens 10-year review rules, and forbids new appropriations.
Introduced February 10, 2025 by Joni Ernst · Last progress February 10, 2025
Requires federal agencies to expand how they evaluate economic effects on small entities, speed public notice of certifications that a rule will not significantly affect many small entities, and create a new petition and review process letting small entities ask the SBA Chief Counsel for Advocacy to review those certifications. It also forces agencies to publish and accept public comment on guidance tied to rules expected to significantly affect many small entities, strengthens 10-year rule reviews by adding indirect-costs consideration and creates automatic consequences if agencies fail to complete required reviews. No new appropriations are authorized, so implementation must use existing funds.