Federal agencies help, hinder small businesses, says Office of Advocacy

|tab|

Required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act to consider the effects of proposed regulations on small business, some |ret||ret||tab|

federal agencies have made positive changes to their regulatory culture and complied. |ret||ret||tab|

Others resist the "concept that regulatory alternatives that are less burdensome on small business may in fact be equally effective in achieving public policy objectives," said Thomas M. Sullivan, Chief Counsel for Advocacy, in recent testimony before the House Committee on Small Business.|ret||ret||tab|

At a hearing titled "Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act Compliance: Is it the Same Old Story?", Sullivan said that the act has helped change the regulatory culture in some agencies so that they "think about the negative effects of their proposals before they act."|ret||ret||tab|

Sullivan highlighted a Department of Transportation rule and an IRS rule as examples of how the federal government should adapt its practices to meet the needs of small employers. |ret||ret||tab|

The Department of Transportation made a good faith effort to comply with the act when it allowed small rural bus operators to creatively meet their Americans With Disabilities Act obligations. DOT issued a phased-in "on-call service" rule, instead of a one-size-fits-all mandate. |ret||ret||tab|

This rule meets the requirements of the ADA, while at the same time averting potential bankruptcy by small operators who cannot afford fleets of specially modified buses.|ret||ret||tab|

For its part, the IRS recently announced a change allowing up to 500,000 small businesses to use the less costly and less complicated cash method of accounting.|ret||ret||tab|

However, "a number of agencies consistently ignore the requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Two regular offenders are the Federal Communications Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,"Sullivan said. |ret||ret||tab|

He also found it "embarrassing that government agencies must be forced to publish guides to help small business to comply with their rules." [[In-content Ad]]