Use Your Voice at the Regulatory Table

It’s no surprise that regulatory compliance is one of
small-business owners’ top concerns. Small businesses
with fewer than 20 employees face regulatory costs of
almost $7,000 per employee per year – a burden
disproportionate to that placed on big business.

Government agencies impose new regulations almost
daily, but rarely with the regulation’s effect on small
business top of mind. It doesn’t have to be that way,
though. As a small-business owner, you have the power
to let the government know how a regulation would
affect your business before it’s imposed.

With the passage of the Small Business Regulatory
Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, federal agencies are
required to consider the effect on small business
before imposing a regulation. To facilitate this, the
bill also created the Office of the National Small
Business Ombudsman within the U.S. Small Business
Administration.

The ombudsman acts as a liaison between a small
business faced with burdensome and excessive regulatory
compliance standards and the responsible agency. Small
businesses send their comments to the ombudsman. The
ombudsman then forwards those comments to federal
agencies for a high-level review along with a request
for the agency to consider the fairness of its
enforcement actions. When the agency responds, the
ombudsman sends a copy of the response back to the
small business. Since the inception of the program,
such actions have led to lower or eliminated fines and
reversed decisions in favor of small business.

"Small businesses want to comply with the law, but they
need help knowing when a regulation will affect them
and how to comply with it," Ombudsman Michael Barrera
told the House Small Business Committee last year. "In
many cases, small businesses ‘don’t know what they
don’t know.’ As such, federal agencies cannot rely
merely on posting a new regulation in the Federal
Register and developing a brochure in order to educate
small businesses about regulations. Federal agencies
must provide assistance that is both easy to read and
easy to understand."

This is where another ombudsman program – the Small
Business Regulatory Fairness (RegFair) Boards – come
in. The 10 RegFair Boards, each comprised of five
volunteer small-business owners, reach out to small
businesses in their regions, gathering comments from
them, holding public hearings on regulatory issues
important to small business, and finally, reporting all
of their findings in the ombudsman’s yearly report to
Congress.

RegFair Boards are headquartered in the following
cities:

Region 1, Boston
Serves New England states, including Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Delaware

Region 2, New York City
Serves New York and New Jersey

Region 3, Philadelphia
Serves South Atlantic states, including Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Virginia

Region 4, Atlanta
Serves Southeastern states, including Kentucky,
Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Florida

Region 5, Chicago
Serves Midwestern states, including Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota

Region 6, Dallas
Serves Southern states, including Arkansas, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico

Region 7, Kansas City
Serves Heartland states, including Iowa, Missouri,
Kansas and Nebraska

Region 8, Denver
Serves Rocky Mountain states, including Colorado, Utah,
Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana

Region 9, San Francisco
Serves Western states, including Arizona, California,
Hawaii and Nevada

Region 10, Seattle
Serves Northwestern states, including Alaska, Idaho,
Oregon and Washington

Think your business is being subjected to unfair or
excessive government regulations? Enlist the help of
the Office of the National Small Business Ombudsman.

To read this and other related articles online, visit:
http://www.nfib.com/object/IO_17357.html