WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill designed to reduce the federal paperwork and regulatory burden on small businesses.
The Paperwork and Regulatory Improvements Act (H.R. 2432) was introduced about a year ago by Rep. Doug Ose, R-Calif., to provide Congress with more tools to curb the growth of federal regulations and paperwork. The bill passed 371 to 54, meaning it had strong bipartisan support.
"The passage of this legislation is a victory for small businesses across the nation that have faced unnecessary and burdensome paperwork and regulatory requirements for far too long," said Ose. "The hours spent and penalties paid by small businesses affect productivity, jobs and economic growth. In today's highly competitive global marketplace, American businesses need every advantage they can find," Ose added.
The bill tackles the federal regulatory and paperwork burden on a variety of fronts, most notably by requiring the Office of Management & Budget to dedicate at least two full-time staff members of work exclusively on reducing tax-related paperwork, and by making permanent the requirement for the General Accounting Office to respond to congressional requests for an independent evaluation of selective regulatory proposals by federal agencies.
According to Ose, the IRS accounts for more than 80 percent of all government-imposed paperwork and there is a clear need to reduce tax reporting paperwork requirements. At the same time, Ose says if Congress is to fulfill its oversight responsibility for federal regulations it must be armed with independent information. He contends Congress needs to know when federal agencies are failing to follow congressional mandates and when they are trying to legislate with regulations, says Ose.
Under the legislation, Congress will be better equipped to review federal agency rules and, more importantly, congressmen and women will be able to submit timely and knowledgeable comments on proposed rules during the public comment period, he noted.
Finally, the bill requires federal agencies to annually submit estimates of the costs and benefits associated with the rules and paperwork required under the programs managed by the agencies, and establish pilot projects for what is called "regulatory budgeting." This would help ensure federal agencies address the worst societal problems first.
The bill is strongly supported by the chief counsel for advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration, Thomas M. Sullivan, who has testified twice in support of the act.
"As well-documented by the Office of Advocacy's Crain-Hopkins report, small business continues to pay a disproportionately large share of the total federal regulatory burden," says Sullivan. "For firms employing fewer than 20 employees, the annual regulatory burden in 2000 was estimated to be $6,975 per employee - nearly 60 percent higher than the $4,463 estimated for large firms with more than 500 employees."
Supporting Ose's bill were Reps. John Tanner, Tenn.; Tom Davis, Va., chairman of Government Reform Committee; Dennis Moore, Tenn.; Jim Matheson, Utah, and Paul Ryan, Wis.
""H.R. 2432 is a good government bill, which makes incremental improvements in the existing processes governing paperwork and regulatory reviews, including strengthened tools for Congress," says Ose.