The House Committee on Small Business meets Tuesday for a full-committee markup on seven bills targeting the Biden-Harris administration for creating burdensome regulations.
The seven bills to be reviewed were written to strengthen and boost protections for small businesses laid out in the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, the Washington Examiner reported.
"The regulatory burden placed on Main Street America throughout the Biden-Harris administration is hard to comprehend," committee Chair Roger Williams, R-Texas, said in a statement, the Examiner reported.
"The legislation we are putting forward, like the Prove It Act, will take necessary steps to improve transparency and ensure federal agencies are fully accounting for their regulatory impacts on small businesses."
The seven bills include:
- HR 8033: The Regulatory Transparency for Small Businesses Act.
- HR 9031: The Assurance for Small Business Act of 2024.
- HR 9032: The Enhanced Regulatory Flexibility Assessment Act.
- HR 9030: The Regulatory Agenda Clarity Act.
- HR 9085: The Regulatory Review Improvement Act of 2024.
- HR 9033: The Let American Businesses be On Record (LABOR) Act.
The markup comes four months after the committee released a report that found the administration has imposed $1.7 trillion in regulations on small businesses, amounting to 312 million paperwork compliance hours.
The report found four ways in which federal agencies skirted around creating regulations without checking to see if it would burden small businesses.
Representatives from 50 trade groups signed a letter accusing the Biden-Harris administration of circumventing the RFA, and pointing out 28 instances where federal agencies "failed to adequately examine the economic costs of regulations."
The letter said an investigation found federal agencies "often improperly certify that rules will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities."
The letter also said agencies would not check to see if a new rule was duplicative or in conflict with other rules, and some agencies wouldn’t comply with congressional oversight.
"In response to these findings, the Committee has prioritized several legislative proposals to strengthen the RFA," the letter stated, the Examiner reported.
"One proposal, the bipartisan Prove It Act, would increase small business input in the regulatory process and ensure agencies are fully accounting for the impact of regulations on small businesses. Other proposals would increase the transparency and accountability of the regulatory process for small businesses."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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