should strengthen the law immediately, proving that our lawmakers actually stand with small business.
This law was supposed to protect small businesses in several ways. First, it requires agencies to analyze a regulation’s effects on small businesses, both at its proposal and final promulgation. Second, it requires agencies to consider ways to ease compliance for small businesses, including alternatives and exemptions. In the 1990s, a third major protection was added, requiring some agencies to solicit direct input from small businesses, through formal panels, before establishing rules.
Look no further than the Department of Labor’s 2022 regulation classifying more independent contractors as workers. The department didn’t even try to estimate the cost to small businesses, laughably claiming that compliance would cost $25 and 30 minutes. The Environmental Protection Agency is another routine offender. Its 2022 emissions guidelines for oil and natural gas didn’t analyze all costs for small businesses, failed to look at burdens after three years, and refused to look at alternative policies. And the 2022 “Waters of the United States” regulation assumed no substantial costs for small businesses.