YourVoice.Now Summary
Transparency & AccountabilityCorporate BenefitsLets small businesses challenge an agency's claim that a rule won't hurt them, and ends rules agencies fail to review in 10 years.
Transparency & Accountability
An agency's small business cost study now covers direct costs. This bill would add costs that reach firms one step away, such as suppliers and customers of a regulated company.
A small business, or a group speaking for small businesses, could ask the SBA's Chief Counsel for Advocacy to review an agency's claim that a rule will not hit small firms hard. The Chief Counsel would have 10 days to say whether the claim gets a full look.
Today these agency claims are hard to take to court. Once the SBA finishes or turns down a review, the claim would count as a final decision. A small business could then sue over it.
When an agency expects a rule to hit small firms hard, it would have to post the papers that explain the rule on regulations.gov. The public could comment on them.
Agencies already owe a review of rules that affect small firms every 10 years. Missing that deadline carries no penalty today. A missed review would end the rule, reaching back to rules issued in the five years before the law passed.
If a rule lapsed, the agency would ask the public why it should come back. After a review of up to 180 days, the rule would return without the usual notice-and-comment steps.
Corporate Benefits
If an agency misses the review meeting or will not help the SBA, the finished rule would not apply to small businesses. Small nonprofits and small local governments would be covered too.
More about this bill
If you run a small business, you would get a new way to push back on federal rules. Agencies can now declare that a planned rule will not hit small firms hard. That call lets them skip a full small business cost study. Under this bill, a small business could ask the Small Business Administration to look at that call again. The SBA would have 10 days to say whether the case gets a full review. Results of a full review would be published within 30 days of its start. Agencies would also have to estimate indirect costs before proposing a rule. Those are costs that land on firms that buy from or sell to the regulated business. If an agency skipped the required review meeting, its final rule would not apply to small firms. Small firms could also take the agency's call to court once the review ends. Rules that agencies fail to review within 10 years would stop being in effect. That clock would reach back to rules issued in the five years before the law passed. An agency could bring a lapsed rule back after a public comment round. Agencies would also have to post guidance for costly rules online, with a way to comment. No new money is set aside for this work. Most people would not use these steps themselves. The effect would show up in which federal rules stay on the books.
Congressional Summary
Congress's official summary of this bill still describes an earlier version of the text, so we have left it out here. You can read it on Congress.gov.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2025-02-10
- Date Added
- 2026-06-13
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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