04/26/2001
WASHINGTON, April 26, 200 -- The NFIB Legal Foundation today filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to block a new lead-reporting regulation issued in the final days of Bill Clinton's presidency. The regulation would require thousands of businesses to report their use of lead. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said last week that the Bush administration will allow this midnight regulation to be implemented.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Whitman cites EPA's failure to comply with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), which requires that regulating agencies take into account the concerns of small businesses when issuing new mandates. NFIB contends that EPA did not take the concerns of small business into account when issuing the regulation.
"The new lead regulation has an obvious impact on small business," said Tom Sullivan, Executive Director of the NFIB Legal Foundation. "In fact, EPA admitted as much by announcing that they will provide 'technical assistance' to small businesses to help them comply with the regulation. That's not enough, according to the law."
"Five years ago, the enactment of SBREFA ushered in a new era of government accountability," Sullivan continued. "The law guarantees small business a seat at the table. When small business is shut out of the process, we have no choice but to go to court."
"If EPA had truly listened to small business instead of short-circuiting the process, a regulation could have been crafted that would satisfy both EPA and small business. It is especially ironic that a regulation that didn't go through the proper paperwork will impose new paperwork on small business," Sullivan concluded.
NFIB's complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The NFIB Legal Foundation is represented by the Atlantic Legal Foundation, a non-profit public interest foundation that advocates the principles of free enterprise and challenges burdensome or illegal government regulations.
The NFIB Legal Foundation is a private foundation designed to protect the rights of America's small-business owners by providing advisory material on legal issues and by ensuring that the voice of small business is heard in the nation's courts. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is the nation's largest small-business advocacy group. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB represents the consensus views of its 600,000 members in Washington and all 50 state capitals. More information is available on-line at www.nfib.com.
CONTACT: Michelle Dimarob, (202) 554-9000
