08/02/2004
CONTACT: Michelle Dimarob, (202) 554-9000
The NFIB Legal Foundation took a significant step forward Friday in its suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), challenging the agency's Toxic Release Inventory lead-reporting rule, which has forced thousands of small businesses that have zero lead emissions to file yearly paperwork. This rule lowered the reporting threshold from 10,000 to 100 pounds of lead or lead compounds manufactured, processed or used. The EPA reported that of the first-year filers, 41 percent reported zero releases into the environment.
Understanding the compliance requirements of this rule has been extremely difficult for small business. Some small businesses have spent more than 95 hours trying to determine whether they are even covered by the regulations.
The NFIB Motion for Summary Judgment, filed July 30, cites the agency'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 promulgating such rules. Among other things, NFIB argues that EPA:
1) Violated SBREFA by failing to perform a proper economic analysis of the impact of the rule on small business
2) Unlawfully lowered, from 10,000 to 100 pounds, the annual reporting thresholds for businesses using lead based on faulty science
"EPA's failure to obey the law and do its homework before issuing these regulations is unfairly burdening small businesses across the country and does little, if anything, to improve our environment," said Karen Harned, executive director of the NFIB Legal Foundation. "Nobody wins when a government agency issues rules based on both unsound science and little or no analysis of how it will impact America's small businesses – the very sector leading job creation in our economy."
Editor’s note: The following are key dates regarding NFIB’s case against the EPA.
- July 30--NFIB's motion for summary judgment
- Sept. 30--EPA's motion for summary judgment
- Oct. 29--NFIB's reply to EPA's motion
- Dec. 10--EPA's reply to NFIB's motion
The NFIB Legal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public interest law firm created 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) represents the consensus views of its 600,000 members in Washington and all 50 state capitals. More information is available at www.NFIB.com/legal.
