03/10/2008
The Small Business Association Office of Advocacy recently released its Top Ten Rules for Regulatory Reform, a collection of rules nominated by the small business community to be sent to their respective agencies for action.
The top 10 rules were picked by the SBA from more than 80 rules and regulations nominated by the small business community as part of the Office of Advocacy's Regulatory Review and Reform Initiative, or r3.
NFIB continues to play an aggressive role in working toward regulatory reform, urging agencies to write regulations that are easy to read and understand, and better review the impact each regulation has on small business.
"We believe the top 10 rules are a good step in the right direction toward regulatory reform," said Andrew Langer, NFIB manager of Regulatory Affairs. "We also recommended that the SBA include the Family and Medical Leave Act, but they left it out because the Department of Labor has already started to review it. SBA sets the bar high for future reviews, and next year I already have in mind some of the regulations I plan on recommending, like the definition of a federal motor carrier and certain fireworks manufacturing regulations."
The Office of Advocacy's Top Ten Rules for Regulatory Reform are:
- Update air monitoring rules for dry cleaners to reflect current technology
- Flexibility for community drinking water systems
- Simplify the rules for recycling solid wastes
- Clearly define “oil” in oil spill rules
- Update flight rules for the Washington, D.C., regional area
- Eliminate duplicative financial requirements for architect-engineering services firms in government contracting
- Simplify the home office business deduction
- Update rules on the use of explosives in mines to reflect modern industry standards
- Medical/laboratory worker rule
- Reverse auction techniques for online procurement
According to the Office of Advocacy, the top rules were chosen based on several factors, including "whether the rule could reasonably be tailored to accomplish its intended objectives while reducing the impact on small businesses or small communities" and the " overall importance of the rule to small businesses and small communities."
