[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 746 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 746

   To provide small businesses with a grace period for a regulatory 
                   violation, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 15, 2013

  Mr. Bentivolio (for himself, Mr. Hall, Mr. Roskam, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. 
Chabot, Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mr. Walberg, Mr. Valadao, Mr. Benishek, 
 Mrs. Bachmann, Mr. Broun of Georgia, Mr. Hultgren, and Mr. Pittenger) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide small businesses with a grace period for a regulatory 
                   violation, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Protect Small Business Jobs Act of 
2013''.

SEC. 2. IN GENERAL.

    Section 558 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at 
the end the following:
    ``(d) Before any enforcement action is taken on any sanction on a 
business for any violation of a rule or pursuant to an adjudication an 
agency shall--
            ``(1) not later than 10 business days after the date on 
        which the agency determines that a sanction may be imposed on 
        the business, provide notice to the business that, if the 
        business is a small business as defined in subsection (k), the 
        small business may be subject to a sanction at the end of the 
        grace period described in paragraph (3);
            ``(2) delay any further action for a period of 15 calendar 
        days;
            ``(3) for any small business, defer any further action for 
        a period of not less than 6 months, less the 15 days described 
        in paragraph (2), which shall be extended by an additional 
        period of 3 months on application by the small business 
        demonstrating reasonable efforts made in good faith to remedy 
        the violation or other conduct giving rise to the sanction;
            ``(4) make a further determination after the period 
        described in paragraph (3) as to whether or not the small 
        business would still be subject to the sanction as of the end 
        of that period;
            ``(5) if the determination under paragraph (4) is that the 
        small business would not be subject to the sanction, waive the 
        sanction; and
            ``(6) if notice is given more than 10 business days after 
        the date on which the agency determines that a sanction may be 
        imposed on the business, and the agency determines that the 
        same sanction may have been imposed on the business 10 business 
        days prior to the date of the notice, that date of notice shall 
        be the effective date commencing the grace period described in 
        paragraph (3).
    ``(e) The grace period described by subsection (d) shall be 
applicable only once per business per rule, but shall cover subsequent 
violations of the same rule until it expires.
    ``(f) The grace period described by subsection (d) shall not apply 
to a violation that puts anyone in imminent danger, as defined by the 
Occupational Safety and Health Act (29 U.S.C. 662 et seq.).
    ``(g) Nothing in subsection (d) shall be construed to prevent a 
small business from appealing any sanction imposed in accordance with 
the procedures of the agency, or from seeking review under chapter 7 of 
this title.
    ``(h) Any sanction by an agency on a small business for any 
violation of a rule or pursuant to an adjudication, absent proof of 
written notice of the sanction and the date on which the agency 
determined that a sanction may be imposed, or in violation of 
subsection (d)(3), shall be null and void.
    ``(i) Federal agencies shall report annually to the Ombudsman on 
the utilization of this directive and disclose the penalty mitigation 
for small businesses.
    ``(j) The Ombudsman shall include in its annual report to Congress 
the agency reports described by subsection (i) and a summary of the 
findings.
    ``(k) For purposes of this section--
            ``(1) term `small business' is defined as any sole 
        proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability 
        company, or other business entity, that--
                    ``(A) had less than $10,000,000 in gross receipts 
                in the preceding calendar year;
                    ``(B) is considered a `small-business concern' as 
                such term is defined pursuant to Section 3(a) of the 
                Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(a));
                    ``(C) employed fewer than 200 individuals in the 
                preceding calendar year; or
                    ``(D) had CPI adjusted gross receipts of less than 
                $10,000,000 in the preceding year.
            ``(2) the term `Ombudsman' has the same meaning given such 
        term in section 30(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
        657(a));
            ``(3) the term `consumer price index' means the consumer 
        price index for all urban consumers published by the Department 
        of Labor; and
            ``(4) the term `CPI adjusted gross receipts' means the 
        amount of gross receipts, divided by the consumer price index 
        for calendar year 2012, and multiplied by the consumer price 
        index for the preceding calendar year, rounded to the nearest 
        multiple of $100,000 (or, if midway between multiples of 
        $100,000, to the next higher multiple of $100,000).''.
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