[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 12 (Tuesday, January 30, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S704-S705]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S704]]
                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                       TRIBUTE TO JERE W. GLOVER

 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I speak today to praise Jere Glover, 
former Chief Counsel for Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business 
Administration, for almost seven years of outstanding work in that 
position.
  The United States Senate confirmed President Clinton's appointment of 
Mr. Glover as Chief Counsel for Advocacy on May 4, 1994. Mr. Glover 
served as Chief Counsel until January 20, 2001. The following briefly 
highlights some of the Office of Advocacy's achievements during Mr. 
Glover's leadership.
  Mr. Glover was instrumental in making the third national White House 
Conference on Small Business a success. Held in June of 1995 in 
Washington, DC, it was attended by nearly 2,000 delegates. Some 20,000 
small businesses participated in 59 state conferences and six regional 
conferences leading to the national conference. In the legislation 
authorizing the conference, the Congress mandated that SBA monitor and 
report to the delegates on the progress made to implement their 
recommendations. Under Mr. Glover, the Office of Advocacy established 
networks of delegates and provided information through ``regional issue 
chairs.'' In the month of September in 1996, 1997, and, finally, 2000, 
the Office of Advocacy sent annual implementation reports to Congress, 
the President and the delegates. These reports indicated the 
unprecedented progress, compared with previous conferences, in 
implementing the recommendations of the 1995 White House Conference on 
Small Business.
  Following up on the recommendations of the 1995 White House 
Conference on Small Business, the Office of Advocacy provided research 
and testimony in support of a number of laws designed to reduce small 
business tax, regulatory, and paperwork burdens. In addition to the 
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, the Office 
of Advocacy supported provisions in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, 
the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, the Health Insurance 
Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the American Inventors 
Protection Act, the Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act and others, 
all of which incorporated the Conference recommendations.
  Since the enactment of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) in 1980, 
the Office of Advocacy has had an oversight role in monitoring 
compliance with the law. The RFA requires federal agencies to determine 
whether a proposed rule will have a disproportionate effect on small 
firms and other small entities and, if so, to explore equally effective 
alternative regulatory solutions. In 1996, Congress expanded the Office 
of Advocacy's role by passing the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement 
Fairness Act of 1996 (SBREFA). This law provides new avenues for small 
businesses to participate in and have access to the federal regulatory 
arena.
  The Office of Advocacy held briefings for more than 600 federal 
officials on the requirements and procedures mandated by this amendment 
to the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The Office of Advocacy held a 
special conference for the economic analysts in each agency on how to 
analyze the economic impact of agency regulations on small business and 
was successful in challenging violations of the RFA and SBREFA in 
court.
  Under Jere Glover, the Office of Advocacy pursued the mandates of 
SBREFA in over 20 EPA and OSHA small business advocacy review panels. 
The panels reviewed proposals that would impose burdens on small 
business and recommended changes. The work of these panels helped craft 
stronger, more equitable regulations. Even in cases where agreement 
wasn't reached, small businesses were better informed of regulatory 
burdens and requirements.
  At the beginning of this year, the Office of Advocacy published its 
20th Anniversary Regulatory Flexibility Act Report. Chief among the 
report's findings is the estimate that in the 1998-2000 period, 
regulatory changes supported by the Office of Advocacy saved small 
businesses about $20 billion in annual and one-time compliance costs.
  In addition to the Regulatory Flexibility Report, the Office of 
Advocacy has completed its fourth annual report focusing on small 
business lending activities of the nation's commercial bank lenders. 
This study analyzes information in the ``call'' reports filed by all 
federally regulated banks. The national and state-by-state analyses of 
the data show which banks, large and small, are most likely to lend to 
small businesses. The Office of Advocacy reports also categorize the 
banks by the percentage and dollar volume of their lending to small 
businesses.
  Additionally, under Mr. Glover's tenure, the Office of Advocacy has 
developed, or assisted in the development of a number of databases to 
address the critical gap in equity capital financing, aide public and 
private contracting officers seeking small business contractors, 
subcontractors and partnership opportunities and, measure job creation 
by small business. Using this data, the Office of Advocacy estimates 
that small businesses created more than 12 million net new jobs between 
1992 and 1996.
  Mr. President, as the Ranking Democratic Member of the Senate 
Committee on Small Business, I would like to extend my congratulations 
to Mr. Glover for his successes while Chief Counsel for Advocacy and 
wish him well in his future endeavors.
  I ask that a letter from business groups around the country, thanking 
Mr. Glover for his hard work and support of America's small businesses, 
be printed in the Record.
  The letter follows:

                      A Tribute To Jere W. Glover

       Jere W. Glover is a great American.
       Each of us, the undersigned, has had an opportunity to work 
     closely with Jere Glover over the last six years, and we 
     would like to share with America some of our unique 
     experiences and accomplishments with him as the Chief Counsel 
     for Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. On 
     January 20, he will leave behind a significant legacy in the 
     regulatory arena.
       Jere Glover advanced the cause of small business by 
     decades, by being one of the driving forces behind one of the 
     most significant changes to the Regulatory Flexibility Act 
     (RFA): the Small Business Advocacy Review Panel process. The 
     Panel process enables the Chief Counsel, with the advice of 
     the small business community, to review and evaluate the 
     basis for certain regulations at an early stage of the 
     process. These are regulations that could have a significant 
     economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses, 
     small nonprofit organizations, and/or small governments. The 
     Panel process led to a number of significant improvements to 
     regulations of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
     and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration 
     (OSHA) in recent years.
       Perhaps the largest part of his legacy, the work Jere 
     Glover has done with EPA rules affecting the petroleum 
     refining industry, has been most effective. Thanks to Jere 
     Glover, there will continue to be a significant small 
     business presence in this industry.
       For example, EPA was planning to propose a significantly 
     more stringent regulation of sulfur in gasoline, but Jere 
     helped to persuade EPA that such a decision would be 
     unnecessary and unduly costly to the consumer. EPA eventually 
     signed a rule that would delay the final standards for four 
     to six years for small businesses, allowing them to make more 
     manageable reductions in sulfur over a longer period of time.
       The same is true about EPA's recent rule to control 
     hazardous air pollutants from mobile sources. Due largely to 
     Jere's counsel, EPA backed away from initial plans for a more 
     stringent rule to commit to a no-cost approach at proposal. 
     His continued interest and advocacy led to further changes to 
     the final rule, which helped the Agency to ensure that it 
     would meet its twin goals of a no-cost rule that, at the same 
     time, maintains the significant air quality improvements over 
     the last several years.
       Jere Glover was also successful in persuading EPA to build 
     some flexibility into the rule for the control of sulfur in 
     highway diesel fuel, so that small refiners could stage 
     significant investments in the diesel and gasoline sulfur 
     rules.
       In the safety arena, Jere Glover has been a real watchdog 
     for the rights of small business under the RFA. While there 
     have been only three SBREFA panels at OSHA, Jere Glover was 
     closely involved with each one, ensuring that the concerns of 
     small business were heard. Without the input of Jere and that 
     of small employers, OSHA would not have revised its economic 
     impact analysis of the Ergonomics rule, nor added provisions 
     such as the Quick Fix option, which gave flexibility to small 
     entities.
       Jere Glover has been a true advocate for the millions of 
     small employers affected by

[[Page S705]]

     both the Ergonomics rule and the Safety and Health proposed 
     rule. He insisted that OSHA take into consideration not only 
     how differently small employers operate their workplaces, but 
     also how burdensome and costly government regulations are on 
     those employers. With Jere's constant commitment to small 
     business, he was able to argue convincingly that OSHA's cost 
     estimates in both the Ergonomics rule and the Safety and 
     Health program standard were significantly underestimated.
       And Jere Glover did not stop there. He was instrumental in 
     persuading the EPA not to finalize national wastewater 
     discharge standards for the textile supply and service 
     industry (industrial launderers). By pointing to existing 
     local regulations, Jere was able to convince the EPA that the 
     industry's voluntary pollution prevention and resource 
     conservation program was a more appropriate course of action.
       He also managed to persuade EPA to provide significant 
     flexibility in the Transportation Equipment Cleaning Industry 
     wastewater regulation.
       And last, when did EPA learn that the public already knew 
     that there was actually gasoline at gas stations? When Jere 
     Glover pointed it out. The Agency had been insisting that gas 
     station owner/operators should annually complete more 
     paperwork on gasoline to serve the public's right-to-know 
     about environmental hazards. But Jere Glover helped them to 
     see that EPA could use existing paperwork, the underground 
     storage tank forms, to accomplish the same goal at less cost 
     and less burden.
       The small business community salutes you, Jere Glover. We 
     will miss you, Jere, and your invaluable contributions to our 
     cause. Good luck to you in your future endeavors. We will 
     never forget you.
       Ad Hoc Coalition of Small Refiners; American Association of 
     Airport Executives; American Electroplaters and Surface 
     Finishers Society; American Foundry Society; Consumer 
     Specialty Products Association; Council of Industrial 
     Boilers; Lead Industries Association, Inc.; Metal Finishing 
     Suppliers Association; National Association of Metal 
     Finishers; National Marine Manufacturers Association; 
     National Tank Truck Carriers, Inc.; North American Die 
     Casting Association; Petroleum Marketers Association of 
     America; Porcelain Enameling Institute; Society of American 
     Florists; Stormwater Reform Coalition; Synthetic Organic 
     Chemical Manufacturers Association; Textile Rental Services 
     Association of America; Uniform Textile & Service 
     Association; and United Motorcoach Association.

                          ____________________