[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 44 (Thursday, March 29, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S3148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF RED TAPE REDUCTION ACT

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, five years ago today the Congress, without 
dissent in the Senate, took a historic step in reigning in the federal 
government's regulatory machine and protecting the interest of small 
businesses. My Red Tape Reduction Act, what others call the Small 
Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, ensured that small 
businesses would be given a voice in the regulatory process at the time 
when it could make the most difference: before the regulation is 
published as a proposal.
  This act provides a number of provisions that have proven to make the 
regulatory process more attentive to the impact on small businesses, 
and consequently more fair, more efficient and more effective. Perhaps 
the best known of these provisions is the requirement that OSHA and EPA 
convene panels to receive comments from small businesses before their 
regulations are proposed. This gives these agencies the unique 
opportunity to learn up front what the problems with their regulation 
may be, and to correct these problems when it will cause the least 
difficulty. This has resulted in significant changes being made, and in 
one case, EPA abandoning a regulation because they recognized that the 
industry could deal with the issue more effectively on their own.
  Experience with this panel process had proven to be an unequivocal 
success. The former chief counsel for advocacy of the Small Business 
Administration stated that, ``Unquestionably, the SBREFA panel process 
has had a very salutary impact on the regulatory deliberations of OSHA 
and EPA, resulting in major changes to draft regulations. What is 
important to note is that these changes were accomplished without 
sacrificing the agencies public policy objectives.''
  Another provision of the Red Tape Reduction Act that was just 
exercised, was the Congressional Review Act, which gave Congress the 
ability to invalidate those regulations determined to be truly 
egregious and beyond repair. Thankfully, we had this measure available 
as a last resort to dispose of the Clinton OSHA ergonomics regulation, 
which was a monument to regulatory excess and failure to appreciate the 
impact on small businesses.
  Finally, one other provision of the Red Tape Reduction Act is just 
now being invoked. The Red Tape Reduction Act corrected the Regulatory 
Flexibility Act's lack of enforcement by giving interested parties the 
opportunity to bring a legal challenge when they believed that an 
agency is in non-compliance. Litigation is now moving through the 
courts that takes advantage of this provision and will hold agencies 
accountable for their actions.
  While the Red Tape Reduction Act has been a resounding success, it is 
clear that more needs to be done. Too many agencies are still trying to 
evade the requirements to conduct regulatory flexibility analyses that 
will identify the small business impacts of their regulations. We now 
realize that the IRS should also be required to conduct small business 
review panels so that their regulations will impose the least amount of 
burden while still achieving the mission of the agency.
  These and other issues shall be addressed in future legislation that 
I will introduce. For now, let us all appreciate and celebrate the 
benefits that the Red Tape Reduction Act brought to both the agencies 
and small businesses.

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