[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 176 (Tuesday, December 18, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13459-S13460]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SMALL BUSINESS PAPERWORK RELIEF ACT

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I speak today in support of Senator 
Voinovich's legislation, S. 1271, the Small Business Paperwork Relief 
Act of 2001, as well as my amendment to improve the legislation for the 
benefit of America's small businesses.
  While legislation such as the Regulatory Flexibility Act, and the 
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act have made great 
strides in helping to ease the regulatory burden on our small 
businesses, more work remains to be done.
  In the report prepared by the Small Business Administration's Office 
of Advocacy on the recommendations of the White House Conference on 
Small Business in 1995, the Office of Advocacy stated that, ``Federal, 
State and local governments impose numerous requirements on the 
operation of businesses. The burdens associated with these requirements 
are often exacerbated by substantial paperwork and record-keeping 
requirements. In addition to the cost and administrative burdens, small 
and growing businesses have difficulty simply keeping abreast of the 
various regulatory and paperwork requirements.'' Six years later, this 
statement is still true.
  While I support the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act, I think it 
is important to point out that I objected to an original request to 
pass this legislation by unanimous consent because the Committee on 
Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which I Chair, has jurisdiction 
over some of the issues included in this legislation. Additionally, the 
expertise of the Committee on issues of importance to small businesses 
can only serve to enhance any legislation designed to help our nation's 
small businesses. That being said, Senator Voinovich and I have 
addressed my questions about the legislation and agreed to an 
amendment. I believe the bill is better because of our work.
  The legislation originally called for the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget, OMB, to appoint members to the ``Task Force'' 
created in the legislation from the various agencies listed in the 
bill. Although I had no objection to the Task Force being led by the 
OMB Director, I did have reservations about the OMB Director selecting 
the participants, a function that should be vested with each agency 
head. The amendment makes this change.
  Additionally, my amendment has a provision stating that in any report 
issued by the Task Force, minority views must be included. This 
provision has been added as a result of my consultations with SBA's 
Office of Advocacy, who were concerned that reports issued on small 
business issues may not reflect the views of small business advocates. 
By allowing minority opinions, any report issued by the Task Force will 
at the very least contain concerns raised by the small business 
community.
  My amendment also adds the National Ombudsman to the list of 
recipients receiving bi-annual reporting on the number of enforcement 
actions taken by agencies. The National Ombudsman, located at the SBA, 
serves as a confidential resource to field complaints and comments from 
small businesses about the regulatory process and actions taken by 
regulatory agencies. Additionally, the National Ombudsman rates Federal 
regulatory agencies on their treatment of small businesses and issues a 
report card. Therefore, I felt it appropriate that agency information 
regarding regulatory enforcement be shared with the National Ombudsman.
  Finally, my amendment makes a technical change in the legislation to

[[Page S13460]]

reflect the name change of the Senate Committee on Small Business to 
the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which occurred on 
June 29 of this year.
  I would just like to state that I believe the changes my amendment 
makes will provide additional support for our small businesses 
suffering from paperwork burdens.

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