[House Report 104-500]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



104th Congress                                                   Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 2d Session                                                     104-500
_______________________________________________________________________



                 PROVIDING FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF
 
     H.R. 3136, THE CONTRACT WITH AMERICA  ADVANCEMENT ACT OF 1996

                                _______


   March 27, 1996.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

_______________________________________________________________________


   Mr. Solomon, from the Committee on Rules, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                       [To accompany H. Res. 391]

    The Committee on Rules, having had under consideration 
House Resolution 391, by a nonrecord vote, report the same to 
the House with the recommendation that the resolution be 
adopted.

               Brief Summary of Provisions of Resolution

    The resolution provides for the consideration in the House 
of H.R. 3136, the ``Contract With America Advancement Act of 
1996,'' as modified by the amendments designated in this 
report, under a closed rule. All points of order are waived 
against the bill except for section 425(a) of the Budget Act 
(unfunded mandates). The rule orders the previous question to 
final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour 
of debate divided equally between the chairman and ranking 
minority member of the Committee on Ways and Means; (2) an 
amendment if offered by the chairman of the Ways and Means 
Committee, without intervening point of order (except sec. 
425(a) of the Budget Act relating to unfunded mandates), not 
subject to a demand for a division of the question, and 
debatable for ten minutes, divided equally between the 
proponent and an opponent; and (3) one motion to recommit 
which, if containing instructions, may only be offered by the 
Minority Leader or his designee.
    The rule further provides that if the Clerk has, before 
March 30, 1996, received a message from the Senate that the 
Senate has adopted the conference report on S. 4, the Line Item 
Veto Act, then the Clerk shall delete title II (the Line Item 
Veto Act) from the engrossment of the bill, unless amended, and 
the House shall be considered to have adopted the conference 
report.
    The amendments designated in this report to be considered 
as adopted are (1) amendment No. 2 printed in the Congressional 
Record of March 26, 1996 (pp. H 2870-74), a substitute Title 
III, ``Small Business Regulatory Fairness,'' as modified by 
further technical changes printed in this report; and (2) 
modifications in the monthly exempt amount for the Social 
Security earnings limit in Title I, the ``Social Security 
Earnings Limitation Amendments.''

   Summary of Amendment No. 1 To Be Considered as Adopted by the Rule

  (Providing for a Substitute Title III, ``Small Business Regulatory 
                              Fairness'')

Subtitle A--Regulatory compliance simplification

    Agencies would be required to publish easily understood 
guides to assist small businesses in complying with regulations 
and provide them informal, non-binding advice about regulatory 
compliance. The subtitle creates permissive authority for Small 
Business Development Centers to offer regulatory compliance 
information to small businesses and to establish resource 
centers of reference materials. The agencies are directed to 
cooperate with states to create guides that fully integrate 
federal and state requirements on small businesses.

Subtitle B--Regulatory enforcement reforms

    This subtitle creates a Small Business and Agriculture 
Regulatory Enforcement Ombudsman at the Small Business 
Administration to give small businesses a confidential means to 
comment on and rate the performance of agency enforcement 
personnel. It also creates Regional Small Business Regulatory 
Fairness Boards at the Small Business Administration to 
coordinate with the Ombudsman and to provide small businesses a 
greater opportunity to come together on a regional basis to 
assess the enforcement activities of the various federal 
regulatory agencies.
    The subtitle directs all federal agencies that regulate 
small businesses to develop policies or programs providing for 
waivers or reductions of civil penalties for violations by 
small businesses, under appropriate circumstances.

Subtitle C--Equal Access to Justice Act amendments

    The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) provides a means for 
prevailing small parties to recover their attorneys' fees and 
costs in a wide variety of civil and administrative actions 
between small parties and the government. This subtitle amends 
the EAJA to allow small entities to recover the fees and costs 
attributable to a demand by the agency which is excessive and 
unreasonable under the facts and circumstances of the case. The 
small entity would not be required to prevail in the underlying 
action; the final outcome must be, however, to require payment 
of an amount substantially less than what the agency sought to 
recover.
    The amendment also increases the maximum hourly rate for 
attorneys' fees under the EAJA from $75 to $125.

Subtitle D--Regulatory Flexibility Act amendments

    The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 601-612) 
was first enacted in 1980. Under its terms, federal agencies 
are directed to consider the special needs and concerns of 
small entities--small businesses, small local governments, 
farmers, etc.--whenever they engage in a rulemaking subject to 
the Administrative Procedure Act. The agencies must then 
prepare and publish a regulatory flexibility analysis of the 
impact of the proposed rule on small entities, unless the head 
of the agency certifies that the proposed rule will not ``have 
a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities.''
    Under current law, there is no provision for judicial 
review of agency action under the Act. This makes the agencies 
completely unaccountable for their failure to comply with its 
requirements. Subtitle D of the Hyde amendment gives teeth to 
current law by specifically providing for judicial review of 
selected portions of the Act.
    In addition, subtitle D enlarges the scope of rules to 
which the Regulatory Flexibility Act applies by defining a rule 
to include interpretative rules involving the internal revenue 
laws.
    Finally, subtitle D establishes a small business advocacy 
review panel which would provide small business participation 
in the rulemaking process. For proposed rules with a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small 
entities, the Environmental Protection Agency and the 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration would have to 
collect advice and recommendations from small businesses to 
better inform those agencies' regulatory flexibility analysis 
on the potential impacts of a rule.

Subtitle E--Congressional Review of Agency Rulemaking

    Subtitle E provides an expedited procedure whereby Congress 
may review rules to determine whether they should be ``vetoed'' 
prior to taking effect. Each agency would be required to submit 
to Congress a copy of each new rule, along with a report 
describing its contents. If a rule is a ``major rule'' (i.e., 
one with an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or 
more, or similar impact) the effectiveness of the rule is 
stayed for 60 days in order to allow Congress to act. Non-major 
rules would not be stayed, but would be subject to the review 
process.
    In the event that Congress does not believe the rule should 
take effect, each chamber must pass a joint resolution of 
disapproval, which must then be signed by the President. The 
subtitle creates an expedited procedure for consideration of 
the joint resolution in the Senate, which continues in effect 
for 60 session days after receipt of the rule from the agency.

   Summary of Amendment No. 2 To Be Considered as Adopted by the Rule

   (Providing an amendment to Title I of the bill, ``Social Security 
                   Earnings Limitation Amendments'')

    Amendment No. 2 modifies the monthly exempt amount for 
purposes of the Social Security earnings limit.

                            Committee Votes

    Pursuant to clause 2(l)(2)(B) of House rule XI the results 
of each rollcall vote on an amendment or motion to report, 
together with the names of those voting for and against, are 
printed below:

                    Rules Committee Rollcall No. 305

    Date: March 27, 1996.
    Measure: Rule for the consideration of H.R. 3136, the 
Contract With America Advancement Act.
    Motion By: Mr. Moakley.
    Summary of Motion: Strike all titles from the bill except 
Title IV raising the debt ceiling.
    Results: Rejected, 3 to 8.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              Yea                 Nay               Present     
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vote by Member:                                                                                                 
    Quillen.........................................  ..................                  X   ..................
    Dreier..........................................  ..................                  X   ..................
    Goss............................................  ..................                  X   ..................
    Linder..........................................  ..................                  X   ..................
    Pryce...........................................  ..................                  X   ..................
    Diaz-Balart.....................................  ..................                  X   ..................
    McInnis.........................................  ..................                  X   ..................
    Waldholtz.......................................  ..................  ..................  ..................
    Moakley.........................................                  X   ..................  ..................
    Frost...........................................                  X   ..................  ..................
    Hall............................................                  X   ..................  ..................
    Solomon.........................................  ..................                  X   ..................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The amendments to be considered as adopted are as follows:
    (1) The amendment printed in the Congressional Record of 
March 26, 1996, by Representative Hyde of Illinois and numbered 
2 pursuant to clause 6 of rule XXIII, modified by the 
following:
    In section 331(a), section 504(a) of title 5, U.S. Code as 
proposed to be amended is amended in the new paragraph (4) by 
striking the words ``brought by an agency'' and inserting in 
lieu thereof ``arising from an agency action to enforce a 
party's compliance with a statutory or regulatory 
requirement''.
    In section 331(a), section 504(a) of title 5, U.S. Code as 
proposed to be amended is amended in the new paragraph (4) by 
adding at the end of the paragraph the following new sentence: 
``Fees and expenses awarded under this paragraph shall be paid 
only as a consequence of appropriations provided in advance.''.
    In section 332(a), section 2412(d)(1) of title 28, United 
States Code as proposed to be amended is amended in the new 
subparagraph (D) by inserting after ``United States'' the first 
time it appears the following: ``or a proceeding for judicial 
review of an adversary adjudication described in section 
504(a)(4) of title 5''.
    In section 332(a), section 2412(d)(1) of title 28, United 
States Code as proposed to be amended is amended by adding at 
the end of the new subparagraph (D) the following new sentence: 
``Fees and expenses awarded under this subparagraph shall be 
paid only as a consequence of appropriations provided in 
advance.''.
    In section 341(a)(1)(A), delete the words ``of general 
applicability''.
    In section 344(e)(1), delete the words ``; or in developing 
a final rule, the extent to which the covered agency took into 
consideration the comments filed by the individuals identified 
in subsection (b) (2)''.
    (2) Page 2, line 21, strike ``$1,166.66\2/3\'' and insert 
``$1,041.66\2/3\''.
    Page 2, line 23, strike ``$1,250.00'' and insert 
``$1,125.00''.
    Page 3, line 3, strike ``$1,333.33\1/3\'' and insert 
``$1,208.33\1/3\''.
    Page 3, line 6, strike ``$1,416.66\2/3\'' and insert 
``$1,291.66\2/3\''.
    Page 3, line 8, strike ``$1,500.00'' and insert 
``$1,416.66\2/3\''.

                                
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