I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 168 

To permit small business concerns operating in the United States to elect 

to be exempt from certain Federal rules and regulations, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 4, 2013 

Mr. GARRETT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Small Business 

A BILL 

To permit small business concerns operating in the United 

States to elect to be exempt from certain Federal rules 

and regulations, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Small Business Free5 dom of Commerce Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SMALL BUSINESS EXEMPTIONS. 

7 (a) ELECTION.—Notwithstanding any other provision 

8 of law, a small business concern operating in the United 


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1 States may elect to be exempt from any Federal rule or 

2 regulation issued on or after January 20, 2009. 

3 (b) PROCESS FOR EXEMPTION.— 

4 (1) NOTIFICATION OF FEDERAL AGENCY.—To 

5 be exempt from a rule or regulation under this sec6 tion, the highest ranking official of a small business 

7 concern shall provide to the Federal agency that 

8 issued such rule or regulation written notice that the 

9 small business concern has elected to be exempt 

10 from such rule or regulation. 

11 (2) TIMING.—A small business concern shall be 

12 exempt from a rule or regulation beginning on the 

13 date that is 30 days after the date that written no14 tice provided by such concern under paragraph (1), 

15 with respect to such rule or regulation, is received 

16 by the applicable Federal agency. 

17 (3) CONFIRMATION OF WRITTEN NOTICE.—Not 

18 later than 7 days after receiving a written notice 

19 under paragraph (1), the head of the Federal agency 

20 that received such notice shall provide to the appli21 cable small business concern written confirmation 

22 that such notice has been received. 

23 (c) NOTIFICATION OF PUBLIC.—A small business 

24 concern that is exempt from a Federal rule or regulation 

25 under this section shall— 


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1 (1) label any product of the concern affected by 

2 such exemption in a manner that provides notice 

3 that the product is no longer subject to such rule or 

4 regulation; and 

5 (2) include in any communication of the con6 cern relating to a product or activity affected by 

7 such exemption notice that the product or activity is 

8 no longer subject to such rule or regulation. 

9 (d) PENALTIES.—A small business concern that fails 

10 to satisfy any requirement under this section shall be sub11 ject to penalties for noncompliance with an applicable Fed12 eral rule or regulation without regard to any election of 

13 the small business concern to be exempt from such rule 

14 or regulation. 

15 (e) LIMITATIONS.—A small business concern may not 

16 elect to be exempt under this section from a rule or regula17 tion issued by the Department of Defense or the Depart18 ment of Homeland Security, if the Secretary of Defense 

19 or the Secretary of Homeland Security has determined 

20 that such rule or regulation is necessary for the security 

21 of the United States. 

22 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi23 nitions apply: 


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1 (1) FEDERAL AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal 

2 agency’’ means any department, agency, or inde3 pendent establishment of the Federal Government. 

4 (2) SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN.—The term 

5 ‘‘small business concern’’ has the meaning given 

6 such term in section 3(a) of the Small Business Act 

7 (15 U.S.C. 632(a)). 

Æ 


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