II

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1271

To amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, for the purpose

of facilitating compliance by small business concerns with certain Federal

paperwork requirements, to establish a task force to examine the feasibility of streamlining paperwork requirements applicable to small business

concerns, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 30, 2001

Mr. VOINOVICH (for himself, Mrs. LINCOLN, and Mr. LEAHY) introduced the

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on

Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, for

the purpose of facilitating compliance by small business

concerns with certain Federal paperwork requirements,

to establish a task force to examine the feasibility of

streamlining paperwork requirements applicable to small

business concerns, 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 Paper5 work Relief Act of 2001’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FACILITATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL PA2 PERWORK REQUIREMENTS.

3 (a) REQUIREMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE DIRECTOR

4 OF OMB.—Section 3504(c) of title 44, United States

5 Code (commonly referred to as the ‘‘Paperwork Reduction

6 Act’’), is amended—

7 (1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and

8 inserting a semicolon;

9 (2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period and

10 inserting a semicolon; and

11 (3) by adding at the end the following:

12 ‘‘(6) publish in the Federal Register on an an13 nual basis a list of the collections of information ap14 plicable to small-business concerns (as defined in

15 section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.

16 632)), organized by North American Industrial Clas17 sification System code and industrial/sector descrip18 tion (as published by the Office of Management and

19 Budget), with the first such publication occurring

20 not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of

21 the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2001;

22 and

23 ‘‘(7) make available on the Internet, not later

24 than 1 year after the date of enactment of the Small

25 Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2001, the list of

26 requirements described in paragraph (6).’’.
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1 (b) ESTABLISHMENT OF AGENCY POINT OF CON2 TACT.—Section 3506 of title 44, United States Code, is

3 amended by adding at the end the following:

4 ‘‘(i) In addition to the requirements described in sub5 section (c), each agency shall, with respect to the collection

6 of information and the control of paperwork, establish 1

7 point of contact in the agency to act as a liaison between

8 the agency and small-business concerns (as defined in sec9 tion 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632)).’’.

10 (c) ADDITIONAL REDUCTION OF PAPERWORK FOR

11 CERTAIN SMALL BUSINESSES.—Section 3506(c) of title

12 44, United States Code, is amended—

13 (1) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ‘‘; and’’

14 and inserting a semicolon;

15 (2) in paragraph (3)(J), by striking the period

16 and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

17 (3) by adding at the end the following:

18 ‘‘(4) in addition to the requirements of this

19 chapter regarding the reduction of paperwork for

20 small-business concerns (as defined in section 3 of

21 the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632)), make ef22 forts to further reduce the paperwork burden for

23 small-business concerns with fewer than 25 employ24 ees.’’.
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1 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF TASK FORCE TO STUDY

2 STREAMLINING OF PAPERWORK REQUIRE3 MENTS FOR SMALL-BUSINESS CONCERNS.

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 35 of title 44, United

5 States Code, is amended—

6 (1) by redesignating section 3520 as section

7 3521; and

8 (2) by inserting after section 3519 the fol9 lowing:

10 ‘‘§ 3520. Establishment of task force on feasibility of

11 streamlining information collection re12 quirements

13 ‘‘(a) There is established a task force to study the

14 feasibility of streamlining requirements with respect to

15 small-business concerns regarding collection of informa16 tion (in this section referred to as the ‘task force’).

17 ‘‘(b) The members of the task force shall be ap18 pointed by the Director, and include—

19 ‘‘(1) not less than 2 representatives of the De20 partment of Labor, including 1 representative of the

21 Bureau of Labor Statistics and 1 representative of

22 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration;

23 ‘‘(2) not less than 1 representative of the Envi24 ronmental Protection Agency;

25 ‘‘(3) not less than 1 representative of the De26 partment of Transportation;
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1 ‘‘(4) not less than 1 representative of the Office

2 of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration;

3 ‘‘(5) not less than 1 representative of each of

4 two agencies other than the Department of Labor,

5 the Environmental Protection Agency, the Depart6 ment of Transportation, and the Small Business Ad7 ministration; and

8 ‘‘(6) not less than 2 representatives of the De9 partment of Health and Human Services, including

10 one representative of the Health Care Financing Ad11 ministration.

12 ‘‘(c) The task force shall—

13 ‘‘(1) recommend a system to clarify which small

14 businesses within particular North American Indus15 trial Classification System codes are subject to

16 which information compliance requirements; and

17 ‘‘(2) examine the feasibility of requiring each

18 agency to consolidate requirements regarding collec19 tions of information with respect to small-business

20 concerns, in order that each small business concern

21 may submit all information required by the agency—

22 ‘‘(A) to 1 point of contact in the agency;

23 ‘‘(B) in a single format, such as a single

24 electronic reporting system, with respect to the

25 agency; and
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1 ‘‘(C) on the same date.

2 ‘‘(d) Not later than 1 year after the date of enact3 ment of the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2001,

4 the task force shall submit a report of its findings under

5 subsection (c) to the chairpersons and ranking minority

6 members of the Committee on Governmental Affairs and

7 the Committee on Small Business of the Senate, and the

8 Committee on Government Reform and the Committee on

9 Small Business of the House of Representatives.

10 ‘‘(e) In this section, the term ‘small business concern’

11 has the meaning given under section 3 of the Small Busi12 ness Act (15 U.S.C. 632).’’.

13 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—

14 The table of sections for chapter 35 of title 44, United

15 States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to

16 section 3520 and inserting the following:

‘‘3520. Establishment of task force on feasibility of streamlining information

collection requirements.

‘‘3521. Authorization of appropriations.’’.

17 SEC. 4. REGULATORY ENFORCEMENT REFORMS.

18 Section 223 of the Small Business Regulatory En19 forcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601 note) is

20 amended by striking subsection (c) and inserting:

21 ‘‘(c) REPORTS.—

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after

23 the date of enactment of the Small Business Paper24 work Relief Act of 2001, and not later than every
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1 2 years thereafter, each agency shall submit a report

2 to the Committee on Governmental Affairs and the

3 Committee on Small Business of the Senate, and the

4 Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on

5 Small Business of the House of Representatives,

6 that includes information with respect to the appli7 cable 1-year period or 2-year period covered by the

8 report on each of the following:

9 ‘‘(A) The number of enforcement actions

10 in which a civil penalty is assessed or proposed

11 to be assessed.

12 ‘‘(B) The number of enforcement actions

13 in which a civil penalty is assessed or proposed

14 to be assessed against a small entity.

15 ‘‘(C) The number of enforcement actions

16 described under subparagraphs (A) and (B) in

17 which the civil penalty is reduced or waived.

18 ‘‘(D) The total monetary amount of the re19 ductions or waivers referred to under subpara20 graph (C).

21 ‘‘(2) DEFINITIONS IN REPORTS.—Each report

22 under paragraph (1) shall include definitions of the

23 terms ‘enforcement actions’, ‘reduction or waiver’,

24 and ‘small entity’ as used in the report.’’.

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