I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 746 

To provide small businesses with a grace period for a regulatory violation, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 15, 2013 

Mr. BENTIVOLIO (for himself, Mr. HALL, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. 

CHABOT, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. WALBERG, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. 

BENISHEK, Mrs. BACHMANN, Mr. BROUN of Georgia, Mr. HULTGREN, 

and Mr. PITTENGER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To provide small businesses with a grace period for a 

regulatory violation, 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 ‘‘Protect Small Business 

5 Jobs Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. IN GENERAL. 

7 Section 558 of title 5, United States Code, is amend8 ed by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(d) Before any enforcement action is taken on any 

2 sanction on a business for any violation of a rule or pursu3 ant to an adjudication an agency shall— 

4 ‘‘(1) not later than 10 business days after the 

5 date on which the agency determines that a sanction 

6 may be imposed on the business, provide notice to 

7 the business that, if the business is a small business 

8 as defined in subsection (k), the small business may 

9 be subject to a sanction at the end of the grace pe10 riod described in paragraph (3); 

11 ‘‘(2) delay any further action for a period of 15 

12 calendar days; 

13 ‘‘(3) for any small business, defer any further 

14 action for a period of not less than 6 months, less 

15 the 15 days described in paragraph (2), which shall 

16 be extended by an additional period of 3 months on 

17 application by the small business demonstrating rea18 sonable efforts made in good faith to remedy the vio19 lation or other conduct giving rise to the sanction; 

20 ‘‘(4) make a further determination after the pe21 riod described in paragraph (3) as to whether or not 

22 the small business would still be subject to the sanc23 tion as of the end of that period; 


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1 ‘‘(5) if the determination under paragraph (4) 

2 is that the small business would not be subject to 

3 the sanction, waive the sanction; and 

4 ‘‘(6) if notice is given more than 10 business 

5 days after the date on which the agency determines 

6 that a sanction may be imposed on the business, and 

7 the agency determines that the same sanction may 

8 have been imposed on the business 10 business days 

9 prior to the date of the notice, that date of notice 

10 shall be the effective date commencing the grace pe11 riod described in paragraph (3). 

12 ‘‘(e) The grace period described by subsection (d) 

13 shall be applicable only once per business per rule, but 

14 shall cover subsequent violations of the same rule until it 

15 expires. 

16 ‘‘(f) The grace period described by subsection (d) 

17 shall not apply to a violation that puts anyone in imminent 

18 danger, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health 

19 Act (29 U.S.C. 662 et seq.). 

20 ‘‘(g) Nothing in subsection (d) shall be construed to 

21 prevent a small business from appealing any sanction im22 posed in accordance with the procedures of the agency, 

23 or from seeking review under chapter 7 of this title. 

24 ‘‘(h) Any sanction by an agency on a small business 

25 for any violation of a rule or pursuant to an adjudication, 


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1 absent proof of written notice of the sanction and the date 

2 on which the agency determined that a sanction may be 

3 imposed, or in violation of subsection (d)(3), shall be null 

4 and void. 

5 ‘‘(i) Federal agencies shall report annually to the Om6 budsman on the utilization of this directive and disclose 

7 the penalty mitigation for small businesses. 

8 ‘‘(j) The Ombudsman shall include in its annual re9 port to Congress the agency reports described by sub10 section (i) and a summary of the findings. 

11 ‘‘(k) For purposes of this section— 

12 ‘‘(1) term ‘small business’ is defined as any sole 

13 proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited li14 ability company, or other business entity, that— 

15 ‘‘(A) had less than $10,000,000 in gross 

16 receipts in the preceding calendar year; 

17 ‘‘(B) is considered a ‘small-business con18 cern’ as such term is defined pursuant to Sec19 tion 3(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 

20 632(a)); 

21 ‘‘(C) employed fewer than 200 individuals 

22 in the preceding calendar year; or 

23 ‘‘(D) had CPI adjusted gross receipts of 

24 less than $10,000,000 in the preceding year. 


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1 ‘‘(2) the term ‘Ombudsman’ has the same 

2 meaning given such term in section 30(a) of the 

3 Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 657(a)); 

4 ‘‘(3) the term ‘consumer price index’ means the 

5 consumer price index for all urban consumers pub6 lished by the Department of Labor; and 

7 ‘‘(4) the term ‘CPI adjusted gross receipts’ 

8 means the amount of gross receipts, divided by the 

9 consumer price index for calendar year 2012, and 

10 multiplied by the consumer price index for the pre11 ceding calendar year, rounded to the nearest mul12 tiple of $100,000 (or, if midway between multiples 

13 of $100,000, to the next higher multiple of 

14 $100,000).’’. 

Æ 


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