I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 839

To establish a moratorium on regulatory rulemaking actions respecting small

business.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 6, 1995

Mr. TATE (for himself, Mr. METCALF, Mr. HASTINGS of Washington, Ms.

DUNN of Washington, Mrs. SMITH of Washington, Mr. MCINTOSH, Mr.

WHITE, Mr. STOCKMAN, Mr. SCARBOROUGH, and Mr. FOX of California)

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on

Government Reform and Oversight and, in addition, to the Committee on

Small Business, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To establish a moratorium on regulatory rulemaking actions

respecting small business.

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 ‘‘Stop Regulating our

5 Small Businesses Act of 1995’’.
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1 SEC. 2. MORATORIUM ON REGULATIONS.

2 (a) MORATORIUM.—Until the end of the moratorium

3 period, a Federal agency may not take any regulatory

4 rulemaking action respecting small business, unless an ex5 ception is provided under section 4. Beginning 30 days

6 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the effective7 ness of any regulatory rulemaking action respecting small

8 business taken or made effective during the moratorium

9 period but before the date of the enactment shall be sus10 pended until February 1, 1996, unless an exception is pro11 vided under section 4.

12 (b) INVENTORY OF RULEMAKINGS.—Not later than

13 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the

14 President shall conduct an inventory and publish in the

15 Federal Register a list of all regulatory rulemaking actions

16 covered by subsection (a) taken or made effective during

17 the moratorium period but before the date of the enact18 ment.

19 SEC. 3. SPECIAL RULE ON STATUTORY, REGULATORY, AND

20 JUDICIAL DEADLINES.

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—Any deadline for, relating to, or

22 involving any action dependent upon, any regulatory rule23 making actions respecting small business authorized or re24 quired to be taken before the end of the moratorium pe25 riod is extended until February 1, 1996.
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1 (b) DEADLINE DEFINED.—The term ‘‘deadline’’

2 means any date certain for fulfilling any obligation or ex3 ercising any authority established by or under any Federal

4 statute or regulation, or by or under any court order im5 plementing any Federal statute or regulation.

6 (c) IDENTIFICATION OF POSTPONED DEADLINES.—

7 Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment

8 of this Act, the President shall identify and publish in the

9 Federal Register a list of deadlines covered by subsection

10 (a).

11 SEC. 4. EMERGENCY EXCEPTIONS; EXCLUSIONS.

12 (a) EMERGENCY EXCEPTION.—Section 2(a) or 3(a),

13 or both, shall not apply to a regulatory rulemaking action

14 if—

15 (1) the head of a Federal agency otherwise au16 thorized to take the action submits a written request

17 to the President and a copy thereof to the appro18 priate committees of each House of the Congress;

19 (2) the President finds, by Executive order,

20 that a waiver for the action is (A) necessary because

21 of an imminent threat to health or safety or other

22 emergency, or (B) necessary for the enforcement of

23 criminal laws; and

24 (3) the Federal agency head publishes the find25 ing and waiver in the Federal Register.
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1 (b) EXCLUSIONS.—The head of an agency shall pub2 lish in the Federal Register any action excluded because

3 of a certification under section 5(4)(B).

4 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

5 For purposes of this Act:

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

7 agency’’ means any agency as that term is defined

8 in section 551(1) of title 5, United States Code (re9 lating to administrative procedure).

10 (2) MORATORIUM PERIOD.—The term ‘‘morato11 rium period’’ means that period of time beginning

12 February 3, 1995, and ending January 31, 1996.

13 (3) SMALL BUSINESS.—The term ‘small busi14 ness’ means a business which has 100 or fewer em15 ployees.

16 (4) REGULATORY RULEMAKING ACTION.—

17 (A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘regulatory

18 rulemaking action’’ means any rulemaking on

19 any rule normally published in the Federal Reg20 ister, including—

21 (i) the issuance of any substantive

22 rule, interpretative rule, statement of agen23 cy policy, notice of inquiry, advance notice

24 of proposed rulemaking, or notice of pro25 posed rulemaking, and
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1 (ii) any other action taken in the

2 course of the process of rulemaking (except

3 a cost benefit analysis or risk assessment,

4 or both).

5 (B) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘regulatory

6 rulemaking’’ does not include—

7 (i) any agency action that the head of

8 the agency certifies is limited to repealing,

9 narrowing, or streamlining a rule, regula10 tion, or administrative process or otherwise

11 reducing regulatory burdens; or

12 (ii) any action that the head of the

13 agency certifies is limited to matters relat14 ing to military or foreign affairs functions,

15 statutes implementing international trade

16 agreements, or agency management, per17 sonnel, or public property, loans, grants,

18 benefits, or contracts.

19 (5) RULE.—The term ‘‘rule’’ means the whole

20 or a part of an agency statement of general or par21 ticular applicability and future effect designed to im22 plement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy. Such

23 term does not include the approval or prescription,

24 on a case-by-case or consolidated case basis, for the

25 future of rates, wages, corporation, or financial
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1 structures or reorganizations thereof, prices, facili2 ties, appliances, services or allowances therefor, or of

3 valuations, costs, or accounting, or practices bearing

4 on any of the foregoing. Such term also does not in5 clude the granting an application for a license, reg6 istration, or similar authority, granting or recogniz7 ing an exemption, granting a variance or petition for

8 relief from a regulatory requirement, or other action

9 relieving a restriction or taking any action necessary

10 to permit new or improved applications of tech11 nology.

12 (6) RULEMAKING.—The term ‘‘rulemaking’’

13 means agency process for formulating, amending, or

14 repealing a rule.

15 (7) LICENSE.—The term ‘‘license’’ means the

16 whole or part of an agency permit, certificate, ap17 proval, registration, charter, membership, statutory

18 exemption, or other form of permission.

19 SEC. 6. CIVIL ACTION.

20 In addition to any remedy otherwise available, who21 ever is adversely affected by any conduct of a Federal

22 agency in violation of section 2 or 3 may obtain appro23 priate relief in a civil action against that agency. The court

24 may award a prevailing plaintiff in an action under this

25 section reasonable attorney’s fees.
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1 SEC. 7. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER LAW; SEVERABILITY.

2 (a) APPLICABILITY.—This Act shall apply notwith3 standing any other provision of law.

4 (b) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of this Act, or

5 the application of any provision of this Act to any person

6 or circumstance, is held invalid, the application of such

7 provision to other persons or circumstances, and the re8 mainder of this Act, shall not be affected thereby.

Æ