II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 769 

To enhance compliance assistance for small businesses. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 13, 2005 

Ms. SNOWE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

A BILL 

To enhance compliance assistance for small businesses. 

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 Com5 pliance Assistance Enhancement Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Small businesses represent 99.7 percent of 

9 all employers, employ half of all private sector em10 ployees, and pay 44.3 percent of total United States 

11 private payroll. 
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1 (2) Small businesses generated 60 to 80 per2 cent of net new jobs annually over the last decade. 

3 (3) Very small firms with fewer than 20 em4 ployees spend 60 percent more per employee than 

5 larger firms to comply with Federal regulations. 

6 Small firms spend twice as much on tax compliance 

7 as their larger counterparts. Based on an analysis in 

8 2001, firms employing fewer than 20 employees face 

9 an annual regulatory burden of nearly $7,000 per 

10 employee, compared to a burden of almost $4,500 

11 per employee for a firm with over 500 employees. 

12 (4) Section 212 of the Small Business Regu13 latory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 

14 601 note) requires agencies to produce small entity 

15 compliance guides for each rule or group of rules for 

16 which an agency is required to prepare a final regu17 latory flexibility analysis under section 604 of title 

18 5, United States Code. 

19 (5) The Government Accountability Office has 

20 found that agencies have rarely attempted to comply 

21 with section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory 

22 Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601 

23 note). When agencies did try to comply with that re24 quirement, they generally did not produce adequate 

25 compliance assistance materials. 
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1 (6) The Government Accountability Office also 

2 found that section 212 of the Small Business Regu3 latory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 

4 601 note) and other sections of that Act need clari5 fication to be effective. 

6 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are the fol7 lowing: 

8 (1) To clarify the requirement contained in sec9 tion 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforce10 ment Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601 note) for 

11 agencies to produce small entity compliance guides. 

12 (2) To clarify other terms relating to the re13 quirement in section 212 of the Small Business Reg14 ulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 

15 601 note). 

16 (3) To ensure that agencies produce adequate 

17 and useful compliance assistance materials to help 

18 small businesses meet the obligations imposed by 

19 regulations affecting such small businesses, and to 

20 increase compliance with these regulations. 

21 SEC. 3. ENHANCED COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL 

22 BUSINESSES. 

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 212 of the Small Business 

24 Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 
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1 601 note) is amended by striking subsection (a) and in2 serting the following: 

3 ‘‘(a) COMPLIANCE GUIDE.— 

4 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For each rule or group of 

5 related rules for which an agency is required to pre6 pare a final regulatory flexibility analysis under sec7 tion 605(b) of title 5, United States Code, the agen8 cy shall publish 1 or more guides to assist small en9 tities in complying with the rule and shall entitle 

10 such publications ‘small entity compliance guides’. 

11 ‘‘(2) PUBLICATION OF GUIDES.—The publica12 tion of each guide under this subsection shall in13 clude— 

14 ‘‘(A) the posting of the guide in an easily 

15 identified location on the website of the agency; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(B) distribution of the guide to known in18 dustry contacts, such as small entities, associa19 tions, or industry leaders affected by the rule. 

20 ‘‘(3) PUBLICATION DATE.—An agency shall 

21 publish each guide (including the posting and dis22 tribution of the guide as described under paragraph 

23 (2))— 
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1 ‘‘(A) on the same date as the date of publi2 cation of the final rule (or as soon as possible 

3 after that date); and 

4 ‘‘(B) not later than the date on which the 

5 requirements of that rule become effective. 

6 ‘‘(4) COMPLIANCE ACTIONS.— 

7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Each guide shall ex8 plain the actions a small entity is required to 

9 take to comply with a rule. 

10 ‘‘(B) EXPLANATION.—The explanation 

11 under subparagraph (A)— 

12 ‘‘(i) shall include a description of ac13 tions needed to meet the requirements of a 

14 rule, to enable a small entity to know when 

15 such requirements are met; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) if determined appropriate by the 

17 agency, may include a description of pos18 sible procedures, such as conducting tests, 

19 that may assist a small entity in meeting 

20 such requirements. 

21 ‘‘(C) PROCEDURES.—Procedures described 

22 under subparagraph (B)(ii)— 

23 ‘‘(i) shall be suggestions to assist 

24 small entities; and 
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1 ‘‘(ii) shall not be additional require2 ments relating to the rule. 

3 ‘‘(5) AGENCY PREPARATION OF GUIDES.—The 

4 agency shall, in its sole discretion, taking into ac5 count the subject matter of the rule and the lan6 guage of relevant statutes, ensure that the guide is 

7 written using sufficiently plain language likely to be 

8 understood by affected small entities. Agencies may 

9 prepare separate guides covering groups or classes of 

10 similarly affected small entities and may cooperate 

11 with associations of small entities to develop and dis12 tribute such guides. An agency may prepare guides 

13 and apply this section with respect to a rule or a 

14 group of related rules. 

15 ‘‘(6) REPORTING.—Not later than 1 year after 

16 the date of enactment of the Small Business Compli17 ance Assistance Enhancement Act of 2005, and an18 nually thereafter, the head of each agency shall sub19 mit a report to the Committee on Small Business 

20 and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Com21 mittee on Small Business of the House of Rep22 resentatives describing the status of the agency’s 

23 compliance with paragraphs (1) through (5).’’. 

24 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

25 Section 211(3) of the Small Business Regulatory Enforce-
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1 ment Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601 note) is amend2 ed by inserting ‘‘and entitled’’ after ‘‘designated’’. 

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