108TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 205
AN ACT
To amend the Small Business Act to direct the Adminis-
trator of the Small Business Administration to establish
a program to provide regulatory compliance assistance
to small business concerns, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Small Busi-
ness Regulatory Assistance Act of 2003’’.
SEC. 2. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this Act is to establish a program
to—
(1) provide confidential assistance to small
business concerns;
(2) provide small business concerns with the in-
formation necessary to improve their rate of compli-
ance with Federal and State regulations;
(3) create a partnership among Federal agen-
cies to increase outreach efforts to small business
concerns with respect to regulatory compliance;
(4) provide a mechanism for unbiased feedback
to Federal agencies on the regulatory environment
for small business concerns; and
(5) utilize the service delivery network of Small
Business Development Centers to improve access of
small business concerns to programs to assist them
with regulatory compliance.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act, the definitions set forth in section 36(a)
of the Small Business Act (as added by section 4 of this
Act) shall apply.
SEC. 4. SMALL BUSINESS REGULATORY ASSISTANCE PRO-
GRAM.
The Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637 et seq.) is
amended—
(1) by redesignating section 36 as section 37;
and
(2) by inserting after section 35 the following
new section:
‘‘SEC. 36. SMALL BUSINESS REGULATORY ASSISTANCE PRO-
GRAM.
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following
definitions apply:
‘‘(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘Adminis-
trator’ means the Administrator of the Small Busi-
ness Administration, acting through the Associate
Administrator for Small Business Development Cen-
ters.
‘‘(2) ASSOCIATION.—The term ‘Association’
means the association recognized by the Adminis-
trator of the Small Business Administration under
section 21(a)(3)(A).
‘‘(3) PARTICIPATING SMALL BUSINESS DEVEL-
OPMENT
CENTER.—The term ‘participating Small
Business Development Center’ means a Small Busi-
ness Development Center participating in the pro-
gram.
‘‘(4) PROGRAM.—The term ‘program’ means
the regulatory assistance program established under
this section.
‘‘(5) REGULATORY COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE.—
The term ‘regulatory compliance assistance’ means
assistance provided by a Small Business Develop-
ment Center to a small business concern to enable
the concern to comply with Federal regulatory re-
quirements.
‘‘(6) SMALL
BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
CEN-
TER.—The term ‘Small Business Development Cen-
ter’ means a Small Business Development Center
described in section 21.
‘‘(7) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means each of
the several States, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,
and Guam.
‘‘(b) AUTHORITY.—In accordance with this section,
the Administrator shall establish a program to provide
regulatory compliance assistance to small business con-
cerns through participating Small Business Development
Centers, the Association, and Federal compliance partner-
ship programs.
‘‘(c) SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTERS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In carrying out the pro-
gram, the Administrator shall enter into arrange-
ments with participating Small Business Develop-
ment Centers under which such centers will
provide—
‘‘(A) access to information and resources,
including current Federal and State nonpuni-
tive compliance and technical assistance pro-
grams similar to those established under section
507 of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990;
‘‘(B) training and educational activities;
‘‘(C) confidential, free-of-charge, one-on-
one, in-depth counseling to the owners and op-
erators of small business concerns regarding
compliance with Federal and State regulations,
provided that such counseling is not considered
to be the practice of law in a State in which a
Small Business Development Center is located
or in which such counseling is conducted;
‘‘(D) technical assistance; and
‘‘(E) referrals to experts and other pro-
viders of compliance assistance who meet such
standards for educational, technical, and profes-
sional competency as are established by the Ad-
ministrator.