I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 168 
To permit small business concerns operating in the United States to elect 
to be exempt from certain Federal rules and regulations, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 4, 2013 
Mr. GARRETT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Small Business 
A BILL 
To permit small business concerns operating in the United 
States to elect to be exempt from certain Federal rules 
and regulations, 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 ‘‘Small Business Free-
dom of Commerce Act of 2013’’. 
SEC. 2. SMALL BUSINESS EXEMPTIONS. 
(a) ELECTION.—Notwithstanding any other provision 
of law, a small business concern operating in the United 
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States may elect to be exempt from any Federal rule or 
regulation issued on or after January 20, 2009. 
(b) PROCESS FOR EXEMPTION.— 
(1) NOTIFICATION OF FEDERAL AGENCY.—To 
be exempt from a rule or regulation under this sec-
tion, the highest ranking official of a small business 
concern shall provide to the Federal agency that 
issued such rule or regulation written notice that the 
small business concern has elected to be exempt 
from such rule or regulation. 
(2) TIMING.—A small business concern shall be 
exempt from a rule or regulation beginning on the 
date that is 30 days after the date that written no-
tice provided by such concern under paragraph (1), 
with respect to such rule or regulation, is received 
by the applicable Federal agency. 
(3) CONFIRMATION OF WRITTEN NOTICE.—Not 
later than 7 days after receiving a written notice 
under paragraph (1), the head of the Federal agency 
that received such notice shall provide to the appli-
cable small business concern written confirmation 
that such notice has been received. 
(c) NOTIFICATION
OF PUBLIC.—A small business 
concern that is exempt from a Federal rule or regulation 
under this section shall— 
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(1) label any product of the concern affected by 
such exemption in a manner that provides notice 
that the product is no longer subject to such rule or 
regulation; and 
(2) include in any communication of the con-
cern relating to a product or activity affected by 
such exemption notice that the product or activity is 
no longer subject to such rule or regulation. 
(d) PENALTIES.—A small business concern that fails 
to satisfy any requirement under this section shall be sub-
ject to penalties for noncompliance with an applicable Fed-
eral rule or regulation without regard to any election of 
the small business concern to be exempt from such rule 
or regulation. 
(e) LIMITATIONS.—A small business concern may not 
elect to be exempt under this section from a rule or regula-
tion issued by the Department of Defense or the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security, if the Secretary of Defense 
or the Secretary of Homeland Security has determined 
that such rule or regulation is necessary for the security 
of the United States. 
(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following defi-
nitions apply: 
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(1) FEDERAL
AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal 
agency’’ means any department, agency, or inde-
pendent establishment of the Federal Government. 
(2) SMALL
BUSINESS
CONCERN.—The term 
‘‘small business concern’’ has the meaning given 
such term in section 3(a) of the Small Business Act 
(15 U.S.C. 632(a)). 
Æ 
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