The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) of 1980 (5 U.S.C. §§601-612), requires federal agencies to assess the impact of their forthcoming rules on "small entities," which the act defines as including small businesses, small governmental jurisdictions, and certain small not-for-profit organizations. Under the RFA, virtually all federal agencies (i.e., Cabinet departments and independent agencies as well as independent regulatory agencies) must prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis at the time that proposed and certain final rules are published in the Federal Register . The analysis for a proposed rule is referred to as an "initial regulatory flexibility analysis" (IRFA), and the analysis for a final rule is referred to as a "final regulatory flexibility analysis" (FRFA). The act requires the analyses to describe, among other things, (1) why the regulatory action is being considered and its objectives; (2) the small entities to which the rule will apply and, where feasible, an estimate of their number; (3) the projected reporting, recordkeeping, and other compliance requirements of the rule; and, for final rules, (4) steps the agency has taken to minimize the impact of the rule on small entities, including the alternatives considered and why the selected alternative was chosen. However, these analytical requirements are not triggered if the head of the issuing agency certifies that the rule would not have a "significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities" (hereafter referred to as a "SEISNSE"). The RFA does not define "significant economic impact" or "substantial number of small entities," thereby giving federal agencies substantial discretion regarding when the act's analytical requirements are initiated. Also, the RFA's analytical requirements do not apply to final rules for which the agency does not publish a proposed rule. The RFA also contains several other notable provisions. For example, Section 602 requires each federal agency to publish a "regulatory flexibility agenda" in the Federal Register each April and October listing regulations that the agency expects to propose or promulgate which are likely to have a SEISNSE. Section 612 of the act requires the Chief Counsel of the Small Business Administration's (SBA's) Office of Advocacy to monitor and report at least annually on agencies' compliance with the act. The statute also specifically authorizes the Chief Counsel to appear as amicus curiae (i.e., "friend of the court") in any court action to review a rule. The RFA initially did not permit judicial review of agencies' actions under the act. However, amendments to the act in 1996 as part of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) (110 Stat. 857, 5 U.S.C. §601 note) permitted judicial review regarding, among other things, agencies' regulatory flexibility analyses for final rules and any certifications that their rules will not have a SEISNSE. As a result, for example, a small entity that is adversely affected or aggrieved by an agency's determination that its final rule would not have a significant impact on small entities could seek judicial review of that determination within one year of the date of the final agency action. In granting relief, a court may remand the rule to the agency or defer enforcement against small entities. The addition of judicial review in 1996 is generally viewed as a significant strengthening of the RFA, and is believed to have improved agencies' compliance with the act. In August 2002, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13272, which was intended to promote compliance with the RFA. The executive order requires agencies to issue written procedures and policies to ensure that the potential impacts of their draft rules on small entities are properly considered, and requires them to notify the Office of Advocacy of any draft rules with a SEISNSE. Also, the order requires the SBA Chief Counsel for Advocacy to "notify agency heads from time to time" of the requirements of the RFA, and to provide training to agencies on RFA compliance. It also permits the Chief Counsel to provide comments on draft rules to the issuing agency and to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget. The Office of Advocacy published guidance on the RFA in 2003 and reported training more than 20 agencies on compliance with the act in FY2005. In addition to triggering an initial or final regulatory flexibility analysis, an agency's determination that a rule has a SEISNSE can initiate other actions. For example, when enacted in 1980, Section 610 of the RFA required agencies to publish a plan in the Federal Register within 180 days that would provide for the review of all of their then-existing rules within 10 years, and for the review of all subsequent rules within 10 years of their publication as a final rule. The Section 610 requirement applies to those rules that the agencies determined "have or will have" a SEISNSE, and the purpose of the review is to determine whether the rule should be continued without change or should be amended or rescinded to minimize its impact on small entities. One way some agencies have decided which rules should be reviewed is by focusing only on those rules for which a final regulatory flexibility analysis was conducted at the time the final rule was issued. However, other agencies view Section 610 as requiring them to review all of their rules to determine whether they have currently a SEISNSE, regardless of their previous determinations. Either way, agencies have considerable discretion in deciding what constitutes a "significant" impact and a "substantial" number of small entities, and therefore what rules (if any) are covered by this requirement. SBREFA established two new requirements that are also triggered by agencies' determinations under the RFA—e.g., compliance guides and advocacy review panels. Section 212 of SBREFA requires agencies to develop one or more compliance guides for each final rule or group of related final rules for which the agency is required to prepare an FRFA. Specifically, Section 212 requires the guides to be posted in an easily identifiable location on the agency's website and distributed to "known industry contacts," be entitled "small entity compliance guides," and explain the actions a small entity is required to take to comply with an associated final rule. The statute also requires the guide to be published not later than the date that the associated rule's requirements become effective. However, an agency does not have to prepare the compliance guides at all if it determines that the rule or group of rules does not have a "significant" economic impact on a "substantial" number of small entities. Section 244 of SBREFA amended Section 609 of the RFA to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to convene "advocacy review panels" before publishing an IRFA for a proposed rule. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act ( P.L. 111-203 , July 21, 2010) required the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to also hold such panels. Specifically, the agency issuing the regulation (either EPA, OSHA, or CFPB) must notify the SBA Chief Counsel for Advocacy and provide information on the draft rule's potential impacts on small entities and the type of small entities that might be affected. The Chief Counsel then must identify representatives of affected small entities within 15 days of the notification. The review panel must consist of full-time federal employees from the rulemaking agency, the Office of Management and Budget, and SBA's Chief Counsel for Advocacy. During the panel process, the panel must collect the advice and recommendations of representatives of affected small entities about the potential impact of the draft rule. The panel must report on the comments received and on its recommendations no later than 60 days after the panel is convened, and the panel's report must be made public as part of the rulemaking record. However, EPA, OSHA, and CFPB do not have to hold an advocacy review panel at all if the issuing agency certifies that the subject rule will not have a "significant" economic impact on a "substantial" number of small entities. The Government Accountability Office (GAO, formerly the General Accounting Office) has commented on the implementation of the RFA numerous times within the past 20 years, and a recurring theme in GAO's reports is a lack of clarity in the act regarding key terms and a resulting variability in the act's implementation. For example, in 1991, GAO reported that each of the four federal agencies that it reviewed had a different interpretation of key RFA provisions—most notably, what constitutes a "significant" economic impact or a "substantial" number of small entities. In 1994, GAO again reported that agencies' compliance with the RFA varied widely from one agency to another and that agencies were interpreting the statute differently. In a 1999 report on the implementation of Section 610 of the RFA and in a 2000 report on the implementation of the RFA at EPA, GAO concluded that agencies had broad discretion to determine what the statute required. In the 2000 report, GAO determined that EPA had certified virtually all of its rules after 1996 as not having a SEISNSE, and that the rate of certifications increased substantially after the passage of SBREFA. In all of these reports, GAO suggested that Congress consider clarifying the act's requirements, give SBA or some other entity the responsibility to develop criteria for whether and how agencies should conduct RFA analyses, or both. In 2001, GAO testified that the promise of the RFA may never be realized until Congress or some other entity defines what a "significant economic impact" and a "substantial number of small entities" mean in a rulemaking setting. In 2002, GAO again testified that the implementation of the RFA was still problematic, and raised more questions about how the statute should be interpreted.