A new Senate bill introduced by Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) would make it easier for small and very small businesses to comply with complex and confusing federal regulations, if the bill becomes law.  S. 2834, The Small Business Compliance Assistance Enhancement Act of 2004, amends the 1996 Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), a law that helps the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy's ability to reduce regulatory barriers that hurt small businesses.  Senator Snowe is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Small and very small meat plants would be helped by this bill.  It would require agencies to produce clear and timely regulatory compliance guides.  S. 2834 puts new emphasis on agency compliance guides so that small businesses can better understand and deal with complex rules and regulations.  The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration statistics show that each year it costs the smallest businesses almost $7,000 per employee to comply with federal regulations.  That cost places a burden on small business that is at least 60 percent greater than large corporations. 

The SBREFA Act provides new ways for small businesses to participate in, and have access to, the federal regulatory arena.  One thing the law does is force regulatory agencies to spell out how proposed rules and regulations would affect small businesses, and take into account the effect of such rules on smaller industry.  It also allows small businesses and small business groups to challenge regulatory agencies in court on the following issues:  (1) Whether the regulatory agency tried alternative regulatory approaches, and the reasons for rejecting or accepting them; (2) Whether an agency tried to collect enough comments from small businesses via various means; (3) A regulatory agency's decision to certify that a rule would not have a "significant impact" on a large number of small businesses, and what the agency's facts were in its certification; and (4) Whether the agency complied with a requirement for periodic reviews on the 10-year anniversary of every rule. 

The SBREFA Law also updates the requirements of a "final regulatory flexibility analysis" -- including describing the steps an agency has taken to minimize the significant economic impact of a regulation on small businesses.

The Advocacy Office is the "small business watchdog" of the federal government.  It examines the role and status of small business in the economy, and independenty represents the the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress and the President.  It is also the source for small business statistics presented in "user-friendly" formats, and it also funds research into small business issues.  AAMP has worked with the SBA and its Office of Advocacy on a number of issues affecting the small meat industry, particularly regulations the industry must operate under that come from the US Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency.