Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act

Key Points

• Agencies would have to study both direct and indirect costs of new rules on small businesses, including things like higher energy prices or harder access to credit, even if the business isn't directly regulated.
• Small businesses that make a first-time paperwork mistake generally can't be fined by the agency, unless it involves taxes, criminal activity, or a danger to public health or safety.
• The SBA's Chief Counsel for Advocacy gets new power to step into agency legal cases (except ones involving fines) to explain how a decision could hurt small businesses.
• Every federal agency must review its existing rules that significantly affect small businesses at least once every 10 years and decide whether to keep, change, or repeal them.
• The bill sets a clear size cutoff for small nonprofit organizations covered by these protections: a net worth under $7 million and no more than 500 employees.