U.S. Chamber Hails Senate Passage of Small Business Relief Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Chamber of Commerce applauded Senate passage of legislation to provide relief for small businesses from burdensome government regulations and paperwork requirements, and urged the House to follow suit.

"This bill recognizes the plight of the nation's 23 million small businesses and their employees struggling to fulfill government regulatory requirements," said Bruce Josten, Chamber executive vice president. "Paperwork relief is vitally important for small businesses and this bill is an important first step that deserves prompt attention in the House."

The Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002 (H.R. 327) would require the Office of Management and Budget to publish in the Federal Register and on the Internet an annual list of compliance-assistance resources for small businesses. It also would establish a point of contact for small business concerns at each federal agency.

"Filing paperwork is a prodigious task for small businesses that lack both the capital and the manpower to manage the process," said Josten. "As government mandates continue to spiral, many small businesses can't keep up."

In 1998, the most recent year for which data are available, businesses spent approximately 7 billion hours filling out federal paperwork, according to OMB. The estimated annual cost associated with the federal government paperwork burden, excluding state and local requirements, is $229 billion.

To begin to reduce that burden, H.R. 327 would establish a task force to study the feasibility of streamlining information collection requirements. The task force also would explore the possibility of creating an online network to inform small businesses of all federal regulatory requirements for their particular industry.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.