TO: Interested Persons
FROM: Kevin Bromberg, Assistant Chief Counsel; David Rostker, Assistant Chief Counsel; Tabby Waqar, Assistant Chief Counsel
SUBJECT: Next SBA Environmental Roundtable Meeting
The next U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy Environmental Roundtable will meet to discuss the following topics, beginning at 10 a.m. on Friday, September 22, 2017. The meeting will be held in Washington, D.C., at the Small Business Administration Headquarters, 409 Third Street SW, Eisenhower B Conference Room. Send RSVP to twaqar@sba.gov. Please indicate whether you are attending in person, by webconference or by teleconference. Information will be sent out to you when you RSVP. We have adopted a casual attire option for all Roundtable meetings.
Draft Agenda
10-11 a.m. Cooperative Federalism 2.0
Alexandra Dunn, Executive Director and General Counsel, Environmental Council of States
11 a.m. to Noon A report from Advocacy’s Regional Regulatory Reform Roudtables
Charles Maresca, Director, Interagency Affairs, Office of Advocacy
Roundtable meetings are open to all interested persons, with the exception of the press, in order to facilitate open and frank discussion about the impacts of Federal regulatory activities on small entities. Agendas and presentations are available to all, including the press. Anyone who wants to receive roundtable agendas or presentations, or to be included in the distribution list, should forward such requests to kevin.bromberg@sba.gov. The purpose of these Roundtable meetings is to exchange opinions, facts and information and to obtain the attendees’ individual views and opinions regarding small business concerns. The meetings are not intended to achieve or communicate any consensus positions of the attendees.
Small Business Environmental Roundtable
Issues for Discussion
Sept. 22, 2017
Cooperative Federalism 2.0
The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) is the national nonprofit, nonpartisan association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders. ECOS recently released a vision recasting state and federal roles for environmental management and public health protection at lower cost. State environmental agencies are responsible for implementing most state and national environmental protection statutes, having assumed more than 96 percent of the programs they are authorized to implement under federal law. ECOS’ Cooperative Federalism 2.0: Achieving and Maintaining a Clean Environment and Protecting Public Health shows a reframing of state and federal roles needed to create and implement environmental protection programs worthy of 21st century challenges. Among other positive changes, this recasting will result in:
- Equal or greater environmental and public health protection and outcomes through smart deployment of resources on critical priorities;
- Reduced operating costs due to a more efficient division of services, streamlined operating relationships, best practice sharing, and elimination of redundancies across states and divisions of EPA;
- More effective allocation of limited resources by determining the best roles and functions states and EPA are each best suited to perform; and,
- With time, fewer disputes over who should take credit for successes and achievements, and who is responsible for decisions and actions that result in setbacks.
ECOS Executive Director and General Counsel will present on the ECOS vision, its implications for small businesses, and discuss opportunities for small businesses to engage with their state regulatory authorities in this new environment.
Advocacy’s Regional Regulatory Reform Roundtables
The Office of Advocacy has hosted several Regulatory Reform Roundtables around the country since June, visiting multiple locations in Louisiana, Idaho, Washington, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas and Missouri. Advocacy anticipates it will continue hosting these Roundtables in the next fiscal year. The purpose of these roundtables is to help us identify specific regulatory barriers to small business growth through first-hand testimony and thereby assist federal agencies in complying with the President’s directive to eliminate burdensome regulations. Director of Interagency Affairs Charles Maresca will present on these Roundtables, answer questions, and lead a discussion of the ways in which these Roundtables will contribute to the Administration’s Regulatory Reform agenda.