by Stephanie Fekete, Director of Interagency Affairs
The Office of Advocacy (Advocacy) advances the views and concerns of small businesses before Congress, the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state policymakers. One of our responsibilities is safeguarding small business participation in the federal rulemaking process. Here, Advocacy serves as the watchdog for the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA), a law that requires federal agencies to consider alternative ways to reduce the economic impact of their regulations on small entities.
The RFA was originally passed because of frustration with how federal regulations harmed small businesses, nonprofits, and government jurisdictions. Most large corporations, nonprofits, and governments have large teams of attorneys, scientists, and economists who can help implement regulations, but small businesses do not. As a result, the burden of compliance falls heavily on these small entities, even when regulators do not intend for small businesses to bear the brunt of the change.
Advocacy’s role is to promote compliance with the RFA and subsequent changes. The team responsible for that is the Office of Interagency Affairs (Interagency), which works with various federal agencies to monitor the impacts that new regulations have on small businesses.
Interagency consists of fifteen attorneys and a law clerk. Each attorney is an expert in a specific area of administrative law and monitors the regulations in their portfolio for specific small business impacts. This process starts before rules are proposed by federal agencies. For this reason, Interagency staff will talk with regulators about the potential small business impacts a rule might have.
If a regulation is published that Interagency staff thinks might impact small businesses, the attorney will issue a regulatory alert so that small businesses can comment on the proposal. In addition, Interagency attorneys will set up listening sessions and roundtables to solicit as much small business feedback as possible. Ideally, Interagency can take the feedback to their contacts that develop regulations. This will encourage changes to the rule that do not disproportionately impact small businesses.
Frequently, however, Interagency staff put their concerns on the record via a comment letter. These letters, which come from the Chief Counsel for Advocacy, are formal comments to a regulatory agency that express small business interests and potential RFA violations. The comment letter is our most powerful tool to encourage agencies to consider impacts on small business, and it serves to ensure that agencies hear small business concerns.
While most people think of attorneys as litigators, arguing in a courtroom over the specifics of the law, it is best to think of Interagency as a team of negotiators. Advocacy attorneys follow regulations closely from creation to enactment. However, Interagency cannot do its job without your participation. If you see a regulation that may impact your business, contact Advocacy staff to set up a listening session. We also encourage you to write a comment letter directly to the agency.