Advocacy Saves Small Firms $11B in Fiscal 2008
Feb 2nd, 2009 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: RegulationsLast week, the SBA Office of Advocacy released its report on Regulatory Flexibility Act enforcement and compliance for fiscal 2008, the last such report detailing the results achieved under former Chief Counsel Tom Sullivan. The report includes updated information on federal agency compliance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) and E.O. 13272, agency compliance with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), and the results of its Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative.
According to the report, the SBA Office of Advocacy saved small businesses $10.7 billion in regulatory compliance costs during fiscal 2008, accomplished through a combination of agency training, early input in the regulatory development process and, especially, small business outreach. Perhaps one of the most important and, one hopes, enduring legacies of Tom Sullivan’s Office of Advocacy is the success it achieved in forging less adversarial relationships between regulators and small businesses. While President Obama is busily undoing a variety of President Bush’s executive orders, one hopes he leaves E.O. 13272 in place and that Tom Sullivan’s as-yet-unnamed successor is as diligent and as successful in implementing it as he was.
