WASHINGTON - Small business groups are celebrating passage of a little-noticed provision that promises regulatory relief for small firms.
Republican leaders in Congress attached the regulatory relief sections to a must-pass bill that raised the federal debt limit to $5.5 trillion. The changes put some teeth into a 16-year-old regulatory flexibility bill.
The original 1980 federal law required regulators to consider how proposed rules would affect small firms, and it also instructed them to take steps to assure that final regulations would not impose undue burdens on small businesses.
'It was a great concept, but regulatory agencies tended to give the requirement only lip service,' said Dan Danner, vice president of federal government relations for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the nation's largest small business lobbying group. 'They keep churning out inflexible, one-size-fits-all regs, and small firms can do nothing about it.'
Under the new law, small business owners can challenge the burdensome federal regulations in court. In addition, the new law extends the reach of the regulatory flexibility bill to Internal Revenue Service regulations.
Mr. Danner said the new federal law also requires agencies to write rules and regulations in plain English.
'Lacking the staff, money and technical expertise of mega-corporations, small business owners never had a prayer of keeping up with regulations designed for the Fortune 500,' Mr. Danner said.
'By extending the scope of the original reg flex law and giving it some real teeth, these new provisions will force regulators to come to grips with this reality,' he said. 'They will have to think creatively to devise alternative regulations that can achieve agency goals without threatening the livelihoods of small business owners and employees.'
NFIB also praised the House's passage of a health care coverage bill before Congress began a two-week recess that ends April 15. The Senate is expected to take up its version of the health care bill later in April.
The health care legislation includes several provisions important to small business. Among them is a proposal allowing interstate small business purchasing pools for health insurance.
'By allowing small firms to band together across state lines to purchase health insurance with nearly the same exemption from state law that big business has achieves NFIB's highest health reform priority,' said Jack Faris, president of the 600,000-member group.
In addition, the House health care bill guarantees availability and renewal of health care insurance and establishes medical malpractice reforms. It also increases the amount of health insurance premiums that sole proprietors can deduct on taxes. The deduction, now 30%, would rise to 50%.
'The increase in the deductibility alone will help small companies defray some of the high costs of health insurance and reduce the disparity between millions of self-employed owners and corporations,' Mr. Faris said.
'Increasing the deduction to 50% is a good first step, and small business will keep working for full 100% deductibility, putting them on a level playing field with large companies,' he said.
Grade cards are in
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has given Northeast Ohio Republicans high marks in its report card on how members of Congress voted on key votes in 1995.
The Chamber of Commerce's scorecard was based on 19 Senate votes and 24 House votes on issues such as the seven-year plan to balance the budget, regulatory reform, consolidating federal job training programs, welfare reform and opposing any increase in the minimum wage.
Republican Reps Martin R. Hoke of Lakewood and Ralph Regula of Navarre pulled in perfect marks of 100% in 1995, followed by the 96% score for Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Madison.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Louis Stokes of Cleveland received a rating of 17% from the pro-business group, with Rep. Thomas Sawyer of Akron scoring 29%, Rep. Sherrod Brown of Lorain tallying 38% and Rep. James A. Traficant of Youngstown with 63%. Rep. Traficant was one of the leading Democratic supporters of the House GOP's Contract with America, and his 1995 score of 63% is nearly twice his 32% career average on Chamber report cards.
In the Senate, first-term Republican Sen. Mike DeWine scored 89% in support of Chamber of Commerce's positions, while Democrat John Glenn tallied 37%.
