The PA Chamber recently joined a national coalition of business associations in calling on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to protect small business owners from excessive federal regulations.

 

In a letter led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and signed by more than 250 groups nationwide (including the PA Chamber and 18 local chambers of commerce in Pennsylvania), the signatories urged members of the House of Representatives to speedily consider and advance H.R. 7198, the Prove It Act of 2024.

 

This legislation would close loopholes in existing legislation (the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980) that federal agencies often exploit to impose unreasonable regulatory costs on Main Street employers. According to the U.S. Chamber, the annual cost of complying with federal regulations has risen by $465 billion since 2012 and now totals more than $3 trillion per year. This means a staggering 12 percent of the United States’ entire GDP is spent on regulatory compliance.

 

Furthermore, data from the U.S. Chamber Foundation reveals that small businesses are at a particular disadvantage when it comes to dealing with these regulations. For small businesses with 50 or fewer employees, the costs are nearly 20 percent higher than the average for all businesses.

 

The Prove It Act would close these loopholes by amending the Regulatory Flexibility Act to require federal agencies to be transparent about the costs on small businesses; force agencies to consider small business input when crafting new guidance; and provide for timely court review of whether these agencies are meeting their legal obligations to adequately consider small business in the development of federal rulemaking.

 

This bipartisan legislation would take necessary action to ensure that federal regulators listen to the small business community before imposing costly red tape on America’s innovators, community leaders, and job creators.