Small Business Outreach

[Tom Kelly <kelly.tom@epa.gov>]

One more piece of explication to set up the discussion.  I've explained how the SBREFA Panel process works, and that we have emmployed it 22 times already since the program began in 1996.  In each case we have held intensive collaboration with affected small businesses and derived sensible accommodations that improved the rule while lowering its expense on the smallest compliers.  But what about all the rules that cover small businesses and don't go through the Panel process?

For these, we at EPA maintain what we call the "Any/Any" Policy. By that we mean that the benefits of outreach and meaningful accommodations for small businesses are not limited to the relatively small number of rules that may impose a "significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities."  There are rules that may impose significant costs on just a few small businesses, and others that will impose modest costs on a great many.  EPA's policy requires that we contact representatives of affected small businesses, and try to find ways to mitigate its costs, in the case of a rule that imposes ANY economic impact on ANY number of small entities.  

This "Any/Any" Policy is actually more important to EPA's management of small-business interests than is the Panel process under SBREFA, because it applies more broadly to many more rules than do the SBREFA requirements.  

And that leads us to the real topic of today's discussion.  Given the very high number of small businesses operating in the United States (over 90% of operating corporations, according to SBA definitions), how do we identify all the businesses subject to a rule, and how do we best identify representatives of their interests who can inform EPA of the likely impact of a rule and possible ways to carve out a "safe haven" for the smallest and least sophisticated operations?