RE: Recruiting Small Businesses for Rulemaking

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

Marci, you are right that the national trade associations are frequently helpful in recommending small businesses to EPA that are knowledgeable and willing to invest time to educate EPA's engineers and economists about the facts of their businesses.  Because trade associations are in the business of working with EPA and other agencies in the rulemaking process, they tend to have (or make) opportunities to learn about a given rulemaking, and they invest themselves in the process.  They don't need the special access that SBREFA provides to small businesses.  

That is why we at EPA always start our small-business outreach by asking for the participation of actual owner/operators of small businesses, people who can explain their situation from the perspective of the shop floor, and people from whom EPA might not hear directly otherwise.  

Of course, national trade associations play an essential role in support of their members, and some associations -- such as your own organization of screen printers -- serve a population almost exclusively composed of small businesses.  When that happens, the communication between EPA and the association is simple and unambiguous.  But many trade associations have both small and large members, with the large members paying the highest dues and demanding the greatest service from the association.  Consider that, when small businesses catch a break, the effectiveness of the rule depends on big businesses meeting the full regulatory requirements.  That creates a conflict between small and large businesses that can create real tension for a trade association attempting to keep both groups happy with their service.   

When an association has a mixed membership -- both small businesses and large -- I am always on guard against the possibility that its representatives may be unable to distinguish the separate interests of its small members from those of its large.  EPA's legitimate concern is to consider the modest resources of small businesses (and quite often their equally modest contribution to the environmental problem), and our concern must remain just that -- consideration for small businesses.  Trade associations can help us fulfill that mission by recommending small businesses to advise us and by providing appropriate counsel and support to help them make their case to the Agency.