U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) urged his colleagues in the Senate last week to support his bill, the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act, which would require federal agencies to account for the economic impact of regulations.
The bill also requires the Internal Revenue Service to listen to small businesses before they release new rules.
“So many hours are spent by every small business complying with IRS regulations and requirements,” Lankford said. “We would like for the IRS to actually engage with small businesses when they put out policy and guidance, to say ‘how is this going to affect small businesses? How can they work this out to be as easy as possible for small business owners?’”
The bill would also require agencies to review rules every 10 years for effectiveness.
Lankford also said excessive regulation has hurt the competitiveness of the United States in the global economy.
“For small businesses, it is not typically small regulations, it is the hundreds of little ones that they are constantly trying to live under,” Lankford said. “It is the culmination of all these different regulations and trying to figure out where they are. Most small businesses don’t have lawyers, they don’t have compliance people. They don’t have folks lined up to be able to monitor all of these things. They have to figure it out as they go.”