Regulatory Flexibility Act Statement on Signing S. 299 Into Law.

I have today signed into law S. 299, the Regulatory Flexibility Act. The Regulatory Flexibility Act provides vital help for America's small businesses.

Small businesses are crucial to a competitive, healthy, and productive economy. However, regulations often impose heavier burdens on small organizations than on big ones. The Regulatory Flexibility Act recognizes that regulations need not be uniform to be effective. It requires agencies, whenever appropriate, to tailor their rules to the size and resources of those affected.

Under this bill, agencies will assess the impact of their rules and paperwork requirements upon small businesses and other small organizations and government jurisdictions. These agencies will publish advance notice of proposed rules and will include, for public comment, possible approaches such as exemptions and reduced requirements that would eliminate the rule's disproportionate impact upon these smaller entities. Agencies will also publish similar notices in business and trade journals in order to help those affected by the rules to participate in the review process. The agencies will also reexamine existing rules every 10 years to see if their impact on small entities can be reduced.

This bill will not sacrifice the legitimate goals of regulation. It recognizes instead that many of those goals can be achieved without imposing rigid, uniform requirements.

This process is already working. I consulted with the sponsors of this bill last year when developing a directive to the executive agencies instructing them to use flexible approaches in regulations, and already dozens of rules have been adjusted. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency varied a rule on solid waste to exempt small entities. This change exempts 91 percent of those who would have been covered by the regulation, but it exempts only 1 percent of the waste.

The bill was carefully drafted to avoid new costly rounds of litigation. The regulators who write the rules are charged with adjusting them. I will use my Executive authority to ensure that they do so, and my administration will work closely with the sponsors of the bill, who plan vigorous oversight.

This bill adds another piece to the farreaching regulatory reform record that we and the Congress are building. Major reform legislation has been passed covering the airlines, banking, trucking, and natural gas. I urge Congress to continue this impressive record of progress by passing railroad deregulation, paperwork reduction, and other pending regulatory reform measures.

I congratulate Senators John Culver and Gaylord Nelson and Congressmen Andrew Ireland and Neil Smith for their leadership in developing and passing this legislation.