Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 94 Part 1.djvu/1214

 94 STAT. 1164

PUBLIC LAW 96-354—SEPT. 19, 1980

Public Law 96-354 96th Congress An Act Sept. 19, 1980 [S. 299]

IJIQ amend title 5, United States Code, to improve Federal rulemaking by creating procedures to analyze the availability of more flexible regulatory approaches for small entities, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Regulatory United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be 5 USC 601 note ^^*®^ ^ *^® "Regulatory Flexibility Act". FINDINGS AND PURPOSES

5 USC 601 note.

SEC. 2. (a) The Congress finds and declares that— (1) when adopting regulations to protect the health, safety and economic welfare of the Nation, Federal agencies should seek to achieve statutory goals as effectively and efficiently as possible without imposing unnecessary burdens on the public; (2) laws and regulations designed for application to large scale entities have been applied uniformly to small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions even though the problems that gave rise to government action may not have been caused by those smaller entities; (3) uniform Federal regulatory and reporting requirements have in numerous instances imposed unnecessary and disproportionately burdensome demands including legal, accounting and consulting costs upon small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions with limited resources; (4) the failure to recognize differences in the scale and resources of regulated entities has in numerous instances adversely affected competition in the marketplace, discouraged innovation and restricted improvements in productivity; (5) unnecessary regulations create entry barriers in many industries and discourage potential entrepreneurs from introducing beneficial products and processes; (6) the practice of treating all regulated businesses, organizations, and governmental jurisdictions as equivalent may lead to inefficient use of regulatory agency resources, enforcement problems, and, in some cases, to actions inconsistent with the legislative intent of health, safety, environmental and economic welfare legislation; (7) alternative regulatory approaches which do not conflict with the stated objectives of applicable statutes may be available which minimize the significant economic impact of rules on small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions; (8) the process by which Federal regulations are developed and adopted should be reformed to require agencies to solicit the ideeis and comments of small businesses, small organizations, and small governmental jurisdictions to examine the impact of proposed and existing rules on such entities, and to review the continued need for existing rules.

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