[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5999 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5999
To enhance the ability of the Office of the National Ombudsman to
assist small businesses in meeting regulatory requirements and develop
outreach initiatives to promote awareness of the services the Office of
the National Ombudsman provides, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 19, 2023
Mr. Mfume (for himself, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Scholten, Mr.
McGarvey, Mr. Landsman, and Mr. Phillips) introduced the following bill
October 25, 2023
Referred to the Committee on Small Business
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To enhance the ability of the Office of the National Ombudsman to
assist small businesses in meeting regulatory requirements and develop
outreach initiatives to promote awareness of the services the Office of
the National Ombudsman provides, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business Regulatory Relief
Act''.
SEC. 2. SBA REGULATORY ENFORCEMENT OMBUDSMAN.
Section 30(b) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 657(b)(2)) is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (2)--
(A) in subparagraph (A)--
(i) by striking ``with each agency with
regulatory authority'' and inserting the
following: ``with--
``(i) each Federal agency with regulatory
authority'';
(ii) by inserting ``and'' after the
semicolon; and
(iii) by adding at the end the following:
``(ii) each Federal agency with regulatory
authority over small business concerns or that
makes grants or enters into contracts or
cooperative agreements with small entities to
develop best practices to assist the Federal
agency in--
``(I) establishing a program to
assist small entities (as defined in
section 601 of title 5, United States
Code) in meeting regulatory
requirements imposed by that Federal
agency, including by responding to
inquiries under section 213 of the
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement
Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601
note);
``(II) educating small entities
about the regulations of that Federal
agency that are applicable to small
entities;
``(III) training small entities to
comply with the regulations of that
Federal agency;
``(IV) assisting small entities in
completing forms relating to such
grants, contracts, or cooperative
agreements required by the regulations
of that Federal agency;
``(V) addressing any specific
question or concern of small entities;
``(VI) evaluating compliance guides
described under section 212 of the
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement
Fairness Act of 1996 (5 U.S.C. 601
note);
``(VII) ensuring that the
compliance guides described in
subclause (VI) are available to small
business development centers and to
other resource partners of the
Administration; and
``(VIII) developing webinars
relating to compliance assistance for--
``(aa) recently finalized
rules of the Federal agency;
and
``(bb) rules relating to
which the Federal agency or
Ombudsman receives a
significant number of
compliance inquiries from small
entities;'';
(B) in subparagraph (D), by striking ``and'' at the
end;
(C) in subparagraph (E), by striking the period at
the end and inserting a semicolon; and
(D) by adding at the end the following:
``(F) in collaboration with the employee of a
Federal agency designated by the head of the Federal
agency as the primary point of contact with the
Ombudsman, establish a procedure relating to how the
Federal agency will provide information--
``(i) to small business concerns regarding
the Ombudsman; and
``(ii) to the Ombudsman regarding the
nature, scope, and resolution of requests to
the Federal agency from small business concerns
about proposed, final, or existing rules;
``(G) work with each Federal agency with regulatory
authority over small business concerns and with
programs of the Administration (including the Service
Corps of Retired Executives authorized under section
8(b)(1)(B), women's business centers operating under
section 29, and small business development centers) to
conduct a robust outreach initiative, including through
the use of the Internet, to increase the visibility of
the Ombudsman and promote awareness of the services
available from the Ombudsman; and
``(H) make information regarding the education,
training, and compliance assistance services of the
Ombudsman readily available on the website of the
Ombudsman.''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
``(3) Primary point of contact.--The head of each Federal
agency with regulatory authority over small business concerns
or that makes grants or enters into contracts or cooperative
agreements with small business concerns shall designate an
employee of the Federal agency as the primary point of contact
with the Ombudsman.''.
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
Section 30 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 657) is amended by
adding at the end the following:
``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section such sums as are necessary.''.
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