Advocacy Seeks Regulations for Reform

July 23, 2008

Following the success of the Regulatory Review and Reform (r3) initiative,, the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration has announced that it is once again seeking nominations of federal regulations in need of review and reform, and “constructive suggestions about how to improve” the nominated rules. The r3 program is intended to help small businesses address the cumulative federal regulatory burden, which is now estimated to exceed $1.1 trillion.

The r3 initiative of the Office of Advocacy is designed to identify and address existing federal regulations that should be revised because they are ineffective, duplicative, or out of date. The goals of the program are to: 1) offer agencies guidance and training on how to implement section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA)—which mandates that agencies periodically examine their existing regulations to measure their impacts on small business—2) solicit suggestions from the small-business community on regulations in need of review and reform, and 3) provide updates on the status and results of agencies’ review and reform efforts.

The Office of Advocacy will relay the top ten nominated regulations to the appropriate federal agencies for review and reform. To nominate a regulation, visit the Office of Advocacy r3 website at www.sba.gov/advo/r3/. Nominations also can be sent via email to advocacy@sba.gov or by calling Keith Holman at: (202) 205-6936.

All nominations for review are due by December 31, 2008.