NEWSRELEASE
For Release: July 6, 2005
Contact: John McDowell, (202) 205-6941
john.mcdowell@sba.gov
SBA Number: 05-31 ADVO
Press Kit
Missouri Increases Protections For Small Business
Legislature Passes And Governor Blunt Signs H.B. 576
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Small businesses in Missouri have new protections against overly burdensome proposed regulations thanks to a bill signed into law today by Governor Matt Blunt. The new law strengthens Missouri's current regulatory flexibility laws by providing small businesses with judicial review of agency compliance with rulemaking procedures. It also requires agencies to periodically review existing regulations that affect small businesses to ensure that they are still necessary.
Missouris almost 450,000 small businesses can be proud of Governor Blunt and the bills main sponsors Representative Tim Flook and Senator Gary Nodler, said Wendell Bailey, Region VII Advocate for the Office of Advocacy. These champions of small business were aware that Missouris regulatory flexibility laws needed strengthening and they worked together to make sure it happened for the benefit of Missouris small businesses and their employees.
The passage and signing of H.B. 576 is a result of Missouri small business stakeholders, led by the Missouri National Federation of Independent Business, working together to promote small business. Missouris newly strengthened law is based on model legislation developed by the Office of Advocacy. Similar to the federal Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), the model encourages entrepreneurial success by requiring state agencies to consider the impact of their regulations on small business before those regulations become final.
Adding judicial review is an important step forward for our states small businesses, said Scott George, president and CEO of Mid America Dental & Hearing Center in Mt. Vernon, MO. Now the law has some teeth, and that will help small business and state agencies work together to produce good regulations that get the job done without causing serious harm. It means a better business and job creating climate for Missouri, he said.
The Office of Advocacy, the small business watchdog of the government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats and it funds research into small business issues.
For more information, visit www.sba.gov/advo/laws/law_modeleg.html.
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The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent voice for small business within the federal government. The presidentially appointed Chief Counsel for Advocacy advances the views, concerns, interests of small business before Congress, the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state policy makers. For more information, visit www.sba.gov/advo, or call (202) 205-6533.