Civil Enforcement

• The Statute
• SBREFA Regulations
• SBREFA Enforcement
• Other Federal Laws and Regulations Related to Regulatory Enforcement Fairness
• State Laws and Regulations Relating to Regulatory Enforcement Fairness

The Statute

The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), signed into law on March 29, 1996, is an amendment to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) of 1980 that is designed to strengthen the FRA's analytical and procedural requirements. It applies to the federal regulatory enforcement agencies and is aimed at providing assistance to small businesses and other small entities, making tools available for better understanding of the regulatory and enforcement processes, and seeing that there is no unfair treatment relating to the regulatory enforcement process.

SBREFA is comprised of 5 subtitles. These are: Subtitle A - Regulatory Compliance Simplification, Subtitle B - Regulatory Enforcement Reforms, Subtitle C - Equal Access to Justice Act, Subtitle D - Regulatory Flexibility Act Amendments, and Subtitle E - Congressional Review of Agency Rulemaking.

The Act adopts the Small Business Act's definition of "small entity"as defined in 5 U.S.C. Section 601, 15 U.S.C. Section 632 and Small Business Administration (SBA) regulations. This includes small businesses, small governmental jurisdictions (population of less than 50,000), and small organizations (e.g., not-for-profit organizations) that are not dominant in their field. The definition of a "small business" is determined by a business' SIC/NAICS code and annual receipts or number of employees.

Regulatory Flexibility Act as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (PDF) (12 pp, 29KB, About PDF)
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996 (PDF) (Title II of P.L. 104-121; See Page 11) (11 pp, 100KB About PDF)

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SBREFA Regulations

SBREFA is aimed at governmental regulatory enforcement agencies and is written in such a way as to be self-implementing. That is, regulations are not needed to tell how the statute is to be implemented. The agencies affected by SBREFA have developed various programs to carry out the provisions called for in the statute.

SBREFA Enforcement

THe U.S.Congress has oversight regarding how well the federal agencies affected by SBREFA are participanting. At EPA, the Small Business Ombudsman sets the goals for SBREFA participation and reports to Congress on how well the Agency is meeting the goals, such how well the Agency responds to comments it receives (timliness and throroughness of responses, etc.

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Other Federal Laws and Regulations Related to Regulatory Enforcement Fairness

Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002 -- This act, similar to the Paperwork Reduction Act that affects federal agencies, was enacted to decreases the reporting and recordkeeping demands placed on small businesses and other small etities.

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State Laws and Regulations Related to Regulatory Enforcement Fairness

The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) regulates only federal agencies. It is possible that some of the states may have statutes and regulations advocating regulatory enforcement fairness with regard to their own laws and regulations.

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