Effects of Rules on Small Entities
While safety considerations do not always permit us to provide relief to smaller
entities, we are aware of small entity concerns and try, where possible, to
accommodate them. In some cases, we have no discretion under our governing
statutes to exempt small entities from our requirements.
We have taken many steps to
improve our consideration of rulemaking impacts on small entities. We take
appropriate follow-up action to ensure that rules are effectively implemented to
keep burdens manageable and also consider such things as the size of the
regulated entity when trying to enforce compliance. Through regulatory
reviews, we also continually monitor the effectiveness of our rules after they
are issued and, where necessary, make changes.
We lessen the impact of proposed or existing rules
on affected entities, including small entities, where appropriate, by employing
practices such as those listed below:
Information about particular proposed and final
rules is
contained in the specific docket about them for that rulemaking in the
Federal Docket Management
System. We also disseminate information about them through press releases,
conferences, videotapes, DVDs, simple brochures, computer disks, and CD-ROMs, speeches,
radio broadcasts, Internet websites, and guidance materials to help small
entities learn about and understand our programs and proposed and final
regulations. To ensure wide dissemination, when appropriate, we
specifically distribute information to interest groups representing small
entities. We use electronic bulletin boards to provide electronic
"Question and Answer" capability and information on implementation issues; we
also provide increasing electronic access to documents. The
DOT agencies' regulatory websites often
provide information about hotlines and other telephone numbers that they may use
to
provide information and compliance
assistance for regulated entities and others.
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