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Office of the National Ombudsman and Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Enforcement Fairness

Mission Statement

The National Ombudsman's mission is to assist small businesses when they experience excessive or unfair federal regulatory enforcement actions, such as repetitive audits or investigations, excessive fines, penalties, threats, retaliation or other unfair enforcement action by a federal agency.

Office of the National Ombudsman and Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Enforcement Fairness

The National Ombudsman receives comments from small business concerns and acts as a liaison between them and federal agencies. Comments received from small businesses, are forwarded to federal agencies for a high level review and federal agencies are requested to consider the fairness of their enforcement action.

A copy of the agency's response is sent to the small business owner by the Office of the National Ombudsman. In some cases, fines have been lowered or eliminated and decisions changed in favor of the small business owner.

The National Ombudsman cannot change, stop, or delay a federal agency enforcement action, nor assist with comments of a non-federal regulatory nature. Neither can the office help secure government contracts nor assist with government loan processing or approval.

Leadership

PIcture of Esther Vassar, Assistant Administrator, Ombusdman
Esther H. Vassar
Assistant Administrator

Esther H. Vassar was appointed National Ombudsman and Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Enforcement Fairness for the U. S. Small Business Administration in August 2009. In her former roles...

Connect With Us

Office of Ombudsman
409 3rd Street, S.W. Suite 7125
Washington, DC 20416
United States
Fax: 202 481 5719
See map: Google Maps
TTY/TTD: 800-877-8339
Toll Free: 888-734-3247