The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. SBREFA has a number of components designed to address regulatory enforcement and compliance assistance:
1. It requires agencies to develop written guidelines in plain English to help small businesses understand how to comply.
2. It established a regulatory enforcement ombudsman and 10 Regional Fairness Boards to monitor agency enforcement activities.
3. It required agencies to develop guidelines for enforcement actions, including the waiver of fines.
The Small Business Administration. In addition to its SBREFA-related activities, SBA engages in a number of efforts to aid compliance with regulation. Small Businesses can contact SBA 24 hours a day through email with questions on regulatory compliance. Or they can call a toll-free number. Small businesses may also submit "agency appraisal forms" -- which are easily obtained through SBA's web site or by phone -- to the regulatory enforcement ombudsman, who can then take complaints to the relevant agencies.
The U.S. Business Advisor. The U.S. Business Advisor is a web site that provides useful information to businesses, including links to laws and regulations, as well as relevant agency web sites. Yet it provides no information on compliance assistance. Perhaps this site could catalogue the various compliance assistance programs underway across the federal government.
Agency Programs. Individual agencies have their own compliance assistance programs. For example, EPA has an "audit policy" that encourages companies to conduct their own environmental evaluations. The idea is to have companies find and fix problems on their own, rather than at the direction of a regulator. If they do, EPA waives or reduces the potential enforcement penalty as long as the company was not involved in criminal behavior. Over a recent four-year period, 675 companies have come forward to disclose potential violations at more than 2,700 facilities. Many have already had penalties waived or reduced.
Moreover, EPA has helped develop specialized compliance assistance centers in partnership with industry, environmental groups, universities, and other government agencies. These centers are Internet based and can be reached through the web. The centers provide quick, easy access to a variety of environmental information, including federal regulations, compliance tools, training opportunities, and pollution prevention case studies.
Small Business Development Centers. A small business development center is located in every congressional district. Currently, these centers provide information on starting, managing, and marketing a small business. They do not, however, provide information on regulatory compliance. Perhaps this should be explored.