Small Business Administration Seeks Comments on Reducing Unnecessary Regulatory Burden

The U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) released a request for information (“RFI”) seeking input from the public as to which SBA regulations should be repealed, replaced, or modified because they are obsolete, unnecessary, ineffective, or burdensome. The RFI is prompted by various Executive Orders seeking to reduce the number and costs of federal regulations, including Executive Order 13771, signed by President Trump on January 30, 2017, requiring agencies to identify two existing regulations that the agency may cancel for every new regulation it proposes to implement, and Executive Order 13777, in which President Trump ordered agencies to evaluate existing regulations to determine ones to be repealed, replaced, or modified.

To guide public input, the RFI includes the following list of questions for commenters: (1) Are there SBA regulations that have become unnecessary or ineffective and, if so, what are they? (2) Are there SBA regulations that can be repealed without impairing SBA’s regulatory programs and, if so, what are they? (3) Are there SBA regulations that have become outdated and, if so, how can they be modernized to better accomplish their regulatory objectives? (4) Are there SBA regulations that are still necessary, but which have not operated as well as expected such that a modified approach is justified, and what is that approach? (5) Are there SBA regulations or regulatory processes that are unnecessarily complicated or could be streamlined to achieve regulatory objectives more efficiently? (6) Are there any technological developments that can be leveraged to modify, streamline, or repeal any existing SBA regulatory requirements?

Comments are due to SBA by October 16, 2017. You may submit comments, identified by Docket Number SBA– 2017–0005, at Federal eRulemaking Portal: www.regulations.gov. Identify comments by ‘‘Docket Number SBA– 2017–0005, Reducing Regulatory Burden RFI,’’ and follow the instructions for submitting comments.