The House Small Business Committee passed a bill on Wednesday, July 13 that would ensure federal agencies better comply with an existing law that requires them to study the impact of regulations upon small businesses before issuing such rules.

The Committee approved the 2011 Regulatory Flexibility Improvement Act requiring a full assessment of the impacts that regulations have on small businesses in order to ensure that such regulations do not overly burden these businesses.  This measure would put significant pressure on the federal agencies to follow the existing law that calls for them to closely examine potential regulations to be sure they are not overly burdensome on small businesses.  Current law requires them to consider less burdensome alternatives if it is found that the proposed regulation is too onerous and this bill passed by the Committee would force agencies to comply.