The National Association of Home Builders urged Congress Friday to support the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2013 (H.R. 2542), a bipartisan bill that would require federal agencies to identify and reduce costs of regulations for small businesses when determining the economic benefits of a proposed rule, and it gives small businesses more opportunities to be heard as rules are written.
"As a small businessman operating in a highly regulated industry, I know how difficult and costly it can be to comply with scores of government regulations that apply to my day-to-day work," Carl Harris, a Kansas homebuilder, told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law. "In fact, in my industry, the sum total of regulations imposed by government at all levels account for 25 percent of the final price of a new single-family home. This is particularly important in an industry where margins are so thin and consumer sensitivity to price fluctuations is so acute."
Harris said the current Regulatory Flexibility Act, which requires federal agencies to consider the effect of regulations on small businesses, is often circumvented. A press release from the NAHB in March said the EPA failed to convene a review panel of small business advocates for the Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting rule during its move to amend it in 2008. Harris argued at the time that many of the deficiencies in EPA's RRP rule could have been addressed if the agency had complied with both the letter and the spirit of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
