Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., applauded President Bush for recently giving small businesses a "shot in the arm"when he signed an executive order that requires federal agencies, when writing new rules and regulations, to implement policies protecting small businesses.
The order requires all federal agencies, including independent agencies, to submit within 90 days to the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) their plans on how they account for small business in their rule-making process.
Agencies have 180 days to execute these plans and must consider Office of Advocacy's comments on their effectiveness before their implementation.
"More and stronger small businesses in Wyoming and across the nation mean more jobs and a better economy. One of the most practical ways to help small businesses start and remain viable is to eliminate artificial barriers put up by the bureaucratic machine," said Enzi. "This has been one of my missions as a U.S. Senator and I'm pleased to see help from the executive branch. New small businesses and the expansion of existing ones in Wyoming will play a pivotal part in keeping more of our young people in the state."
Enzi said Bush's action will lead to job creation for small business and give small business owners a voice in the complex and confusing federal regulatory process.
According to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, small businesses create close to 75 percent of the net new jobs, yet regulatory compliance costs them 60 percent more per employee than their big business counterparts. Adding more regulations to already overburdened small businesses makes this worse. Enzi said that more than 90 percent of the businesses in Wyoming are small businesses.
The entire Executive Order, "Proper Consideration of Small Entities in Agency Rulemaking," is located at (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020814-2.html).
For more information, visit the Small Business Administration website at (http://www.sba.gov).
