page 6
daily nebraskan
Wednesday, October 8, 1980
New bill should reduce
mountain of paperwork
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By Jim Garrett
Congress passed and the President sign
ed into law on Sept. 15, Senate Bill 299
a bill that should reduce the mountain of
federal paperwork required of small busi
nesses. The passing of the Small Business Regu
latory Flexibility Act will turn the tide on
the increasing wave of regulations generat
ed by various government agencies in the
executive branch, Jack Bamhart of Barn
hart Press said.
Bamhart, a January 1980 delegate to
the White House Conference on Small Bus
inesses, said the federal government has
Anally taken a step in the right direction.
He said this will not eliminate the massive
burden of paperwork required of small bus
inesses, but at least would slow it from get
ting any bigger.
Bamhart said Nebraska businesses are
95 percent small businesses.
He said the large multi-national and
national corporations have large legal staffs
that watch out for rules, regulations and
policies that go into effect when a bill be
comes law.
The small business man, however, has a
hard time meeting payrolls and getting
products out, and doesn't have time to
watch out for all the federal agencies' new
regulations, Bamhart said.
Bamhart said the usual process for new
regulatory policy creation and implementa
tion occurs in the agencies where the new
law is enforced.
500 pages
Bamhart said a half-page bill signed into
law, sometimes will end with 500 pages of
enforcement policy before it's finished. He
said the agencies that write the guidelines
must publish them in the Federal Register
for 30 uncontested days before they can go
into effect. Then, he said, they are just as
valid a law as the original bill that may
have taken years to get through Congress.
Bamhart said in the case of the Flexibil
ity Act, new guidelines for small businesses
will not be formed but rather policies set
up for the agencies that create policy.
Bamhart said 99 percent of all federal
tax dollars are spent in the 92 executive
agencies under the president. But of these
92, the president has direct control on only
17.
He said the other 72 so-called "congres
sional sacred cows," operate without any
real check, except continued appropria
tions by congress.
Bamhart said people in these agencies
create and administer guidelines for laws
that will cover business and operations
that they have never seen or are even famil
iar with. He said when there is no check on
the directors and their agencies, bureau
cracy runs rampant.
Bizarre guidelines
Bamhart said some of the imposed
guidelines can become rather bizarre. He
cited an example in which one agency im
plimented a guideline requiring all U.S.
farmers to have an outhouse within reason
able distance at all times. He said it may
seem justifiable back in Washington, but
when put into effect it becomes ridiculous.
Barnhart said when 58 percent of the
small business in America account for 48
percent of the gross national product, and
a burden of paperwork from federal agen
cies begins to bite into a small business'
success margin, someone has to pay for the
increased cost. Often the cost of the paper
work is transferred directly to the consum
er, he said.
He said the new act will slow down the
cost to the consumer some but not eradi
cate it.
Barnhart said some regulations come in
to being because "one guy down the road
laid a rotten egg and the fed's are going to
make sure this doesn't happen again." Be
cause of one incident, an agency will pro
duce a mountain of regulation that literally
amounts to killing not only the good eggs,
but the "golden goose" as well, he said.
Barnhart stated that the elections are an
incentive to this type of legislation. He said
there has been a drive behind agency re
form for some time to satisfy the need of
small businesses across the United States,
but the election is a good catalyst.
Bamhart said there are some who think
that more law and regulation can solve any
thing. This has got to be turned around, he
said.
Burden hours
Bamhart said one type of legislation,
dealt with an area called "burden hours."
He said the passage of the act establishes
through the Office of Management and
Budget specific "burden hour" ceilings by
which each executive agency must abide
by. He said the burden hours are defined as
the amount of time required to fill out
federal forms by small businesses. So far all
agencies except the Environmental Protec
tion Agency have responded favorably to
the Act.
Dave Wolvin, director of industrial
development for Lincoln's Chamber of
Commerce, said the passage of the act is a
benefit not only to the small businessman
but to the consumer as well.
Nebraska Representative Doug Bereuter
who attended the signing ceremony at the
White House, was pleased, according to
Bereuter's press secretary, Rebecca Mott.
Mott said Bereuter played a key role in
formulating the act. She said this act is the
most comprehensive piece of reform legi
slation since 1946.
Mott said similar additional legislation
has been started that would require all fed
eral agencies to cost analyze the benefits of
each new proposed rule. She said the
agency would have to publish the results of
the analysis at the time the regulation goes
into effect.
Mott said special consideration must be
given in the analysis to the impact of the
proposed rule upon small businesses. Also
that each agency would also be required to
formulate and publish a semi-annual
agenda of important new regulations under
their regulation.
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