EPA Rulemaking Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act: The Need for Reform

As originally enacted, the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA)l modified the federal executive agency rule-making process by requiring agencies to examine, and seek to reduce, the impact of any rules the agencies promulgate on small businesses and other small entities.2 In passing the RFA, Congress found that federal regulations were applied uniformly to small and large businesses regardless of the size of the regulated entities.3 The uniform application of regulations, Congress found, retarded the development of small businesses.4 Small businesses are disadvantaged because their regulatory costs are proportionately larger than the costs of large businesses, which can spread compliance costs over a larger output.5 Another problem caused by the uniform application of regulations is that small businesses do not have the legal, economic, or technical personnel or the resources to achieve regulatory compliance economies of scale.6 Con-