The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Legal Foundation has filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block a new lead-reporting regulation issued in President Clinton’s final days in office.
The regulation requires thousands of businesses to report their use of lead. EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman said at the time of the lawsuit being filed that President Bush was supporting the regulation.
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National Federation of Independent Business v. Whitman cites EPA’s failure to comply with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, which requires that regulating agencies take into account the concerns of small businesses when issuing new mandates. The NFIB contends that the EPA did not take the concerns of small business into account when issuing the regulation.
“The new lead regulation has an obvious impact on small business,” said Tom Sullivan, executive director of the NFIB Legal Foundation. “In fact, the EPA admitted as much by announcing that they will provide ‘technical assistance’ to small businesses to help them comply with the regulation. That’s not enough, according to the law.”
Sullivan added that five years ago, federal laws were enacted that were supposed to usher in a new era of government accountability.
“The law guarantees small business a seat at the table,” he said. “When small business is shut out of the process, we have no choice but to go to court It is especially ironic that a regulation that didn’t go through the proper paperwork will impose new paperwork on small business.”
The NFIB’s complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The NFIB Legal Foundation is represented by the Atlantic Legal Foundation, a non-profit public interest foundation that advocates the principles of free enterprise.
