| On the Prove It Act: ERNST: “Now, we sat down in my office and talked about a number of issues and one of the issues that I brought up as we sat down was a project that I’ve been working on over the last year, and it’s legislation that gives small businesses a stronger voice in the regulatory process, and it’s called the Prove It Act. “The legislation did pass out of this committee last year and we worked really hard with the folks at SBA in the Obama administration to get their input and feedback because the goal is to make sure that the bill is bipartisan and that it is a success. “So, we did talk about it and the purpose of the Prove It Act is to strengthen the voice of small business owners and provide incentives to agencies to improve the quality of their certifications and analysis when they’re actually writing a rule, and simply put, the Prove It Act says if there is a battle of analysis between different agencies on the economic impacts of a rule than there should be a third party that will step in, review the facts and then issue an objective assessment. “And as you know, the Small Business Office of Advocacy testified in front of this committee last year because they were in disagreement about the analysis that EPA and the Corps—the Corps of Engineers—had completed on the WOTUS rule and believed that the rule would have significant economic impact on small businesses. “And as well, with this Prove It Act, there were a number of organizations that supported it: the NFIB, the Chamber, and the Women Impacting Public Policy. All of those organizations supported it. “And can I get a commitment from you to work with me on this legislation and help implement it, especially given the desire by our President to make sure that we are reducing regulatory reform, especially on small businesses?” MCMAHON: “Senator Ernst, thank you very much, and I did enjoy our meeting, and when you talked to me about this legislation, I thought ‘Wow, isn’t that just a really common sense thing?’ And I think we just need more common sense in government. If you’ve got two sides that can’t agree, you have a referee, you have the third party that comes in. And I liked also what you were telling me about the bill, which is that it actually would make the agencies work together before it had to become like a public event and help with drafting the legislation, so I think that it’s a very good piece of legislation that I would like to learn more about, and look forward to working with you to make sure we can support our small businesses.” # # # |
