Regulatory Flexibility Act

Regulatory Flexibility Act

Long title	An Act to amend title 5, United States Code, to improve federal rulemaking by creating procedures to analyze the availability of more flexible regulatory approaches for small entities, and for other purposes
Acronyms (colloquial)	RFA / "the Reg Flex Act"
Enacted by	the 96th United States Congress
Effective	September 19, 1980
Citations
Public law	96-354
Statutes at Large	94 Stat. 1164
Codification
Acts amended	Administrative Procedure Act
Titles amended	5 U.S.C.: Government Organization and Employees
U.S.C. sections created	5 U.S.C. ch. 6 § 601 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the U.S. Senate as S. 299 by John Culver (D–IA) on January 31, 1979 Committee consideration by Committees on the Judiciary of the U.S. House and Senate; Committees on Small Business of both Houses Passed the House Small Business Committee on 17 July 1979 (39-0) Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on 7 May 1980 (unanimous voice vote) Reported by the joint conference committee on 9 September 1980 (Senate bill passed in lieu of House bill); agreed to by the U.S. Senate on 6 August 1980 and 9 September 1980 (unanimous voice votes) and by the U.S. House of Representatives on 9 September 1980 (unanimous voice vote, suspension of the rules) Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on September 19, 1980
Major amendments
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA), P.L. 104-121, 1996

Administrative law of the United States
General
Rulemaking Notice of proposed rulemaking Adjudication Administrative law judge Code of Federal Regulations Federal Register
Statutory framework
Administrative Procedure Act Freedom of Information Act NEPA GSA NEA IGA RFA PRA UMRA CRA FVRA
Regulatory coordination
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrative Conference Executive orders Cost–benefit analysis (Executive Order 12866)
Judicial review of agency action
Arbitrary and capricious State Farm Chevron deference Auer deference Committed to agency discretion Due process Londoner Bi-Metallic Goldberg Mathews Exhaustion Major questions doctrine Nationwide injunction Ripeness Abbott Labs Standing Lujan
Separation of powers
Appointments Clause Freytag Noel Canning Congressional oversight Authorization Organic statute Appropriation Hearings Senate confirmation Independent agencies Humphrey's Executor Seila Law Unitary executive theory Legislative veto Chadha Nondelegation
Related areas of law (and agencies)
Antitrust and competition FTC CPSC CFPB Banking Treasury OCC FDIC FRB Communication FCC Energy DOE FERC Environment EPA FWS Food FDA CDC Health care HHS Immigration DHS EOIR Labor DOL NLRB Patent/trademark PTO Securities SEC CFTC Taxation IRS TC Trade DOC ITC Transportation DOT STB NTSB Social Security SSA
Related topics
Constitutional law Statutory interpretation
v t e

The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) is perhaps the most comprehensive effort^{[according to whom?]} by the U.S. federal government to balance the social goals of federal regulations with the needs and capabilities of small businesses and other small entities in American society.

In practice, the RFA has been an interesting^{[according to whom?]} and much-imitated attempt to "scale" the actions of the federal government to the size of the groups and organizations affected.

Passed in 1980, the RFA has been gradually strengthened in the intervening years, and has historically enjoyed strong bipartisan support.^{[citation needed]}

Since the federal government began calculating the economic impact of the RFA in 1998, the law is estimated to have saved small entities (and the U.S. economy as a whole) more than $200 billion^[1] without undermining the broad purposes of the regulations it affects. More than 40 U.S. states, as well as a number of other nations, have adopted similar approaches.