One Stop Shop for Small Business Compliance Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. DELGADO. Mr. Speaker, we all know that the past couple of years have been difficult on small businesses. COVID-19 upended life as we knew it. While America is turning a corner from the perspective of public health, the pandemic's aftershocks are still raising costs, scrambling supply chains, and disrupting labor markets.

That is what I heard from folks in Cooperstown last month when I invited the SBA administrator to tour Main Street with me. That is what I heard a few days ago when I visited small businesses in Tannersville in Greene County. That is what I regularly hear from small businessowners at my townhall meetings across the district. That is why Congress should be doing everything it can to reduce burdens on small business owners. That is what my bipartisan bill, the One Stop Shop for Small Business Compliance Act, would do.

In 1996, Congress passed a law requiring Federal agencies to publish easy-to-use regulation compliance guides for small businesses; a good idea that was poorly implemented.

The problem is, these guides are housed on different agency websites, making it difficult for small businesses to find and utilize them. If you want to find something for OSHA, you have to go to the OSHA website. If you want to find FTC's compliance guide, you go look around at FTC.gov. These guides are scattered across countless government websites.

My bill is simple, it would require the Small Business Administrator's Office of the National Ombudsman to create a centralized website that houses all Federal agency compliance guides in one place.

By creating a one-stop-shop online, we make these guides more accessible for small business owners who often lack the resources to hire staff to focus on compliance issues. The platform would also list contact information for the appropriate agency staff who could provide regulatory assistance to small businesses.

Small businesses are essential elements of the economic and social fabric of upstate New York. I am proud to cosponsor this legislation which will make it easier, not harder, for folks back home to run their businesses and access resources from the Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne for her partnership on this bipartisan, commonsense legislation. I thank Chairwoman Velazquez and Ranking Member Luetkemeyer for their support, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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