Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. WILLIAMS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 916, I call up the bill (H.R. 2965) to require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to ensure that the small business regulatory budget for a small business concern in a fiscal year is not greater than zero, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2965, the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act of 2025, introduced by my friend, Beth Van Duyne, from the great State of Texas.

Throughout countless Democratic administrations, we have seen overregulation suffocate small businesses. The Biden-Harris administration alone imposed regulatory costs totaling $1.8 trillion on businesses in just 4 years.

The Committee on Small Business has heard testimony from hundreds of small business owners from across the country who repeatedly tell us that excessive regulation is stifling their operations and undermining their bottom line. To revitalize the American Dream, Big Government, one-size-fits-all mandates must stop.

The Trump administration fully recognizes this challenge and is taking aggressive acts to give small businesses the relief they deserve. In just the first 6 months of President Trump's second term, Republicans have worked to put an end to burdensome regulations through CRAs and carry out a deregulatory agenda.

We are responsible for $86 billion in reduced regulatory costs and over 50 million hours of reduced paperwork burdens. That is why I am proud to support this bill which would advance President Trump's executive order, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.

This straightforward bill would require the SBA to operate under a regulatory budget of zero, meaning that for each new regulation imposed, a costly or outdated regulation must be repealed.

This bill would also require the SBA to provide annual reports on the true cost to small businesses imposed by government regulations. This seemingly simple requirement would have a major impact by bringing transparency to Federal regulatory actions each year and the true burden of those actions.

The transparency measures in this bill are critical to expose the harmful actions taken by bureaucrats behind closed doors and to highlight the harm done to hardworking small and family-owned businesses across the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2965, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. WILLIAMS of Texas. Van Duyne).

Ms. VAN DUYNE. Mr. Speaker, every day, small business owners serve as their own accountants, legal counsel, and managers while still handling the day-to-day operations of their enterprises. That means they work extra hours or they hire extra assistance just to keep up with and bear the costly burden of complying with local, State, and federal regulations.

To say that we are not going to save money and we are not going to help small businesses save money by cutting resolutions is an absolute lie.

Working hard has always been the standard for small business owners, but when the Biden-Harris administration created $1.8 trillion in additional regulatory costs for businesses across the country in just 4 years, small business owners felt the brunt of that pain.

H.R. 2965, the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act of 2025, supports the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda by giving small businesses the relief they need to grow and succeed, no matter what industry they are in.

Put simply, this bill aims to ensure that any new rulemaking by the Small Business Administration is at no cost to small businesses--not $1.8 trillion, but no cost. The very agency that helps small businesses start, grow, and build cannot also be the one that increases their financial and regulatory burden.

In addition, H.R. 2965 requires the SBA Office of Advocacy to report to Congress on the total cost of all Federal regulations impacting small businesses. Unlike what we just heard from the other side of the aisle, to be clear, this bill does not prevent agencies from issuing new regulations, but rather, it requires them to eliminate those that are duplicative, outdated, or don't reflect the intent of the law.

The PPP was a program that was established by Congress. It was not a regulation established by the SBA. That is totally irrelevant.

In doing so, it creates a systemic culture of regulatory discipline where agencies will have to consistently review regulations with scrutiny.

Small businesses make up 99.9 percent of businesses in America, and they remain the key source of economic prosperity across all of our districts.

H.R. 2965 moves the needle toward empowering small businesses by reducing red tape. To say that that doesn't save money to small business, then obviously she has never been a small business owner.

If we want America to succeed, it starts on Main Street. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act of 2025.
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Mr. WILLIAMS of Texas.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2965 will make sure that the cost of new SBA rulemakings is at zero to ensure that only necessary regulations are in place. We must support Main Street, starting with our work here in D.C.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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