Capitol Corner

Pentagon project testimony

On May 8, John and Kimberly Francis, owners and operators of NRCA member Northern Virginia Roofing Co. Inc., Falls Church, Va., participated in a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business for National Small Business Week: Small Business Success Stories.

The Francises were invited to testify because of their role as catalysts for NRCA's volunteer effort to repair and replace damaged portions of the Pentagon's roof system. After John read a written statement, which was submitted for the committee's record and included a list of every company involved in the NRCA Pentagon Project, the committee viewed an NRCA-produced video about the project that includes comments from Rep. Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.), the committee's ranking Democrat. (Professional Roofing's three-part series about the NRCA Pentagon Project can be found in the March, April and May issues.)

Each year for the past 39 years, every U.S. president has issued a proclamation calling for the celebration of National Small Business Week. This year, National Small Business Week, sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), was held May 5-11. SBA Administrator Hector Barreto was the House Committee on Small Business' special guest for the hearing and sat with committee members to listen to and praise testimony from the Francises and nine other U.S. small-business operators.

Regulatory reform measures

On May 23, the U.S. Senate passed the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act (HR 327), which would require federal agencies to create a single point of contact for small businesses and single format by which small businesses submit information to an agency. In addition, the legislation would create a new task force, consisting of at least 12 members representing all agencies that affect small businesses, to streamline the process by which agencies collect and disseminate information.

NRCA wrote to Congress to support the legislation, which passed the House on June 19 and was reconciled with the Senate bill. President Bush signed the measure on June 28.

The Small Business Advocacy Improvement Act (HR 4231) passed the House on May 21 and would strengthen SBA's Office of Advocacy. This office plays a crucial role as an advocate for small-business interests when federal agencies are writing rules and regulations.

For example, the Office of Advocacy produced an economic analysis of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) ergonomics standard showing that the standard would have had a much greater negative effect on small businesses than OSHA's official estimate.

The bill would create a budget line item for the office separate from that of SBA and two new deputy counsels within the office to perform regulatory and economic analysis. In addition, the bill would authorize a larger budget for the office to provide more resources to monitor excessive agency regulations.

House Small Business Committee Chairman Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) states: "The Office of Advocacy serves an important role as watchdog for small businesses in the regulatory process, but it needs more authority and independence to be most effective. This legislation gives the office the tools it needs to be more effective."

NRCA supports the legislation, which was included in the president's Small Business Agenda released March 19. The Senate passed a similar bill (S 395), and minor differences with the House version of the bill are expected to be resolved quickly so the bill can be sent to Bush and signed into law.

Ergonomics legislation

On April 18, Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) introduced S 2184 to force OSHA to issue a mandatory ergonomics standard that would apply to all industries, including construction. This is at odds with the Bush administration's recently announced voluntary ergonomics guidelines and strongly opposed by NRCA.

Sens. Jean Carnahan (D-Mo.) and Max Cleland (D-Ga.) are co-sponsors of the bill. The bill essentially would make OSHA reissue the ergonomics standard that was repealed by Congress early during Bush's term.

Craig S. Brightup is NRCA's vice president of government relations.