HR 4305 — DUMP Red Tape Act

changes in existing law made by 
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (new matter is 
printed in italics and existing law in which no change is 
proposed is shown in roman):

 PUBLIC LAW 94-305

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TITLE II--STUDY OF SMALL BUSINESS

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 duties

 Sec. 203.
 (a) In General.--The Office of Advocacy shall also perform 
the following duties on a continuing basis:
 (1) serve as a focal point for the receipt of 
 complaints, criticisms, and suggestions concerning the 
 policies and activities of the Administration and any 
 other Federal agency which affects small businesses;
 (2) counsel small businesses on how to resolve 
 questions and problems concerning the relationship of 
 the small business to the Federal Government;
 (3) develop proposals for changes in the policies and 
 activities of any agency of the Federal Government 
 which will better fulfill the purposes of the Small 
 Business Act and communicate such proposals to the 
 appropriate Federal agencies;
 (4) represent the views and interests of small 
 businesses before other Federal agencies whose policies 
 and activities may affect small business;
 (5) enlist the cooperation and assistance of public 
 and private agencies, businesses, and other 
 organizations in disseminating information about the 
 programs and services provided by the Federal 
 Government which are of benefit to small businesses, 
 and information on how small businesses can participate 
 in or make use of such programs and services; and
 (6) carry out the responsibilities of the Office of 
 Advocacy under chapter 6 of title 5, United States 
 Code.
 (b) Outreach and Input From Small Businesses on Trade 
Promotion Authority.--
 (1) Definitions.--In this subsection--
 (A) the term ``agency'' has the meaning given 
 the term in section 551 of title 5, United 
 States Code;
 (B) the term ``Chief Counsel for Advocacy'' 
 means the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the 
 Small Business Administration;
 (C) the term ``covered trade agreement'' 
 means a trade agreement being negotiated 
 pursuant to section 103(b) of the Bipartisan 
 Congressional Trade Priorities and 
 Accountability Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-26; 
 19 U.S.C. 4202(b)); and
 (D) the term ``Working Group'' means the 
 Interagency Working Group convened under 
 paragraph (2)(A).
 (2) Working group.--
 (A) In general.--Not later than 30 days after 
 the date on which the President submits the 
 notification required under section 105(a) of 
 the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities 
 and Accountability Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-
 26; 19 U.S.C. 4204(a)), the Chief Counsel for 
 Advocacy shall convene an Interagency Working 
 Group, which shall consist of an employee from 
 each of the following agencies, as selected by 
 the head of the agency or an official delegated 
 by the head of the agency:
 (i) The Office of the United States 
 Trade Representative.
 (ii) The Department of Commerce.
 (iii) The Department of Agriculture.
 (iv) Any other agency that the Chief 
 Counsel for Advocacy, in consultation 
 with the United States Trade 
 Representative, determines to be 
 relevant with respect to the subject of 
 the covered trade agreement.
 (B) Views of small businesses.--Not later 
 than 30 days after the date on which the Chief 
 Counsel for Advocacy convenes the Working Group 
 under subparagraph (A), the Chief Counsel for 
 Advocacy shall identify a diverse group of 
 small businesses, representatives of small 
 businesses, or a combination thereof, to 
 provide to the Working Group the views of small 
 businesses in the manufacturing, services, and 
 agriculture industries on the potential 
 economic effects of the covered trade 
 agreement.
 (3) Report.--
 (A) In general.--Not later than 180 days 
 after the date on which the Chief Counsel for 
 Advocacy convenes the Working Group under 
 paragraph (2)(A), the Chief Counsel for 
 Advocacy shall submit to the Committee on Small 
 Business and Entrepreneurship and the Committee 
 on Finance of the Senate and the Committee on 
 Small Business and the Committee on Ways and 
 Means of the House of Representatives a report 
 on the economic impacts of the covered trade 
 agreement on small businesses, which shall--
 (i) identify the most important 
 priorities, opportunities, and 
 challenges to various industries from 
 the covered trade agreement;
 (ii) assess the impact for new small 
 businesses to start exporting, or 
 increase their exports, to markets in 
 countries that are parties to the 
 covered trade agreement;
 (iii) analyze the competitive 
 position of industries likely to be 
 significantly affected by the covered 
 trade agreement;
 (iv) identify--
 (I) any State-owned 
 enterprises in each country 
 participating in negotiations 
 for the covered trade agreement 
 that could pose a threat to 
 small businesses; and
 (II) any steps to take to 
 create a level playing field 
 for those small businesses;
 (v) identify any rule of an agency 
 that should be modified to become 
 compliant with the covered trade 
 agreement; and
 (vi) include an overview of the 
 methodology used to develop the report, 
 including the number of small business 
 participants by industry, how those 
 small businesses were selected, and any 
 other factors that the Chief Counsel 
 for Advocacy may determine appropriate.
 (B) Delayed submission.--To ensure that 
 negotiations for the covered trade agreement 
 are not disrupted, the President may require 
 that the Chief Counsel for Advocacy delay 
 submission of the report under subparagraph (A) 
 until after the negotiations for the covered 
 trade agreement are concluded, provided that 
 the delay allows the Chief Counsel for Advocacy 
 to submit the report to Congress not later than 
 45 days before the Senate or the House of 
 Representatives acts to approve or disapprove 
 the covered trade agreement.
 (C) Avoidance of duplication.--The Chief 
 Counsel for Advocacy shall, to the extent 
 practicable, coordinate the submission of the 
 report under this paragraph with the United 
 States International Trade Commission, the 
 United States Trade Representative, other 
 agencies, and trade advisory committees to 
 avoid unnecessary duplication of reporting 
 requirements.
 (c) Red Tape Hotline.--
 (1) Establishment.--Not later than 180 days after the 
 date of the enactment of this Act, the Chief Counsel 
 for Advocacy shall--
 (A) establish, operate, and maintain a 
 hotline, to be known as the ``Red Tape 
 Hotline'' to receive a notification from a 
 small entity relating to the burden of 
 complying with a rule, guidance, policy 
 statement, or other activity of an agency that 
 is applicable to such concern;
 (B) establish an email address, submission 
 form, phone number, or such other method as 
 determined appropriate by the Chief Counsel for 
 small entities to submit such notifications to 
 such hotline; and
 (C) establish a website providing such email 
 address, submission form, phone number, or 
 other method in a manner that is easily 
 accessible.
 (2) Report.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
 the enactment of this subsection, and annually 
 thereafter, the Chief Counsel for Advocacy shall submit 
 to the Administrator of the Small Business 
 Administration and Congress a report on the Red Tape 
 Hotline that includes--
 (A) the rules, guidance, policy statements, 
 and other activities for which notifications 
 are most frequently received, including the 
 affected industry sectors for such rules, 
 guidance, policy statements, or other 
 activities (as applicable);
 (B) a summary of the notifications received, 
 including the type of small entity or other 
 organization that submitted the notification 
 and the geographic area and industry category 
 from which the notification was sent;
 (C) an identification of the agency that 
 issued each such rule, guidance, policy 
 statement, or engaged in such other activity, 
 including an identification of which such rule, 
 guidance, or policy statement such agency 
 issued or an explanation of which such other 
 activity the agency engaged in, as applicable;
 (D) recommendations for each agency that 
 issued such a rule, guidance, policy statement, 
 or engaged in such other activity, for reducing 
 the burden of such rule, guidance, policy 
 statement, or other activity on small entities; 
 and
 (E) a summary of actions taken by the Chief 
 Counsel to address such rules, guidance, policy 
 statements, and other activities, including any 
 such rules, guidance, policy statements, or 
 other activities (as applicable) for which the 
 Chief Counsel submitted comments or analysis.
 (3) Definitions.--In this subsection--
 (A) the term ``agency'' has the meaning given 
 such term in section 551 of title 5, United 
 States Code; and
 (B) the terms ``rule'' and ``small entity'' 
 have the meanings given such terms, 
 respectively, in section 601 of such title.

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 XVIII. MINORITY VIEWS

 On March 10, 2025, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 
Administrator Loeffler announced an initiative, which would 
``cut $100 billion in regulations through the Office of 
Advocacy (Advocacy), launch a ``Red Tape Hotline'' for small 
businesses to share feedback and submit burdensome regulations 
for review, among other things.\1\ According to the SBA, the 
``Red Tape Hotline'' would give small businesses another 
mechanism to report regulations that are costly, confusing, 
duplicative or outdated. Between January 20, 2025, and April 
29, 2025, the ``Red Tape Hotline'' received 96 small business 
requests and Advocacy is communicating those issues to federal 
agencies.\2\ Despite repeated requests for more specific 
information on the submissions, Advocacy has not shared the 
topic or content with the Committee.
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 \1\Press Release, U.S. Small Bus. Admin., SBA Announces Made in 
America Initiative (Mar. 10, 2025), https://www.sba.gov/article/2025/
03/10/sba-announces-made-america-manufacturing-initiative.
 \2\Off. of Advoc., First 100 Days, U.S. Small Bus. Admin. (Apr. 
2025), https://
advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/First-100-Days_FINAL.pdf.
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 The Trump Administration has made rolling back regulations 
a priority, and many of the proposals trace back to Project 
2025.\3\ These Project 2025 proposals would bring the 
regulatory process to a standstill, harming the health, safety, 
and welfare of Americans and small businesses alike. Blanket 
deregulation creates confusion and uncertainty for small 
business stakeholders, imposes steep costs and ultimately 
hinders economic growth across multiple industries. I 
acknowledge poorly crafted regulations can be onerous and 
burdensome for small businesses; however, it is important to 
find ways to balance the shared goal of minimizing the burdens 
and achieving the intended effects of regulations.
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 \3\Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, The Heritage 
Found. (2024).
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 The main points of concern with the ``DUMP Red Tape Act'' 
are:
 The Title of the Legislation. The ``DUMP Red 
 Tape Act'' infers that regulations are inherently 
 harmful to small businesses. The Coalition for Sensible 
 Safeguards writes, the ``one-sided nature of this bill 
 creates the impression that it is more focused on 
 advancing an ideological attack on regulations than 
 actually helping small businesses.''\4\
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 \4\Letter from Rachel Weintraub, Exec. Dir., Coal. for Sensible 
Safeguards, to Roger Williams, Chair, H. Comm. on Small Bus., & Nydia 
M. Velazquez, Ranking Member, H. Comm. on Small Bus. (Nov. 18, 2025) 
(on file with the H. Comm. on Small Bus.).
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 Lack of Transparency. The information 
 required in the report to Congress would not include 
 the type of organization submitting the notification to 
 the hotline. To that end, there would be no assurances 
 that the individual or small business submitting the 
 complaint is actually a small business or a business 
 that has had the assistance of a trade association or 
 law firm who represents larger clients, with the intent 
 of torpedoing the regulation. In 2014, the U.S. 
 Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a 
 scathing report that found Advocacy lacked policies for 
 documentation and maintaining records. In response to 
 the report, Advocacy wrote that the Office will 
 continue to develop how they disseminate information 
 about regulatory activities in ways that are both 
 responsive to the GAO's recommendations and the 
 furtherance of Advocacy's mission.\5\ During oversight 
 meetings with Committee staff and the Office, Advocacy 
 stated the Office has a process in place, whereby the 
 business self identifies as a small business, after 
 which the counsels conduct research into applicable 
 industry NAICS code and corresponding size standard 
 revenue to verify the claim.\6\
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 \5\U.S. Gov't Accountability Off., GAO-14-525, Small Business 
Administration: Office of Advocacy Needs to Improve Controls over 
Research, Regulatory, and Workforce Planning Activities (Jul. 2014), 
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-14-525.pdf.
 \6\Meeting with Hon. Casey B. Mulligan, Chief Couns., Off. of 
Advoc., Stephanie Fekete, Dir. of Interagency Affs., Off. of Advoc., 
and Committee staff at H. Comm. on Small Bus., in D.C. (Sept. 11, 
2025).
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 Focuses Only on ``Burdensome'' Regulations. 
 According to the site, the ``Red Tape Hotline'' gives 
 ``small businesses owners a direct way to report 
 federal regulations that hurt their ability to grow, 
 compete, or innovate.'' The message is very one-sided, 
 asking small business owners to describe regulations 
 that are confusing, costly or outdated; result in 
 permitting or licensing delays; are duplicative of 
 conflicting rules; or result in excessive paperwork or 
 unclear guidance. It does not encourage small 
 businesses to report on regulations that are beneficial 
 to their small entity, in terms of leveling the playing 
 field, promoting innovation, or providing clear rules 
 of the road. In the letter from the Coalition on 
 Sensible Safeguards, Ms. Rachel Weintraub further 
 states:\7\
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 \7\Weintraub, supra note 4.

 Small businesses do not always oppose regulations or 
 desire to see them weakened. In fact, small businesses 
 often support regulations because they provide a level 
 playing field on which to compete with larger 
 corporations that would otherwise dominate the market. 
 Small businesses also tend to support agency guidance 
 and policy documents that provide plain-language 
 explanations on what is expected to reduce hazards and 
 avoid citations and penalties. In addition, small 
 businesses already receive unique opportunities to 
 provide input on rules and other actions that the 
 public does not receive. Yet this bill seeks only 
 information from some small businesses about so-called 
 burdens, rather than seeking to understand how 
 regulations affect small businesses--both the good and 
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 bad.

 Lack of Information. Despite two specific 
 requests at the Committee staff level for information 
 pertaining to the types of requests that small 
 businesses are sharing on the hotline, Advocacy has 
 failed to provide the information. The submissions 
 could be related to tariffs and unpaid contracting 
 invoices, instead of rules. But the Committee lacked 
 the information, and the measure was rushed to mark-up 
 without adequate information to ensure changes are made 
 that could improve the hotline.
 Message is Misleading. And the messaging 
 from the Administration suggesting that Advocacy is 
 ``empowered by law to work across federal agencies to 
 identify and eliminate rules, policies, and procedures 
 that disproportionately burden small businesses and 
 manufacturers'' is misleading. Advocacy's role is to be 
 the voice of small businesses throughout the regulatory 
 process, not to be an anti-regulatory czar.
 Lack of Independence From the SBA. Advocacy 
 is an independent office within the SBA that is 
 responsible for advancing the views and concerns of 
 small businesses before Congress, the White House, 
 federal agencies, the federal courts, and state and 
 local policymakers as appropriate.\8\ The independence 
 stemmed from concerns that SBA's Administrator reports 
 to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and at the 
 time was more attuned to the interests of large 
 businesses. Congress responded by passing P.L. 94-305 
 to enhance the Chief Counsel's authority by requiring 
 Advocacy to be established as a separate, standalone 
 office within the SBA and requiring the Chief Counsel 
 to be appointed from civilian life by and with the 
 advice and consent of the Senate. The Small Business 
 Jobs Act of 2010 required a separate appropriations 
 account for Advocacy, further enhancing its 
 independence by requiring a separate budget and also 
 office space, and equipment.\9\ Despite the intent for 
 independence, I believe Administrator Loeffler has 
 blurred the lines between the role of the SBA and the 
 Office of Advocacy, by stating it will work with the 
 Office of Advocacy to identify areas for deregulation 
 to reduce unneeded burden on small businesses. 
 Moreover, it is the Committee's understanding that the 
 SBA created and is now managing the hotline on 
 Advocacy's website.
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 \8\Off. of Advoc., Background Paper: Office of Advocacy 2017-2020, 
U.S. Small Bus. Admin. (Jan. 2021), https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-
content/uploads/2021/02/Background-Paper-Office-of-
Advocacy-2017-2020-web.pdf.
 \9\Cong. Rsch. Serv., R43625, SBA Office of Advocacy: Overview, 
History, and Current Issues (Mar. 30, 2022), https://www.congress.gov/
crs-product/R43625.
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 Hotline is Redundant. Advocacy has main 
 webpage with the names and contact information of the 
 counsels for specific rules. The Office also has 
 regional advocates in 10 regions who identify issues 
 and concerns of small businesses. Moreover, there is 
 already an anti-regulation hotline on regulations.gov. 
 The hotline is duplicative and redundant, especially as 
 the government looks to be more efficient with taxpayer 
 funds.
 Small businesses need certainty, and the Trump 
Administration's actions are causing a tremendous amount of 
chaos, confusion, and unpredictability for small businesses. 
Democratic Members have sent letters to Administrator Loeffler 
regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) 
infiltrating SBA headquarters, staff terminations, federal 
funding freeze, the relocation of six regional offices, and 
tariffs. No substantive responses have been received for any 
letter. Similarly, Medicaid and health care cuts and tariffs 
are actively harming America's main streets by reducing the 
workforce and increasing operating costs.

 Nydia M. Velazquez,
 Ranking Member.