The SBA Office of Advocacy recently released its report on the proceedings of a recent symposium on the Hill about the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Click here for the report, here for appendices. Of note:

• Re-writing history on E. coli? The general counsel of the American Meat Institute apparently presented a revisionist history -- grounded in "science," presumably -- that the public's response to the E. coli tainted beef epidemic was overblown, because there was a policy response made based on "bad data or lack of data." "[T]he regulatory response to the epidemic might have been different had the research been done prior to the determination that the pathogen was a problem," SBA reports.
• Even greater role for industry in influencing regs: "EPA now has an 'any any' policy, meaning that for any rule that imposes any impact on small businesses, EPA's programs must take them into account and solicit information and concerns about them." The "any any" policy is a departure from current law, which requires giving special access to special interests only when a proposed standard would have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

We'll probably see the E. coli theme repeated as the year wears on, especially if industry-backed radicals use the upcoming reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act as a vehicle for anti-regulatory attacks. The E. coli issue proved devastating to the anti-reg pieces of the Contract With America, and corporate special interests appear to want to turn that issue on its head and use it as a case for harmful regulatory process changes.