Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

25. Small Business Administration · Notable · Needs Congress

Expand RFA economic analysis to cover indirect costs

Not started

752 25. Small Business Administration

“RFA economic analysis should be expanded to include indirect costs along with direct costs.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    The RFA still measures only direct effects on small entities. H.R. 421 §3(b), and identically S. 5178 §3(b) (cited here because H.R. 421 was introduced four days before the evidence window opened), would add a definition of "economic impact" covering "any indirect economic effect (including compliance costs and effects on revenue) on small entities which is reasonably foreseeable and results from such rule (without regard to whether small entities will be directly regulated by the rule)" — exactly this ask. The bill was ordered reported 13–12 on 2025-06-10 and never voted; S. 5178 was introduced and referred on 2026-07-30. Under §3b that is `not-started`.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • H.R. 421, Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act — introduced 2025-01-15, referred to Judiciary, Small Business and Oversight, and ordered reported in the nature of a substitute by House Small Business 13–12 on 2025-06-10. It has never been voted on the floor. Under §3b, “ordered reported, marked up, or placed on a calendar” is still not started. Text read at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr421ih/html/BILLS-119hr421ih.htm

  • S. 5178, the Senate companion, was introduced 2026-07-30 and referred to Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. No action since.

  • H.R. 1163 / S. 495, the Prove It Act — H.R. 1163 was placed on the Union Calendar 2026-05-04 and S. 495 had a Senate Small Business hearing on 2025-11-19; neither passed a chamber, and the Act would let small entities challenge an agency’s RFA certification rather than change the analysis the RFA requires.

  • The two bills that did pass the House in this territory — H.R. 2965 (2025-12-03) and H.R. 4305 (2025-12-03) — cap the SBA’s own regulatory budget and put Advocacy’s Red Tape Hotline in statute. Neither touches the RFA provisions this Quote names. See #2043’s notes.

  • Executive substitute: none. No presidential document published since 2025-01-20 contains the phrase “Regulatory Flexibility Act” or “Office of Advocacy” — see the cluster negative search in the Chapter 25 log.

  • Read the operative text before leveling, per §1.1: the bill’s title matches the ask and so does its substance here, which is the less common case. #2064 (p. 758, outside this page range) asks for the same Act by name and should carry the same finding; flagged for ticket 26.

Action
expand
Object
RFA economic analysis requirements
ID
2041