The Small Business Charade: The Chemical Industry's Stealth Campaign Against Public Health

Abstract

The Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of Advocacy is tiny and largely unaccountable, but it wields surprising power over the federal regulatory system. In its day-to-day work, the SBA Office of Advocacy has pursued a determined anti-regulatory agenda, focusing on forming alliances with big businesses, and especially trade associations that lobby on behalf of large corporate interests, and working to block any regulations that they might find inconvenient to their bottom line, even at the cost of properly safeguarding people and the environment. This work, of course, strays far from its statutory mission of advancing the interests of small businesses that may lack the resources or expertise to field expansive lobbying efforts in Washington.

This report details one example of the SBA Office of Advocacy's troubling work on behalf of a powerful trade association that undermines its mission to advance the interests of real small businesses. It looks at how the SBA Office of Advocacy has worked side-by-side with the American Chemistry Council to block, delay, and weaken the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) pending silica rule.

Keywords: Regulation, Workers, Health, Safety, Rulemaking, Silica, OSHA

JEL Classification: K23, K31, K32