Exclusive: Bipartisan bill would boost SEC small business info collection

• Key insight: Currently, the Office of Management and Budget has to approve Securities and Exchange Commission surveys of small businesses. 
• What's at stake: The bill would make it so some of the SEC's Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation data collection efforts are subject to fewer approvals. 
• Forward look: The bill has already been passed in the House, leaving only the Senate and the White House, although legislative time is short. 

WASHINGTON — Sens. Katie Britt, R-Ala., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., are introducing a bill that would make it easier for the Securities and Exchange Commission to survey small businesses. 

Currently, the Office of Management and Budget, a powerful office led by top Trump official Russell Vought, has to officially approve the SEC's Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation to requests to conduct any type of information collection from small businesses. 

The bill would specify that certain actions taken by the small business office, such as conducting field surveys, are not categorized as a collection of information, which exempts them from certain requirements of the Paper Reduction Act. 

"Needless red tape is holding our small businesses back. Small businesses create opportunity, jobs, and economic growth in every corner of our nation — they deserve a federal government that works with them and considers their perspectives during actions and rulemakings," Britt said in a statement. "This commonsense legislation would slash red tape, ensure the SEC can better advocate for entrepreneurs, and remove roadblocks to American economic prosperity.

The lawmakers said that the approval process from OMB can often take more than a year, which hurts the office's ability to survey small businesses and inform SEC rulemakings. 

The legislation is a companion bill to one already passed in the House, introduced by Reps. Young Kim, R-Calif., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. 

The bill only has to pass the Senate and be signed by the president to become law. That said, a tight legislative calendar makes that a tall order as the holidays approach, and Congress enters the midterm election cycle. 

The larger trend is that lawmakers of both political parties continue to prioritize small business capital formation, a theme that has enjoyed broad political purchase in Washington. 

It is also an interesting example of when some Republican lawmakers are willing to back government-run development initiatives, like when it backs funding to small businesses. That runs counter to other elements of the second Trump administration — as exemplified by the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts earlier this year — that have been hostile to federal economic development programs in general.  

"Congress created the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation to support the entrepreneurs that are the backbone of our communities. Now, it's time for us to support the good work the Office does," Cortez Masto said in a statement. "By streamlining the information gathering process, this bipartisan legislation will allow Congress to hear from our small business owners more quickly and rapidly respond to their evolving needs."