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New law requires government agencies to publish compliance guides "using sufficiently plain language."
 

The new law that works with the exising law that requires federal regulatory agencies to publish compliance guides, is way beyond due. It's not just that there's a need for the compliance guides to be available, it's that they are now required to be written in language that can easily be understood.

Lawmakers say they created the new law because of the laxity of government agencies in performing their obligations to small business.

One good consequence of the guide will be not having to hire a lawyer just to read and understand the document, something extraordinarily costly to small business.

"There always has been a need for compliance lawyers and there always will be," said Thomas Sullivan, chief counsel at the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. "But, does this law does make it easier for small businesses to understand the rules? Yes."

One thing the new law will do will be to require regulators to appear before Congress on a yearly basis in order to defend the guides they put out. Representatives from agencies will have to prove to Congress that they're not only producing these guides, but are written in a way that can be understood. The older 1996 law didn't have the added enforcement provision included with it.

In recent testimony before the Congress, Sullivan alluded to the FCC website that is supposed to offer guidance for samll business. He said that under the new law it probably won't pass muster. Sullivan added of the 285 entries on the site over half of them don't even mention compliance.
 
Another aspect of the new law concerning that is the compliance guides must be available to the public once the new rules take effect. All agencies will also be required to have the guides up on their Websites.

It'll be up to us to watch the watchers to ensure the law is not just talked about but enforced.