Entrepreneurs Identify Bad Rules

More than 80 federal regulations have been recommended for review, a government watchdog reports.

The nation's small-business owners have identified more than 80 federal regulations that they say should be reviewed, rewritten or scrapped, the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy reported this week.

The nominations were part of an initiative aimed at reducing the compliance costs of federal regulations, which are estimated at over $1 trillion a year. According to the agency, smaller businesses pay 45 percent more per employee in regulatory compliance costs than larger firms.

"The fact that our office received over eighty strong nominations shows that small businesses are concerned about the cumulative weight of regulations," Thomas Sullivan, chief counsel for advocacy, said in a statement.

The agency will send its top 10 list of regulations to the appropriate federal agencies and will track reform efforts in the months ahead.