SEC exempts small-business data collection from federal oversight rules
S. 3411 — Improving Access to Small Business Information Act · Filed by Katie Britt (R-AL) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Dec 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill exempts the SEC's Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation from most Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) requirements when gathering information. The Advocate can collect data from small businesses without submitting it to the Office of Management and Budget, displaying control numbers, or following standard clearance procedures—though some procedural safeguards still apply. The practical effect is faster information-gathering from small businesses with less regulatory overhead.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to carve out one SEC office from standard information-collection oversight. It is a narrow procedural exemption, not a substantive policy change, and it streamlines rather than expands regulatory authority.
What the text implies
- Removal of OMB review gate means no centralized check on whether the Advocate's data requests duplicate other federal surveys or impose cumulative burden on small businesses.
- Exemption from control-number display means small businesses may not know they are responding to a federal information collection, reducing their ability to invoke PRA protections or understand the legal basis for the request.
- The Advocate's data collection is now faster and less visible to Congress and the public, potentially enabling policy-making based on information gathered outside normal transparency channels.
- Procedural safeguards in § 3506(c)(1), (c)(4), and (i) and § 3507(a)(1)(A) still apply, but the bill does not specify what those safeguards are—their scope depends on external statute, making the true burden reduction unclear from this text alone.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Small businesses may benefit from faster, less-burdensome data collection that could improve targeted SEC support and policy. However, the exemption from OMB review and control-number display reduces transparency and public oversight of what information the Advocate is collecting, from whom, and how it is used—a concrete cost to democratic accountability and small-business awareness of their rights.
Named in the bill
SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Small businesses
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Dec 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,642 characters) on Aug 14, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“SEC exempts small-business data collection from federal oversight rules” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s3411 Report an error
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