5 U.S.C. § 604 — Final regulatory flexibility analysis

(a) When an agency^* issues a final rule^* under section 553 of this title after section 553 or another law required it to publish a general notice of proposed rulemaking, the agency must prepare a final regulatory flexibility analysis. The agency must also prepare one when it issues a final interpretative rule involving the United States internal revenue laws as described in section 603(a). Each final regulatory flexibility analysis must contain: (1) a statement of why the rule is needed and what it is meant to accomplish; (2) a statement of the important issues raised by public comments on the initial regulatory flexibility analysis, the agency's assessment of those issues, and any changes made in the proposed rule because of those comments; (3) the agency's response to comments that the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business^* Administration filed about the proposed rule, plus a detailed statement of each change made to the proposed rule in the final rule because of those comments; (4) a description and estimate of the number of small entities to which the rule will apply, or an explanation of why no estimate is available; (5) a description of the rule's expected reporting, recordkeeping, and other compliance requirements, including an estimate of the classes of small entities that will have to comply and the kinds of professional skills needed to prepare the report or record; (6) a description of the steps the agency has taken to reduce the rule's significant economic impact on small entities while meeting the stated objectives of applicable statutes. This must include the factual, policy, and legal reasons for choosing the alternative used in the final rule and why the agency rejected each other significant alternative it considered that would affect small entities; and (6) for a covered agency as defined in section 609(d)(2), a description of the steps the agency has taken to reduce any additional cost of credit for small entities. (b) The agency must make copies of the final regulatory flexibility analysis available to the public. It must publish the analysis, or a summary of it, in the Federal Register.