Buckeye Reporter

The Buckeye Institute has secured a significant nationwide victory for small business owners and their employees. After more than a year, the Biden administration abandoned its appeal of a rule that threatened the franchise business model in America.

“This win is a tremendous victory for small business owners and their employees across Ohio and the country,” said Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute.

In 2022, the Biden administration revived a rule that had previously cost small business owners $33.3 billion per year and resulted in 376,000 lost job opportunities when it was initially implemented under the Obama administration. The Buckeye Institute warned that re-adopting this rule would have severe economic consequences for small-business employers nationwide, particularly in Ohio. The organization outlined these potential impacts in a letter to the National Labor Relations Board.

While bureaucratic rule-making can often seem tedious, its effects on ordinary working Americans are substantial. The Buckeye Institute's efforts to monitor and engage in this process were crucial in protecting small business owners’ rights, jobs, and the U.S. economy.

The Buckeye Institute’s analysis and comments were influential in the U.S. District Court of Texas ruling that deemed the Biden administration’s rule “contrary to law.” The court also labeled attempts to rescind the rule as “arbitrary and capricious.”

Hederman added, “As a result of The Buckeye Institute’s relentless work in this esoteric area of policymaking, the Biden administration dropped its appeal of the Texas court ruling, and America’s franchise business model is no longer under threat.”