5 U.S.C. § 612
Section 612 · Reports and intervention rights
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Mid-Tex Electric Cooperative, Inc. v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (1985)
Most recently applied in 346 F. Supp. 2d 1075 - Cactus Corner, LLC v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (March 2004)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) The Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration shall monitor agency compliance with this chapter and shall report at least annually thereon to the President and to the Committees on the Judiciary and Small Business of the Senate and House of Representatives.
(b) The Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration is authorized to appear as amicus curiae in any action brought in a court of the United States to review a rule. In any such action, the Chief Counsel is authorized to present his or her views with respect to compliance with this chapter, the adequacy of the rulemaking record with respect to small entities and the effect of the rule on small entities.
(c) A court of the United States shall grant the application of the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration to appear in any such action for the purposes described in subsection (b).
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1996—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 104–121, §243(b)(1), which directed substitution of “the Committees on the Judiciary and Small Business of the Senate and House of Representatives” for “the committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Select Committee on Small Business of the Senate, and the Committee on Small Business of the House of Representatives”, was executed by making the substitution for “the Committees on the Judiciary of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Select Committee on Small Business of the Senate, and the Committee on Small Business of the House of Representatives” to reflect the probable intent of Congress.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 104–121, §243(b)(2), substituted “his or her views with respect to compliance with this chapter, the adequacy of the rulemaking record with respect to small entities and the” for “his views with respect to the”.
Effective Date of 1996 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 104–121 effective on expiration of 90 days after Mar. 29, 1996, but inapplicable to interpretative rules for which a notice of proposed rulemaking was published prior to Mar. 29, 1996, see section 245 of Pub. L. 104–121, set out as a note under section 601 of this title.