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Paperwork Reduction Act
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The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1980 is a federal law that established policies to minimize the burden on individuals, private entities, and local governments associated with information collection requests from federal government agencies. The bill also aimed to improve the quality of information collected by the government and minimize the costs associated with information management. The PRA was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on December 11, 1980.[1]
Background
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1980 was crafted as a means to update the Federal Reports Act of 1942, which aimed to minimize the burden of federal agencies' information requests of individuals and business entities. During the late 1970s, concerns about the increasing encumbrance of information requests by federal agencies gained momentum due to the exemption of the Internal Revenue Service and certain other federal agencies from the 1942 legislation. In response, the updated PRA eliminated the exemption for certain agencies and strengthened the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) oversight of information collection requests. The legislation also created the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the OMB in order to serve as a central clearinghouse for information requests.[2]
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 amended the 1980 legislation to also apply to nonprofit organizations, tribal governments, and federal contractors. The amended PRA also broadened the OIRA's oversight authority of federal agency information requests to include agency requests to provide information to the public. New requirements were established for agencies to hold public comment periods and have information review plans in place prior to submitting information requests for OMB review.[3][4]
Provisions
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Procedural requirements
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) granted the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the authority to establish policies to minimize the burden of federal information requests on the general public while maximizing the quality of information received and improving the efficiency of information utilization by government agencies. The original PRA of 1980 stated:[3]
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The Director shall develop and implement Federal information policies, principles, standards, and guidelines and shall provide direction and oversee the review and approval of information collection requests, the reduction of the paperwork burden, Federal statistical activities, records management activities, privacy of records, interagency sharing of information, and acquisition and use of automatic data processing telecommunications, and other technology for managing information resources. The authority under this section shall be exercised consistent with applicable law. (§ 3504)[3][5] |
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Approval of information requests
The PRA required the director of the OMB to approve or disapprove of all information requests by federal agencies. The unamended 1980 legislation stated:[3]
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(b) The Director shall, within sixty days of receipt of a proposed information collection request, notify the agency involved of the decision to approve or disapprove the request and shall make such decisions publicly available. If the Director determines that a request submitted for review cannot be reviewed within sixty days, the Director may, after notice to the agency involved, extend the review period for an additional thirty days. If the Director does not notify the agency of an extension, denial, or approval within sixty days (or, if the Director has extended the review period for an additional thirty days and does not notify the agency of a denial or approval within the time of the extension), a control number shall be assigned without further delay, the approval may be inferred, and the agency may collect the information for not more than one year. (§ 3507)[3][5] |
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Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
The PRA created the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the OMB in order to establish policies for information requests by federal agencies and to serve as a central clearinghouse for information requests. The unamended 1980 legislation stated:[3]
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(a) There is established in the Office of Management and Budget an office to be known as the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. (b) There shall be at the head of the Office an Administrator who Administrator, shall be appointed by, and who shall report directly to, the Director. appointment. The Director shall delegate to the Administrator the authority to administer all functions under this chapter, except that any such delegation shall not relieve the Director of responsibility for the administration of such functions. The Administrator shall serve as principal adviser to the Director on Federal information policy. (§ 3503)[3][5] |
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Amending statutes
Below is a partial list of subsequent laws that amended provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA):
- The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 amended the PRA to include nonprofit organizations, tribal governments, and federal contractors as well as to require agencies to hold public comment periods and to have information review plans in place prior to submitting information requests to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The legislation also expanded the authority of the OIRA to also oversee processes for federal agencies to provide information to the public.[3][6]
- The Federal Data Quality Act amended the PRA to ensure the "quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information" published by federal government agencies and to provide the public with a means to correct false information.[2][7]
Theory and practice
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reported the following government-wide totals measuring the impact of information collections under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) as of February 2018:[8]
- 111,145,340,893 total annual responses to information requests.
- 11,360,607,700 total annual hours devoted to information requests.
- $116,109,733,393 in total annual costs associated with information requests.
Procedures
Andrew R. Feldman and Demetra Nightingale of The The Brookings Institution observed the negative impact of processing delays associated with the PRA for individuals and small businesses:[9]
| “ | The problem is that getting through the PRA clearance process can take a year or more, in part because there are so many requests for OMB staff to review. That time delay can have serious consequences, including sometimes making meaningful evaluations impossible. ... The costs of PRA are not just borne by federal agencies wanting to learn what works. They are ultimately borne by Americans who use public services that are not as effective as they would have been with better evidence, and by taxpayers who receive less value for their tax dollars.[5] | ” |
Paperwork reduction
Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at the American Action Forum, provided the following observations on what he perceived to be the failure of the PRA to reduce the burden of federal government paperwork in his testimony during a March 2017 hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee:[10]
| “ | The short answer to the title of this hearing is, no, burdens are not lower. In 1997, after amendments to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), the cumulative burden was 6.9 billion hours. Today, it stands at 11.6 billion hours. Small businesses are particularly affected, with 3.3 billion hours of compliance burdens and $111 billion in costs. ... The PRA suffers from historical mismanagement from federal agencies who routinely violate the law. Last fiscal year, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) reported 283 violations, but there are no consequences for agency violations. Individual or business violations, however, can carry stiff penalties.[5] | ” |
Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) echoed Batkins' observations in an October 2017 hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee:[11]
| “ | Even though the PRA is supposed to reduce paperwork burdens, small businesses are still faced with an overwhelming amount of paperwork requirements each day. In fact, paperwork requirements are costing America almost $120 billion a year. But as we heard at our hearing last March, this number is probably much higher, because federal agencies may not be accurately estimating the burden.[5] | ” |
See also
- Administrative Procedure Act
- U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
- U.S. Office of Management and Budget
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ U.S. Office of Personnel Management, " Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) Guide," April 27, 2011
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Department of Justice, "Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980," accessed February 1, 2018
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 GovTrack, "H.R. 6410 (96th): Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980," accessed February 1, 2018
- ↑ U.S. Small Business Administration, "Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980," accessed February 1, 2018
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ U.S. Department of Justice, "Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 44 U.S.C. § 3501 et seq." accessed February 1, 2018
- ↑ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001 (Public Law 106-554)," accessed February 1, 2018
- ↑ Office of Management and Budget, "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)—Inventory of Currently Approved Information Collections," February 16, 2018
- ↑ The Brookings Institution, "Reduce government bureaucracy? What Trump and Congress can do." February 22, 2017
- ↑ American Action Forum, "Evaluating The Paperwork Reduction Act: Are Burdens Being Reduced?" March 29, 2017
- ↑ U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee, "Evaluating the Paperwork Reduction Act," October 12, 2017
