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STATEMENT OF
DEIDRE A. LEE
ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR MANAGEMENT
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
BEFORE
THE SUBCOMMITTEES ON
NATIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND
REGULATORY AFFAIRS &
GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, INFORMATION, AND TECHNOLOGY
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 15, 1999
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairmen and members of the Subcommittees. You
invited me to discuss
paperwork reduction accomplishments that the agencies expect to accomplish
in fiscal years 1999
and 2000. I am pleased to have the opportunity to appear, and to present
you with the
Information Collection Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year
1999. This
extensive report provides a detailed accounting of agency paperwork
activities, accomplishments,
and planned initiatives. However, we also recognize that we need to
continue working to
minimize paperwork burden on the public. To this end, we look forward to
working with the
Congress, the agencies, and the public to build on the successes, and
address the challenges,
described in this year's Information Collection Budget.
Purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act
The enactment of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) was an
important step in
improving the way the Federal Government functions. In providing a
framework for managing
information, the PRA sets out a number of purposes that include:
- reducing information collection burdens imposed on the public;
- increasing the productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness of Federal
programs; and
- balancing the practical utility of information collections against
the burden they impose.
Under the PRA, the agencies and OMB have specific roles intended to
help achieve the purposes
of the Act.
Reducing Burden. The PRA requires the head of each agency,
supported by his or her Chief
Information Officer (CIO), to be responsible for the agency's information
collection activities,
including the reduction of paperwork burden on the public. Under the PRA,
the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within OMB oversees the CIO's
management of each
agency's collection of information. The PRA also requires OMB to set, in
consultation with the
agencies, annual agency goals to reduce burden on the public.
Improving Government Programs. OIRA oversees CIO
information resource management to
assist agency efforts to increase the productivity, efficiency, and
effectiveness of their programs.
As part of this responsibility, OIRA works with the agencies to improve
their management of
information. For example, OIRA encourages data sharing among agencies when
possible. OIRA
also reviews agency information collection activities to ensure that they
effectively serve agency
needs and increase program efficiency.
Balance the Need for Information vs. Burden. OIRA oversees
CIO paperwork management by
reviewing Federal agencies' information collection activities that are
covered by the PRA,
weighing the burdens of each collection on the public against the practical
utility it will have for
agencies. Last fiscal year, for example, OIRA approved over 3,000 agency
requests to collect
information. Before approving each request, OIRA worked to ensure that any
burden imposed
was justified by the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, and timeliness of the
information collected.
The Information Collection Budget
Through the development of the annual Information Collection Budget
(ICB), OIRA oversees
CIO paperwork management - including CIO initiatives to reduce paperwork
burden, improve
agency programs, and balance agencies' need for information against
paperwork burden. The
ICB reports on significant improvements in agency information collections
during the previous
fiscal year, identifies burden decreases or increases, and indicates areas
where further
improvement is needed.
The ICB is also the management oversight mechanism through which
agency CIOs and OIRA
establish agency paperwork burden targets for the coming year, taking into
account agencies'
anticipated program and statutory initiatives. Based upon the prior year's
experience and the best
estimates of "burden hours" imposed by each form, survey, and other
information collection, each
agency's CIO submits to OIRA a proposed budget of total burden hours and
burden costs for the
new fiscal year, together with a description of the changes in existing
information collections that
are necessary to meet its needs. In addition, agency CIOs report on
paperwork management
initiatives designed to improve the collection and use of information over
time. OIRA reviews
these reports and consults with CIOs to develop final information
collection budget targets that
minimize paperwork burden, consistent with the program needs and planned
uses of the collected
information.
Agency Efforts to Reduce Paperwork Burden
This year's Information Collection Budget highlights a large number
of agency paperwork
accomplishments and improvements. The ICB details these agency efforts and
plans agency-by-agency. I will summarize just a few below.
Agencies are reducing information collection burden by revising
existing regulations to eliminate
unnecessary requirements or by completely changing the way they
regulate.
- USDA's Rural Housing Service (RHS) first reengineered the
regulations and associated
information collections with its Single Family Housing (SFH) program. This
initiative resulted in
a reduction of over a million burden hours. In FY 1999, RHS expects to
complete a similar
reengineering project for the Multi-Family Housing (MFH) program. By
consolidating
collections and streamlining reporting requirements, USDA expects to reduce
the burden of the
MFH program by a half million hours, or one quarter the current
burden.
- USDA's Food and Nutrition Service plans to issue regulations which will
streamline and
consolidate the National School Lunch Program, the School
Breakfast Program, and the Summer
Food Service Program into one program, significantly reducing the
duplication in reporting and
recordkeeping that results from the programs being administered separately
and cutting burden by
over two million hours.
- The Department of Health and Human Service's Food and Drug
Administration (FDA)
eliminated over one million hours of burden by no longer requiring reports
for certain kinds of
electronic equipment and requiring abbreviated reports instead of
comprehensive initial reports
for a number of products such as X-ray systems. FDA will further attempt
to reduce burden by
rewriting the underlying regulation Medical Devices Registration and
Listing and by allowing
manufacturers to enter and change their information via the
Internet.
Agencies are reducing information collection burden by raising
reporting thresholds to reduce the
number of reports that need to be submitted.
- The Department of the Treasury's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revised
the requirements for
the IRS Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals, doubling the
threshold for having to file
this form from $500 estimated taxes to $1,000. This change reduced burden
by 3.7 million hours.
- The Federal Acquisition Regulation System (FAR) raised the threshold
for maximum travel
expense amount that contractor personnel may claim without providing a
supporting receipt from
$25 to $75. FAR also increased the contract dollar threshold for
permitting Progress Payments,
payments to contractors at specific milestones during a project. This
change reduced burden by
158,000 hours.
Agencies are reducing burden by making their forms simpler to read
and fill out and by making
their programs easier to apply for.
- The Department of Education redesigned the Free Application for
Federal Student Aid
(FAFSA), the form by which students apply for Federal loans and aid to
attend college,
cutting burden by over a million hours.
- The Immigration and Naturalization Service is working to streamline
up to 15 of its forms
and rewrite them in plain language, reducing their burden by up to 25
percent.
Agencies are reducing burden by cutting the frequency of periodic
reporting requirements and
reducing duplicative information from one report to the next.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reduced the burden of its
Eligibility Verification
Reports by requiring fewer people to verify annually that they
continue to qualify for
benefits. VA also reduced the burden of its Adjacent Gravesite
Set-Aside Survey by
making it biennial instead of annual. This change reduced burden by over
50,000 hours.
- The Department of Education reduced burden on the Local Education
Agency (LEA) Eligibility
under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
by accepting annual
updates on initial State applications instead of requiring complete
submissions each year. This
reduced burden by over 400,000 hours.
Agencies are reducing burden by putting in place electronic systems
that can speed the exchange
of information between the government and the public and allow respondents
to use their own
information technology to ease reporting burdens.
- HUD reduced burden its collections, Real Estate Settlement
Procedures Act (RESPA)--
Section 6, Model Servicing Transfer and Initial Escrow Account
Statement, Annual
Escrow Account, by proposing to permit lenders to use computer
generated information
rather than manual individual responses, reducing burden over 7.8 million
hours.
- IRS continues to report increased use of its popular e-file
system, including electronic filing and
Telefile. IRS also expanded eligibility for the 941 TeleFile program,
which allows employers to
report employees' wage and tax information by touch-tone phone instead of
on the paper Form
941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return. An additional 300,000
businesses used the 941
TeleFile program last year, reducing burden by almost 14 million
hours.
- The Federal Emergency Management Agency is working with mortgage
lenders to adopt an
advanced information system to collect, maintain, and store data on flood
zones and reduce the
time needed to research and gather data on individual properties. With the
information already
maintained in an automated system, applicants for new or refinanced
mortgages only need to
review and sign a computer-generated form. This system would cut the
burden of this collection
by 2 million, or half its total burden.
Agencies are reducing burden by consolidating information
collections both to simplify the
collections and avoid collecting similar information several times from the
same people.
- The Department of Defense is reducing the burden of its Acquisition
Management System
and Data Requirements Control List by over 20 million hours by
eliminating duplicative
data requirements on DOD contractors.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs reduced burden on its
Application for Health Benefits
and Yearly Reapplication of Health Benefits by over 2 million hours by
combining five
forms and eliminating the duplication that occurred when a veteran applied
to multiple
VA medical facilities for medical benefits and had to complete the form
series each time.
- The Social Security Administration (SSA) will reduce burden by
replacing state versions of the
Forms SSA-3370 and SSA-3373, which states use to collect information on
pain and how a
claimant's disability condition affects them, for a single national form.
SSA will also eliminate
its form SSA-3945, Work Activity Report--Continuing Disability by
consolidating it with another
form. These changes are expected to reduce burden by almost one million
hours.
Agencies are working together to share information across programs
so that people only need to
respond to a single collection from one agency, rather than multiple
collections from many
agencies.
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will eliminate its
Statement Regarding the
Importation of Radio Frequency Devices Capable of Harmful Interference (FCC
Form 740) and
get similar information instead from the U.S. Customs Service. The FCC
anticipates eliminating
approximately 20,000 burden hours due to this effort.
- SSA eliminated its Forms SSA-777 and SSA-7770, Annual Report of
Earnings and now
accepts the IRS Form W-2 filed on behalf of the beneficiary or the
beneficiary's Federal
tax returns as the report of earnings. This reduces the burden on social
security recipients
by over 300,000 hours.
OMB Oversight of Agency Efforts to Reduce Paperwork
Burden
OIRA also oversees CIO paperwork management by working with agency
CIOs to set agency
paperwork burden reduction targets for the upcoming fiscal year.
Specifically, under the PRA,
OIRA, in consultation with the agencies, establishes "annual agency goals"
to reduce paperwork
burden on the public to the "maximum practicable" extent "in each agency."
To satisfy the
statutory goal that the paperwork burden target is "practicable," a
reduction in paperwork burden
must be consistent with the agency being able to carry out its statutory
and program
responsibilities. These are the paperwork burden targets that OIRA
publishes, each year, in the
Information Collection Budget.
In addition to the PRA's burden reduction targets, the FY 1999 OMB
appropriations calls on
OMB to submit to Congress a report that "identifies specific paperwork
reduction
accomplishments expected, constituting annual five percent reductions in
paperwork expected in
fiscal year 1999 and fiscal year 2000." The agency targets for FY 1999 and
FY 2000, however,
do not meet these burden reduction goals. As reported in the Information
Collection Budget, the
aggregate of the individual agency goals for FY 1999 is +2.6% and for FY
2000 is +2.3%.
Factors that Influence Paperwork Burden. There are many
factors that contribute to paperwork
burdens going up, not down. New legislative initiatives and amendments to
existing laws
typically require more, not less, data collection. For example, the
Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997
increased reporting burdens by over 64 million hours in FY 1998 and over 92
million hours in FY
1999 (as of December 1998). In addition, even in the absence of
legislative changes, the
paperwork associated with agency statutory and program responsibilities can
expand over time
due to a number of factors beyond the agency's direct control, such as
economic growth and
demographic trends. For example, as the number of businesses grows, the
number of applications
to the Small Business Administration for loans increases, the number of
respondents to
Occupational Safety and Health Administration reporting requirements
increases, and the number
of reports to the IRS of payments made to employees increases.
More specifically, many existing reporting, recordkeeping, and
third-party disclosure
requirements are required by or necessary to implement existing statutes,
and a number of
increases in this ICB are required by new or recently implemented statutes.
This ICB identifies
over 70 recently enacted statutes, affecting more than 225 reporting,
recordkeeping, and third-party disclosure requirements from FY 1998 to FY
2000, under which agencies have added or
will add more than 384 million annual burden hours (making increases of
more than 402 million
hours to individual collections; decreases of about 18 million hours).
This statutorily driven
increase is more than 5% of the FY 1998 base.
Frankly, these increases are not surprising. In our Information
Age, the Federal government has
come to rely more and more on information to perform its most basic
functions. Information is
the key to an effective government that provides its citizens with
necessary services - national
security; a sound financial system; health, safety and environmental
protections - in the least
intrusive and most efficient manner possible. With a population that is
geographically dispersed,
highly mobile, and diverse; with an economy that is robust, innovative, and
operating on a global
scale; and with a society that is living
through the development of the computer as a primary
personal and commercial tool - one of the American government's primary
functions is that of an
information collecting and management enterprise. Although the Federal
government has always
depended on accurate and timely information, in today's complex,
rapid-pace, globalized world,
the ability of the government to collect and use information is more
critical than ever before.
Agency Compliance. While the
PRA acknowledges Federal agencies' legitimate need for
information to perform their missions, it also requires agencies to obtain
OMB approval of those
information collection activities that are covered by the PRA. It is very
important that these
information collections have OMB approval because it is the process by
which agencies request
and receive OMB approval that requires agencies and OMB to assess, among
other things, the
trade-off between the practical utility of information collections and the
burden they impose on
the public.
In both the FY 1998 and FY 1999 ICBs, we list agency violations of
the PRA. These occur
primarily when agencies continue to use collections for which OMB approval
has expired. These
lists are long - much too long - and indicate a substantial problem that we
must resolve. As part
of our efforts in this area, and to help ensure that the public is aware of
the status of specific
information collections, OMB will add to the "Paperwork Reviews" report on
OMB's website
information about the expiration of OMB approvals. We take agency
violations of the PRA very
seriously, and will be working with the agencies to improve their
compliance with the Act.
Conclusion
In light of the government's need for
information to best serve the public, it is more critical than
ever that we continue the governmentwide effort to reduce paperwork burden
on the public. We
look forward to a working partnership among OMB, the agencies, the
Congress, and the public to
achieve this important goal. We believe that this goal is shared across
the government. The FY
99 ICB points out many of the positive steps that are being taken in order
to reduce burden. But it
is not enough. We will support this governmentwide partnership to
emphasize the importance of
initiating real burden reductions and building on the successes that I have
outlined for you today.
Of course, I welcome any suggestions you may have on how we can achieve
more burden
reduction, and look forward to working with you toward that end.
As I said at the start of my testimony, this year's Information
Collection Budget discusses, in
detail, agency paperwork activities, accomplishments, and planned
initiatives. In submitting this
report, we hope to improve the government's ability to achieve the
important purposes of the
Paperwork Reduction Act. If you have any questions, I would be happy to
answer them.
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