Jennifer Nou on Improving the Efficiency of the Paperwork Reduction Act

Improving the Efficiency of the Paperwork Reduction Act

The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) has long been accused of adding excessive delay to the process of federal agencies producing surveys and other valuable information gathering efforts. Other experts have praised the PRA for serving as a necessary constraint on the ability of agencies to burden the public. In its recent plenary session, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) approved a set of recommendations to improve the operation of the PRA. These proposals build on related suggestions from 2012, which considered statutory changes.

The PRA, originally passed in 1980 and amended twice since then, is intended to reduce the burden of information collections on the public and to maximize the usefulness of the information collected to the government. To do so, the PRA requires agencies to follow a specific process before they can collect information from 10 or more members of the public.

This process entails first publishing a notice in the Federal Register and giving the public sixty days to comment on the proposed information collection. Once that comment period ends, an agency must then submit the proposed information collection to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) with a detailed supporting statement, while at the same time, publishing a second notice in the Federal Register giving the public another thirty days to comment. Then, after the second comment period ends, OIRA has another thirty days to decide whether to approve the information collection.

Although this process undoubtedly improves some information collections, it may also result in undue delays or agencies avoiding the worthwhile collection of information altogether.

Read more at The Regulatory Review