OMB wants to know how to improve Paperwork Reduction Act

The Office of Management and Budget wants to know how to improve the regulations that govern the Paperwork Reduction Act.

OMB today issues a notice in the Federal Register asking for "comments on reducing current paperwork burdens, especially on small entities; increasing the practical utility of information collected by the federal government; ensuring accurate burden estimates; and preventing unintended adverse consequences."

Agencies and the public must respond with ideas by Dec. 28.

"The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 requires agencies and OMB to ensure that information collected from the public minimizes the burden and maximizes practical utility," says an OMB official, who requested anonymity because the notice wasn't final yet. "Over the years, the number of hours that the public has spend responding to federal government information collections has been steadily increasing. As a result, OMB is seeking public common on possible initiatives to reduce paperwork burden on the American public."

The official says OMB will use the comments as it develops its 2010 information collection budget, which it must provide to Congress detailing how effective the government is in implementing the PRA.

"OMB also will use the public comments to inform its practices for evaluating information collections submitted to OMB by agencies," the official says.

In the notice, OMB states that agencies have worked hard to improve their PRA estimates.

"For example, the IRS accounts for a large share--over 76 percent--of the federal government's total paperwork burden," the notice states. "In light of this fact, the IRS has devoted considerable resources to measuring the burden it imposes on taxpayers so that policymakers and the public can better understand the cost to society of tax collection and compliance with the Internal Revenue Code. The IRS has made efforts to improve the accuracy and transparency of taxpayer burden estimates."

OMB states that in 2006 the IRS began using a new statistical model to estimate the reporting burden on taxpayers.

The Individual Taxpayer Burden Model (ITBM) measures the burden based on the characteristics and activities of individual taxpayers rather than the forms they ultimately use.

But OMB states there is a large variation across agencies, which "makes it difficult to ensure accurate assessment on the part of all individual agencies and to upgrade governmentwide performance in implementing the PRA."

In 2007, the public spent more than 9 billion hours responding to information collections.

To that end OMB wants comments on seven areas, including examples of inaccurate burden estimates, new practices for estimating how long it would take to report information and whether burden hours should be monetized.

"Agencies also often undertake efforts to improve the utility of information that they collect through relatively small increases in burden," the notice states. "For example, statistical agencies routinely pretest new surveys or new items for existing surveys to ensure that respondents understand the question being asked, have the information to be able to respond and are able to convey their response in accordance with the options provided by the agency. Similarly, agencies conducting program evaluations or research studies often engage in small-scale formative or exploratory research to inform larger-scale investigations."

OMB states more agencies also are increasing the use of the Internet to collect and disseminate information, and using the Web to test electronic forms and questionnaires.

"OMB is committed to helping agencies build on these initiatives and to ensuring that the PRA is implemented in a way that suits current conditions," the notice states. "OMB is also aware that concerns have been expressed about unintended consequences of the administration of the Act, including delays in the conduct of surveys and research in contexts in which citizens are asked, but not required, to respond to information collection requests by the federal government."

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On the Web:

GPO - Federal Register notice on PRA improvements

FederalNewsRadio - Web 2.0 advice for the Obama administration

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