OMB Issues FY 2001 Information Collection Budget

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OMB Issues FY 2001 Information Collection Budget
OMB recently issued its Information Collection Budget of the United States Government: Fiscal Year 2001, which provides a snapshot of the current federal paperwork burden. It is designed to keep Congress and the public apprized of major activities under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and the Act's effectiveness (as required under P.L. 106-554). According to this report, in the fiscal year just passed, such burdens imposed on the public were expected to grow by 1.1 percent, an increase in effort of over 82 million hours. This reflects the eighth increase in the past ten years.

OMB recognizes many actors contributing to the phenomenon of paperwork growth, including federal agencies, the Congress, and OMB itself. For example, Congress passes hundreds of new statutes each year, many of which create new programs and reports to Congress, all of which implicitly encourage more data collection. Federal agencies often subordinate paperwork reduction responsibilities to other needs, and agency Chief Information Officers have generally been preooccupied with information technology investment, rather than overseeing and coordinating data collection activities. OMB also concedes that is needs to strengthen its oversight of agency paperwork collections and to require agencies to make Paperwork Reduction Act responsibilities an integral part of their management strategies.

Nevertheless, OMB stresses the potential for great improvement if these institutions work together to achieve the objectives of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Such a goal is in keeping with the President's vision that government should give people "more options, and fewer orders." CRE encourages the Administration to undertake the necessary cooperation and coordination to decrease regulatory reporting burdens upon American consumers, employees, businesses, and taxpayers.

Summary of the FY 2001 Information Collection Budget (ICB)

CRE encourages interested parties to review the Information Collection Budget, which can be viewed through the link provided immediately below. CRE has also outlined the content of the report generally, as follows.

Click to access OMB's FY 2001 Information Collection Budget.

Click to submit comment

The ICB's Executive Summary provides the following synopses of the chapters of the FY 2001 report.

Chapter 1

Acknowledges that the federal government has again failed to meet the statutory goals outlined in the PRA.

Describes institutional difficulties which have prevented burden reduction and stresses that more can be done to alleviate such burdern in the future

- However, such improvements are contingent upon combined efforts by federal agencies, OMB, and the Congress

Chapter 2

Presents Information Collection Budget totals for the federal governemnt and 27 agencies that participated in the ICB process.

Identifies changes during FY 2000 and expected changes during FY 2001 due to agency actions and new statutory mandates.

Chapter 3

Responds to the statutory requirement that OMB report to Congress on the effectiveness of the PRA with respect to rulemaking, in accordance with P.L. 106-554.

Chapter 4

Provides specific examples of changes during FY 2000 or expected in FY 2001 due to either new statutory mandates or agency actions. Such examples:

- Highlight agency efforts to streamline and reduce information collections from the public.

- Demonstrate that the information collection needs of the federal government are not static.

Appendix A

Describes ICB totals and how they were derived.

Appendix B

Lists all known violations of the PRA and agency efforts at compliance.