Paperwork Reduction Act PRA

By the 1970s, businesses, local governments, and individuals complained about the growing volume of federal forms, surveys, and recordkeeping requirements, and a federal Commission on Federal Paperwork reported on the burden in 1977. The Paperwork Reduction Act, signed by President Jimmy Carter on December 11, 1980, set goals for reducing paperwork and created the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget to oversee federal information collection and information policy. The act was substantially revised in 1995.

Before an agency may collect information from ten or more people, whether through a form, survey, application, or recordkeeping rule, it must publish notice, take public comment, estimate the burden, and obtain approval from OMB, which assigns a control number that must appear on the form. Approvals last up to three years. The act's public protection provision says no one may be penalized for failing to respond to a collection that lacks a valid control number. Agencies report that the public spends roughly 10 billion hours a year complying with federal information collections, much of it on tax forms.

The office created by the act soon gained a larger role when President Ronald Reagan assigned it to review major regulations in 1981, and it remains the center of White House regulatory review. Supporters say the act forces agencies to justify the burdens they impose and improves the quality of federal data. Critics say its approval process slows research, surveys, and public feedback efforts, and some agencies have sought exemptions or faster procedures. Burden estimates are themselves debated, since methods vary widely across agencies.