Paperwork Reduction Act

          The United States Congress passed a "Paperwork Reduction Act" which required every government department or agency to file additional paperwork to show they were complying with the Paperwork Reduction Act. DUH!  If you ask "Why?"  you may get an explanation filled with reasons for some obviously flawed thinking, but you will not get the real reason. People above my pay grade came up with the idea, and since a majority of Congress voted it into law, who am I to question what they have done. After all I am just a village idiot.  

        

        H.R. 6410 - The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1980 - was a good idea. It's purpose was to cut down on excessive and duplicate government paperwork requirements. But what the 96th Congress passed into law (and Jimmy Carter signed) missed the goal.  The goal was to reduce government paperwork by 15% the first year. To meet that goal the law created the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (0IRA) under the OMB (Office of Management and Budget). 

    1. The new agency needed an Agency director.

    2. The agency directors first job was developing department guidelines, rules and procedures. (And send copies to every federal agency).

    3. Develop a five year plan for reducing paperwork and send copies to every agency that needed to reduce paperwork. 

    4. Send The President and Congress reports on paperwork reduction progress and suggested legislation to enforce compliance to be sure everyone reduced government paperwork. 

    5. To develop guidelines for the enforcement of paperwork reduction and establish development and training programs to aid in reducing paperwork.   

     This is a summary of the first couple pages of the Paperwork Reduction Act. It filled 26 pages and was passed by the House of Representatives by unanimous vote. (Who would vote against reducing paperwork?) 

     To be sure no one increased government paperwork, anyone who wanted to collect information had to file forms with their agency director.  He would then send forms authorizing the collection of information and assigning a "Control Number". All authorized data collection had to carry information with the Control number as well as added sheets showing the requests did not violate the paperwork reduction act.  Refusals could be revisited with additional forms with supporting evidence proving they were not increasing paperwork. 

     I have skipped over all the reports, compliance regulations and "essential" paperwork required between agencies and annual reports to Congress to ensure paperwork was being reduced.  

     This law is not only still in effect, it was enhanced in 1995 (PL 104-13) to require additional development, seek public comment, and independent reviews of electronic data collection. The regulations and reports were required to ensure paperwork was being reduced. 

     All of the above had to comply with the Privacy Act of 1974. (More reports, etc.)  Then the Privacy Guidance Memorandum of 2008 added more layers of development, guidelines, regulations and compliance reports.  This demonstrates how committed our government is to the reduction of paperwork.

    For 40 plus years our government has created reports, guidelines, regulations and dozens of forms to comply with The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980.  That effort is alive and well because a few weeks ago I received some government forms with a couple added pages to show the people who sent me the form were in compliance with the paperwork reduction act. 

    If you can explain all this seeming contradiction I would love to hear it because I am so confused my limited abilities are incapable of making any sense of it.  But then, I am just the village Idiot!