Executive Order No. 12498 and Presidential Memorandum, January 4, 1985, Additional Procedures Concerning OIRA Reviews Under Executive Order Letter to Chairman Glenn from Congressman Ted Weiss, January 8, 1990. Page 662 665 668 670 672 "High Court Decides Budget Office Exceeded Power in Blocking Rules," by 682 684 Dole, Secretary of Labor, et al. v. United Steelworkers of America et al., 686 Views of: Cass R. Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence, Uni- 718 OMB Watch 719 Letter to Richard Darman, Director of Management and Budget, from Senator Bingaman, February 26, 1990..... 729 OTA Comments on the Information Management and Policy Provisions of 730 "Dingell Criticizes Delay in Hazardous Waste Rules,” news release, February 6, 1990..... 751 Working Group on Information and Regulatory Policy American College of Medical Informatics "What I Will Tell the Next Administration About Information Resources Management in the Federal Government," by Francis A. McDonough, from Information Management Review, Spring 1989, "Presidential Management of Agency Rulemaking,” by Harold H. Bruff, George Washington Law Review, January 1989.. "Access Denied," by W. John Moore, National Journal, January 20, 1990. Letters and statements received by Chairman Glenn and Senator Bingaman: OMB Watch. Texas A&M.... Baylor College of Medicine.. 755 761 793 797 799 802 804 806 University of Maryland at Baltimore....... 808 American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations: "The Enormous Hidden Business Tax," by Leon W. Transeau, Ph.D.... American Association of Law Libraries, Association of Research Librar Government's information resources would minimize the burden of paperwork requests upon the public and maximize the usefulness and quality of information collected. When President Carter signed the law, he declared its intent was to, "regulate the regulators." The premise underpinning the PRA was that every citizen would be assured that the Federal Government had checked for the necessity of collecting information before the public was asked to report, keep records, or otherwise provide information. Paperwork was made the symbol, and its reduction was made the responsibility of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Upon coming to office, President Reagan followed President Carter's precedent and assigned responsibility to OIRA for reviewing regulations through Executive Orders 12291 and 12498. While the information and paperwork aspects of regulatory review are related to one another in the Executive Orders, there are considerations in the Orders which go beyond the paperwork reduction functions of the PRA. The linking of the paperwork clearance process with the Executive Order regulatory review process has been a source of controversy and concern. Some see benefits to this linkage, while others argue that OIRA's other responsibilities are given less attention, and that too much power, secrecy, and abuse prevail. When this Committee took up the reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act in 1986, when Senator Roth was Chairman, these issues received attention, and amendments to the Act were made. They were intended to increase public participation and to provide for more sunshine and accountability to Congress by OIRA. Today we will hear from witnesses who will argue that not enough was done in 1986. They will assert that OIRA has imposed an ideological agenda on agencies, circumvented the will of Congress, and, in general, micromanaged the affairs of other agencies. I am also mindful that the paperwork burden is increasing rather than decreasing. I think some of the figures are rather startling. And we plan to get into these tomorrow to validate them. But according to the Business Council on Reduction of Paperwork-BCORP, as it is known-it has estimated that American business-and these figures are amazing to me-American business spends some 8.2 billion hours at a cost of $330 billion a year responding to paperwork requests. If those numbers are correct, that figures to be about 6.3 percent of our total GNP. Now, these are the figures that have been given to us by BCORP, and I don't know whether we will get into that tomorrow when I believe we will have one of their witnesses here. But I wanted to put those figures out to indicate the enormity of the problem we are dealing with. It is a huge, huge figure. Even if it's off by a factor of three or four, it is still a tremendous, tremendous figure, and a great impact on our GNP. Clearly there is a need for more effective mechanism. Whether you are a small-business person, Government contractor, State or local grantee, teacher in the classroom, senior citizen seeking Medicare benefits, university researcher, or a taxpayer, I can fully appreciate why one would support Congress sending a strong signal it S. 1742 proposes language to deal with all these concerns. Under the bill the information and paperwork clearance process is made more effective and the disclosure requirements for the regulatory review process as well as for other agency submissions are strengthened. I will be very interested in the witnesses' comments on these provisions. S. 1742 also looks to the future by adding a public dissemination policy function to OIRA. This supplements the emphasis the bill gives to information resources management as a strategy for meeting the PRA's intended purposes. In 1980, hardly anybody had a personal computer. Now they are all around us. This is just one example of the explosion in information technology which presents tremendous opportunities for reduced burden, increased access, and better use of more quality information. There are a number of other important proposals made in S. 1742, and I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses this morning. Before we start with that, Senator Heinz, do you have an opening statement? Senator HEINZ. Mr. Chairman, just a brief comment, and I would ask unanimous consent that my full statement be placed in the record. Chairman GLENN. Without objection, so ordered. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HEINZ Senator HEINZ. Mr. Chairman, when the Paperwork Reduction. Act first went into effect back in 1980, the Federal paperwork burden was 1.5 billion hours. By 1987 it was up to 1.9 billion hours. It is hard to know whether we should blame the Reagan Administration or ourselves. And I will not attempt to do that. I think it is fair to say that we are all aware of the enormous burden that paperwork, the accumulation of information, hopefully not for its own sake, does impose on people, businesses, senior citizens, and a variety of interests in this country. It is estimated that that burden comes to some $330 billion annually. As a matter of fact, recently I learned the result of this burden. through two of my constituents, Ms. Carol Miller, and Dr. Earl Hess of Lancaster Laboratories in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They testified before the Government Information and Regulation Subcommittee, that their lab, which employs a total of five full-time workers, has been turned into a "paper factory," as they described it, generating data required by Federal regulators. Clearly we need to reauthorize this act. There is the issue, of course, of whether or not the length of the review process and the proportion of requests in the areas of health and safety and the environment, which on occasion have appeared to move more slowly or rejected disproportionately by OIRA and that still remains a problem. But I must say, Mr. Chairman, that while I continue to be concerned about delays caused by OMB in the implementation of these much needed regulations, I am very much encouraged by the efforts of the Bush Administration-and Page Letters and statements received by Chairman Glenn and Senator Bingaman— Association of Records Managers and Administrators, Inc., Memorandum. "Paperwork Reduction: Little Real Burden Change in Recent Years," GAO report, June 1989.... 1010 1083 "Paperwork Reduction: Mixed Effects on Agency Decision Processes and Data Availability," GAO report, September 1989 1113 "Meeting the Government's Technology Change: Results of a GAO Symposium," GAO report, February 1990.. 1202 REAUTHORIZATION OF OMB'S OFFICE OF INFORMATION AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1990 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:35 a.m., in room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Glenn, Chairman, presiding. Present: Senators Glenn, Bingaman, Lieberman, and Heinz. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN GLENN Chairman GLENN. The hearing will be in order. This morning we begin 2 days of hearings on S. 1742, the Federal Information Resources Management Act of 1989. This bill is very important legislation, sponsored by Senators Bingaman and Lieberman. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, the PRA, established the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs-OIRA, as it is known-within the Office of Management and Budget to integrate and provide central management for the Federal Government's information and regulatory policy functions. S. 1742 provides a 2-year reauthorization to fund OIRA's activities. It also proposes a comprehensive refinement of the responsibilities and functions of OIRA, makes a number of amendments to the PRA, and establishes a study commission on Federal information. Clearly this bill is an ambitious and a constructive effort to update and build on the 1980 act. I have asked our witnesses to focus their comments on the provisions of S. 1742 and to be as specific as possible. We want views on what works, what won't, and what needs to be changed. But before turning to our first witness, let me comment on the issues we intend to explore in the next 2 days. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 was a legislative response to the Commission on Federal Paperwork, which started in 1977. It was a bipartisan group led by President Carter, Senators Chiles and Danforth, and Congressmen Brooks and Horton which brought about this law that replaced the old 1942 Federal Reports Act. The idea behind the PRA was that there was a need to centralize and better manage the Federal Government's information policy functions: ADP, telecommunications, records management, reports clearance, privacy, and statistical policy. In the face of exploding information needs for our Government agencies, it was the hope that this approach to better managing the |