Paperwork Reduction

Agency Responses to Recent Court Decisions Gao ID: PEMD-93-5 February 3, 1993

Federal agencies are constantly collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information from individuals, businesses, and other levels of governments. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 seeks to minimize the paperwork burden on the public while maximizing the usefulness of the information collected by the government. The law gives the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval authority for the collection of information by federal agencies. This report examines how recent court cases--especially Dole v. United Steelworkers of America--have affected the paperwork clearance process. GAO discusses (1) what guidance, if any, agencies have received and what criteria they use to decide whether an information collection request falls under the Steelworkers decision; (2) how broadly the agencies have interpreted the court cases; and (3) what changes the agencies have made in the number and type of information collection requests they send to OMB for approval.

GAO found that: (1) the decision's impact varied among agencies; (2) OMB did not develop any guidance for agencies to use to decide how the decision affected OMB clearance of ICR; (3) none of the agencies had formal, written guidance for implementing the decision, but they did provide informal guidance on a case-by-case basis; (4) agency interpretations of the decision differed because some agencies based them on the degree of data collection involved, while another agency based its decisions on the intent to inform a third party; (5) the Federal Trade Commission decreased its ICR review submissions by the largest proportion of any agency; (6) the Department of Labor made the greatest change in its ICR submissions involving third-party actions; and (7) agencies could not determine how many ICR might be affected by the decision.

Recommendations

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