H.R. 6410, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980

Proposed legislation, H.R. 6410, would create a central office in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) responsible for setting Government-wide information policies and for providing oversight for the agencies' information management activities. The activities covered by the bill include reports clearance and paperwork control, statistics, privacy, automatic data processing, telecommunications, and records management. The bill also provides that a high-level official is to be designated within each agency who will be held accountable for insuring that the agencies effectively carry out their information management activities. GAO agrees that policy-setting and oversight responsibilities, but not operating responsibility, should be vested in the new OMB office. However, oversight responsibility for Freedom of Information Act activities should also be vested in the new office, which will provide the much needed executive direction and oversight. In the past, records management has not received the level of management attention it deserves. The assignment of oversight responsibility to OMB and the periodic evaluations required by the bill would remedy this situation. GAO supports the provision for consolidating, elevating, and clarifying OMB policy function for the acquisition and management of automatic data processing and telecommunications resources. The bill would bring about significant changes in the controls over collecting information from the public, including: (1) ending the current fragmented responsibility for reports clearance, including the transfer of GAO clearance responsibility; (2) combining the statistical policy function with reports clearance in a single organization; and (3) amending the Federal Reports Act to clarify certain provisions and eliminate weaknesses. Further improvements in carrying out Federal information activities should be brought about as agencies implement the Paperwork Commission's recommendations. GAO also endorses the creation of the Federal Information Locator System, which would provide a source for locating information maintained by different Federal agencies and which would help identify and eliminate unnecessary duplicate collections of information from the public. However, Congress should allow OMB to delegate operating responsibility for the system to another executive agency. This would enable OMB to focus its attention on the important policy and oversight responsibilities in the bill.