The Paperwork Reduction Act is a federal law which was passed in the United States in 1980 and substantially amended in 1995. As the name of this law would suggest, the goal of the Act is to reduce the amount of paperwork which needs to be handled by federal agencies, businesses, and private citizens, reducing the burden on people who routinely handle paperwork. The revisions in 1995 also increased the security of information collected by the government, while expanding public access to relevant collected data.
The origins of the Paperwork Reduction Act lie in the 1930s, when numerous proposals to codify and streamline information collection were made. In 1942, Congress passed the Federal Reports Act in an attempt to regulate information collection, but the Act was not up to the task, and in 1976, the government formed a task force to examine information collection policies and make recommendations. This led to the drafting of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980, which can be found in Title 44, Section 35 of the United States Code.
Under the Act, an Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) was created within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). When a government agency wants to collect information from 10 or more people, it must submit a request to OIRA for review. The Office determines whether or not the information collection will be helpful and beneficial, and it examines the forms and techniques which will be used to collect data. If the information collection is cleared, the agency can proceed. If not, the agency will be forced to revise their plans.
In 1995, some changes were made to the Paperwork Reduction Act, recognizing that electronic information was becoming increasingly common and that government agencies needed to keep their data secure. The related 1998 Government Paperwork Elimination Act established guidelines for keeping data in electronic form and collecting data electronically. While this Act did not mandate the use of electronic archiving and data collection, it did set specific policies which were designed to encourage government agencies to consider eliminating paperwork in lieu of electronic methods.
American citizens may have noticed Paperwork Reduction Act notices on government paperwork which they fill out. These notices indicate that the information collection request has been examined and cleared by OIRA, and that it complies with the terms of the Act. For individual citizens and businesses, this matters because it cuts down on the amount of unnecessary paperwork they are required to fill out.