Abstract
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) is an often-ignored law with a large impact. Federal agencies cannot ask the same questions of more than nine people or entities without submitting a proposed information collection to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review, a process that can take up to a year to complete. In an attempt to regulate the amount of paperwork foisted on the public, the PRA has created an enormous amount of paperwork for federal agencies—without any meaningful reduction in the paperwork burden faced by the public. Yet, likely because the burden of the PRA is borne primarily within agencies themselves, this law has gone relatively understudied by legal academics. This note considers the PRA—its history, purpose, functions, benefits and costs—and concludes that the PRA should be largely eliminated.
Recommended Citation
Joseph D. Condon,
Stop Regulating Government Paperwork With More Government Paperwork,
9
Mich. J. Env't. & Admin. L.
213
(2020).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjeal/vol9/iss1/7