Chairmen Ask Why Agency Failed to Issue Required Reports Two Years in a Row
WASHINGTON – House Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH), joined by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), today demanded answers from the Office and Management and Budget (OMB) about its failure to submit required annual reports to Congress on the federal government’s efforts to reduce the paperwork burden on individuals and small businesses. OMB failed to issue these required reports for both FY2015 and FY2016 and previously pledged to publish the reports this Fall.
“The failure to produce these reports in a timely fashion demonstrates a fundamental breakdown in OIRA’s management function,” Chabot and Chaffetz wrote in their letter to the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. “Congress enacted the Paperwork Reduction Act to minimize the paperwork burden on individuals, small businesses, and others imposed by the federal government and improve the responsibility and accountability of the OMB and all other federal agencies to Congress and the public for collecting information.”
In May of this year, Chairmen Chabot and Chaffetz pressed OMB for answers about why it failed to submit its required reports to Congress.
In a subsequent letter to Chairman Chabot, Howard Shelanski, the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at OMB, stated his agency planned to publish a report covering both FY2015 and FY2016 this fall. As of December 5, 2016, no such report has been published.
The House Republican Better Way agenda call for eliminating government red tape, including onerous paperwork requirements, as part of its goal to provide regulatory relief to small businesses.
