The Paper Chase
Congress' Paperwork Reduction Act amendments of 1995, so far at least, appear to be showing mixed results. There clearly are some individual improvements, such as the Environmental Protection Agency's move to allow factories with good environmental records to report their emissions less frequently, and the Internal Revenue Service's Telefile telephone tax return filing program.
But the 2.6 percent decline overall in the number of hours needed to meet federal paperwork requirements from FY 1995 to FY 1996, the most recent governmentwide statistic available, hasn't impressed everyone. These reductions amount to removing only low-hanging fruit from the regulatory burden, in the view of Jeff Van, spokesman for the Chemical Manufacturers Association. Here are the numbers:
Total Information Collection Burden(in millions of hours)
Source: Office of Management and Budget's September 1997 "Reports to Congress Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995"
| Agencies | FY 1995 Total Hour Burden | FY 1996 Total Hour Burden | Estimated 1997 Total Hour Burden | Percent Change |
| Agriculture | 131.0 | 107.2 | 96.4 | -18.1 |
| Defense | 205.9 | 152.5 | 127.5 | -25.9 |
| Health and Human Services | 152.6 | 137.5 | 123.0 | -9.9 |
| Labor | 266.4 | 241.1 | 221.8 | -9.5 |
| Transportation | 91.0 | 66.2 | 87.8 | -27.3 |
| Treasury | 5,331.3 | 5,352.8 | 5,294.3 | 0.4 |
| Environmental Protection Agency | 103.0 | 107.7 | 115.1 | 4.5 |
| Securities and Exchange Commission | 191.5 | 142.1 | 135.8 | -25.8 |
| Government Total | 6,900.9 | 6,722.6 | 6,599.7 | -2.6 |
| Government Total excluding Treasury | 1,569.6 | 1,369.7 | 1,305.4 | -12.7 |
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