I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2432

To amend the Paperwork Reduction Act and titles 5 and 31, United States 

Code, to reform Federal paperwork and regulatory processes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 11, 2003

Mr. OSE (for himself, Mr. TANNER, Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. MOORE, 

Mr. JANKLOW, Mr. MATHESON, and Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government 

Reform, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period 

to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 

concerned 

A BILL

To amend the Paperwork Reduction Act and titles 5 and 

31, United States Code, to reform Federal paperwork 

and regulatory processes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Paperwork and Regu5 latory Improvements Act of 2003’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 
2

•HR 2432 IH 

1 (1) In 1980, in the Paperwork Reduction Act, 

2 Congress established the Office of Information and 

3 Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Manage4 ment and Budget. OIRA’s principal responsibility is 

5 to reduce the paperwork burden on the public that 

6 results from the collection of information by or for 

7 the Federal Government. In 2002, OIRA estimated 

8 that the paperwork burden imposed on the public 

9 was 7.7 billion hours, at a cost of $230 billion. The 

10 Internal Revenue Service accounted for 83 percent 

11 of the paperwork burden. 

12 (2) In 1995, Congress amended the Paperwork 

13 Reduction Act and established annual government14 wide paperwork reduction goals of 10 percent for 

15 each of fiscal years 1996 and 1997, and 5 percent 

16 for each of fiscal years 1998 through 2001, but the 

17 paperwork burden increased, rather than decreased, 

18 in each of those fiscal years and fiscal year 2002. 

19 Both the Office of Management and Budget and the 

20 Internal Revenue Service need to devote additional 

21 attention to paperwork reduction. 

22 (3) In 2002, the House Report accompanying 

23 the Treasury and General Government Appropria24 tions Act, 2003 (House Report 107–575) stated, 

25 ‘‘The Office of Management and Budget has re-
3

•HR 2432 IH 

1 ported that paperwork burdens on Americans have 

2 increased in each of the last six years. Since the In3 ternal Revenue Service imposes over 80 percent of 

4 these paperwork burdens, the Committee believes 

5 that OMB should work to identify and review pro6 posed and existing IRS paperwork.’’. 

7 (4) One key to success in paperwork reduction 

8 is the Office of Management and Budget’s system9 atic review of every new and revised agency paper10 work proposal. Recent statutory exemptions from 

11 that office’s review responsibility, especially those 

12 without any stated justification, should be removed. 

13 (5) In 2000, researchers Mark Crain of George 

14 Mason University and Thomas Hopkins of the Roch15 ester Institute of Technology, in their October 2001 

16 publication titled ‘‘The Impact of Regulatory Costs 

17 on Small Firms’’, estimated that Americans spend 

18 $843 billion annually to comply with Federal regula19 tions. Congress has a responsibility to review major 

20 rules (as defined by section 804 of title 5, United 

21 States Code) proposed by agencies, especially regu22 latory alternatives and the costs and benefits associ23 ated with each of them. In 2000, in the Truth in 

24 Regulating Act, Congress established new responsi-
4

•HR 2432 IH 

1 bility within the General Accounting Office to assist 

2 Congress with this responsibility. 

3 (6) In 1996, because of the increasing costs and 

4 incompletely estimated benefits of Federal rules and 

5 paperwork, Congress required the Office of Manage6 ment and Budget for the first time to submit an an7 nual report to Congress on the total costs and bene8 fits to the public of Federal rules and paperwork re9 quirements, including an assessment of the effects of 

10 Federal rules on the private sector and State and 

11 local governments. In 1998, Congress changed the 

12 annual report’s due date to coincide with the due 

13 date of the President’s budget, so that Congress and 

14 the public could be given an opportunity to simulta15 neously review both the on-budget and off-budget 

16 costs associated with the regulatory and paperwork 

17 requirements of each Federal agency. In 2000, Con18 gress made this a permanent annual reporting re19 quirement. 

20 (7) The Office of Management and Budget re21 quires agencies to submit annual budget and paper22 work burden estimates in order to prepare certain 

23 required reports for Congress, but it does not re24 quire agencies to submit estimates on costs and ben25 efits of agency rules and paperwork. The Office of 
5

•HR 2432 IH 

1 Management and Budget needs to require agencies 

2 to submit such estimates on costs and benefits to 

3 help prepare the annual accounting statement and 

4 associated report required under section 624 of the 

5 Treasury and General Government Appropriations 

6 Act, 2001. 

7 SEC. 3. REDUCTION OF TAX PAPERWORK. 

8 Section 3504 of title 44, United States Code, is 

9 amended by adding at the end the following new sub10 section: 

11 ‘‘(i) In carrying out subsection (c)(3), the Director 

12 shall assign, at a minimum, the equivalent of at least 2 

13 fulltime staffers to review the Federal information collec14 tion burden on the public imposed by the Internal Revenue 

15 Service.’’. 

16 SEC. 4. REPEAL OF EXEMPTIONS FROM PAPERWORK RE17 DUCTION ACT, ETC. 

18 The following provisions of the Farm Security and 

19 Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Public Law 107–171) are 

20 repealed: 

21 (1) Subparagraphs (A) and (C) of section 

22 1601(c)(2). 

23 (2) Section 1601(c)(3). 

24 (3) Section 2702(b)(1)(A). 

25 (4) Section 2702(b)(2)(A).
6

•HR 2432 IH 

1 (5) Section 2702(c). 

2 (6) Subparagraphs (A) and (C) of section 

3 6103(b)(2). 

4 (7) Section 6103(b)(3). 

5 (8) Subparagraphs (A) and (C) of section 

6 10105(d)(2). 

7 (9) Section 10105(d)(3). 

8 SEC. 5. AMENDMENT OF TRUTH IN REGULATING ACT TO 

9 MAKE PERMANENT PILOT PROJECT FOR RE10 PORT ON RULES. 

11 The purpose of this section is to make permanent the 

12 authority to request the performance of regulatory anal13 ysis to enhance Congressional responsibility for regulatory 

14 decisions developed under the laws enacted by Congress. 

15 The Truth in Regulating Act of 2000 (Public Law 106–

16 312; 5 U.S.C. 801 note) is amended—

17 (1) in the heading for section 4, by striking 

18 ‘‘PILOT PROJECT FOR’’; 

19 (2) by striking section 5 and redesignating sec20 tion 6 as section 5; and 

21 (3) in section 5 (as redesignated by paragraph 

22 (2))—

23 (A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘AND DU24 RATION OF PILOT PROJECT’’; 
7

•HR 2432 IH 

1 (B) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘(a) EF2 FECTIVE DATE.—’’; and 

3 (C) by striking subsections (b) and (c). 

4 SEC. 6. IMPROVED REGULATORY ACCOUNTING. 

5 (a) REQUIREMENT FOR AGENCIES TO SUBMIT IN6 FORMATION ON REGULATIONS AND PAPERWORK TO

7 OMB.—Section 624 of the Treasury and General Govern8 ment Appropriations Act, 2001 (as enacted into law by 

9 Public Law 106–554; 114 Stat. 2763A–161), is amend10 ed—

11 (1) by redesignating subsections (b), (c), and 

12 (d) as subsections (e), (f), and (g), respectively, and 

13 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol14 lowing new subsection: 

15 ‘‘(b) AGENCY SUBMISSIONS TO OMB.—To carry out 

16 subsection (a), the Director of the Office of Management 

17 and Budget shall require each agency annually to submit 

18 to the Office of Management and Budget an estimate of 

19 the total annual costs and benefits of Federal rules and 

20 paperwork—

21 ‘‘(1) for the agency in the aggregate; and 

22 ‘‘(2) for each agency program.’’.

23 (b) REQUIREMENT FOR OMB ACCOUNTING STATE24 MENT TO COVER SAME YEARS COVERED BY BUDGET.—

25 Section 624 of the Treasury and General Government Ap-
8

•HR 2432 IH 

1 propriations Act, 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 

2 106–554; 114 Stat. 2763A–161), is further amended by 

3 inserting after subsection (b), as added by subsection (a), 

4 the following new subsection: 

5 ‘‘(c) YEARS COVERED BY ACCOUNTING STATE6 MENT.—Each accounting statement submitted under this 

7 section shall, at a minimum—

8 ‘‘(1) cover the fiscal year for which the state9 ment is submitted and each of the 4 fiscal years 

10 after that fiscal year; and 

11 ‘‘(2) cover the current fiscal year and the fiscal 

12 year prior to the current fiscal year.’’. 

13 (c) INTEGRATION OF OMB ACCOUNTING STATE14 MENT AND REPORT INTO PRESIDENT’S BUDGET.—Sec15 tion 624 of the Treasury and General Government Appro16 priations Act, 2001 (as enacted into law by Public Law 

17 106–554; 114 Stat. 2763A–161) is further amended— 

18 (1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘with the 

19 budget’’ and inserting ‘‘as part of the budget’’; and 

20 (2) by inserting after subsection (c), as added 

21 by subsection (b), the following new subsection: 

22 ‘‘(d) FORM OF SUBMISSION.—The accounting state23 ment and associated report required by subsection (a) 

24 shall be included in the budget documents submitted 

25 under section 1105 of title 31, United States Code, in a 
9

•HR 2432 IH 

1 form that allows direct comparison of the budget for ac2 tivities and functions of the Government with the costs 

3 and benefits to the public of Federal rules and paperwork 

4 associated with those activities and functions.’’. 

5 (d) PILOT PROJECTS FOR REGULATORY BUDG6 ETING.—(1) Chapter 11 of title 31, United States Code, 

7 is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

8 ‘‘§ 1120 Pilot projects for regulatory budgeting 

9 ‘‘(a) The Director of the Office of Management and 

10 Budget, after consultation with the head of each agency, 

11 shall designate not less than five agencies as pilot projects 

12 in regulatory budgeting for fiscal years 2006 and 2007. 

13 The designated agencies shall reflect a representative 

14 range of Federal regulatory programs, and shall include 

15 at least the Department of Labor, the Department of 

16 Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agen17 cy. 

18 ‘‘(b) Pilot projects in the designated agencies shall 

19 cover the preparation of regulatory budgets. Such budgets 

20 shall present, for one or more of the major regulatory pro21 grams of the agency, the varying levels of costs and bene22 fits to the public that would result from different budgeted 

23 amounts. 

24 ‘‘(c) The Director of the Office of Management and 

25 Budget shall include, as an alternative budget presen-
10

•HR 2432 IH 

1 tation in the budget submitted under section 1105 for fis2 cal year 2007, the regulatory budgets of the designated 

3 agencies for that fiscal year. 

4 ‘‘(d) No later than the first Monday in February of 

5 2009, the Director of the Office of Management and 

6 Budget shall transmit to the President and to Congress 

7 a report on the regulatory budgeting pilot projects. The 

8 report shall—

9 ‘‘(1) assess the feasibility and advisability of in10 cluding a regulatory budget as part of the annual 

11 budget submitted under section 1105; 

12 ‘‘(2) describe any difficulties encountered by the 

13 pilot agencies in preparing a regulatory budget; and 

14 ‘‘(3) recommend whether legislation requiring 

15 regulatory budgets should be proposed and the gen16 eral provisions of any legislation. 

17 ‘‘(e) After receipt of the report required under sub18 section (d), Congress may specify that a regulatory budget 

19 be submitted as part of the annual budget submitted 

20 under section 1105.’’.

21 (2) The table of sections at the beginning of such 

22 chapter is amended by adding at the end the following 

23 new item:

‘‘1120. Pilot projects for regulatory budgeting.’’.

Æ