They should ensure that they are collecting information once, not redundantly. They should always look for simpler, easier, and faster ways for citizens to provide essential information. As we describe in the ICB for FY 2000, agencies have been making serious efforts to improve the quality of Federal information collection and to reduce burden. They have even begun to assess information needs and burden concerns in the regulatory process. For example, in FY 1999, the Department of Labor revised its regulatory review procedures to elevate the role of the CIO in the regulatory clearance process, helping to ensure that proposed and final rules impose only the minimum necessary burden on the public.
Agencies employ a variety of tools to make information collection more efficient.
It plans to complete a zero-based review of its motor carrier regulations in FY 2000. The agency indicates the revision eliminates or combines many regulatory requirements and information collections, and streamlines most of the rest. Sometimes two or more agencies regulate different aspects of the same activity and use separate, duplicative information collections. DOT has required the drivers to keep driver logs, while DOL has required them to use time records. By canceling the requirement for drivers operating within 100 miles of their normal work site, DOT eliminated 660,000 reporting hours.