Federal agencies often must collect information from the public to accomplish their missions. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collects information from taxpayers and their employers to know the correct amount of taxes owed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) within the Department of Labor collects data that enable the President and Congress to gauge the condition of the U.S. economy. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collects information to insure compliance with the agency's regulations, to evaluate the effectiveness of its programs, and for other purposes. The Department of Agriculture requires that applicants for food stamps and crop subsidies provide information to verify their eligibility. The U.S. Census Bureau periodically collects information that is used to apportion congressional districts and for many other purposes. Many agency information collections, recordkeeping requirements, and third-party disclosures are contained in or are authorized by regulations as monitoring or enforcement tools. In fact, these paperwork requirements are sometimes the essence of the agencies' regulatory provisions. However valuable they are, though, federal information collection requirements can also impose a substantial paperwork burden on the public. That burden can be a function of the amount of information collected, the frequency with which the information is collected, and the number of entities required to provide the information. The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. §§ 3501-3520) was originally enacted in 1980, and was substantively amended in 1986 and again in 1995. The stated purposes of the PRA include (1) minimizing the burden of federal paperwork on individuals, small businesses, state and local governments, and others; (2) ensuring the greatest public benefit from federal information; (3) coordination of federal information resources management policies; and (4) improving the quality and use of federal information. The PRA of 1980 established the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide central agency leadership and oversight of government-wide efforts to reduce unnecessary paperwork burden and improve the management of information resources. The act assigns specific responsibilities to both OIRA and federal agencies regarding (1) general information resources management, (2) collection of information and the control of paperwork, (3) information dissemination, (4) statistical policy and coordination, (5) records management, (6) privacy and security, and (7) federal information technology. This report focuses on the PRA's requirements regarding information collection and the control of paperwork. The scope of the PRA is very broad, both in terms of the federal agencies that must comply with its requirements, and the types of information collection requirements and activities that are covered. The PRA defines a covered "agency" as "any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency." The act specifically excludes (1) the Government Accountability Office (GAO, formerly the General Accounting Office); (2) the Federal Election Commission; (3) the governments of the District of Columbia and of the territories and possessions of the United States, and their various subdivisions; and (4) government-owned contractor-operated facilities, including laboratories engaged in national defense research and production activities. Therefore, the PRA's requirements apply to virtually every executive branch agency, including independent regulatory agencies that are sometimes excluded from oversight and control by the President or OMB. The PRA generally defines a "collection of information" as the obtaining, causing to be obtained, or disclosure of facts or opinions by or for an agency by 10 or more nonfederal "persons." A "person" is defined in the act as including individuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, groups, and any element of a state or local government. Therefore, if a covered agency wants to collect information from 10 or more of these non-federal entities, or to require 10 or more of these entities to provide information to a third party or to the public (e.g., via a product labeling requirement), that information collection or disclosure requirement is probably covered by the PRA. "Burden" is also broadly defined in the act to include all of the "time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, or provide information to or for a Federal agency," including any time or other expenditure needed to review instructions, acquire technology, or search data sources. For example, the paperwork burden associated with completing a tax return includes not only the amount of time required to fill out the relevant forms, but also the time and money needed to read the instructions, collect the required information, and purchase any necessary software or hardware. The PRA requires agencies to justify any collection of information from the public by establishing the need and intended use of the information, estimating the burden that the collection will impose on respondents, and showing that the collection is the least burdensome way to gather the information. Paperwork burden is most commonly measured in terms of "burden hours." The burden-hour estimate for an information collection is a function of (1) the frequency of the information collection, (2) the estimated number of respondents, and (3) the amount of time that the agency estimates it takes each respondent to complete the collection. For example, if an agency estimates that an information collection conducted twice each year will take each of the 10,000 respondents 10 hours to complete each time, the annual burden-hour estimate for the collection is 200,000 burden hours (2 times 10,000 times 10). As discussed more fully later in this report, as of May 2009, the government-wide paperwork burden estimate is nearly 10 billion burden hours. While federal paperwork requirements are often unwelcomed by those required to complete them, some information collection "burden" is voluntarily accepted by respondents in order to receive certain benefits. For example, recipients of federal crop subsidies or food stamps must complete Department of Agriculture application forms in order to receive payments. Similarly, certain taxpayers elect to complete longer tax forms (e.g., the Form 1040 instead of the 1040-EZ) in order to pay lower taxes. As a former OIRA administrator testified in 2008, "not all hours spent have the same consequences." The PRA does not apply to collections of information "during the conduct of a Federal criminal investigation," or "during the conduct of ... an administrative action or investigation involving an agency against specific individuals or entities." However, the PRA does apply to "the collection of information during the conduct of general investigations ... undertaken with reference to a category of individuals or entities such as a class of licensees or an entire industry." The PRA generally requires OIRA to "oversee the use of information resources to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of governmental operations to serve agency missions." Agencies must receive OIRA approval (signified by an OMB control number displayed on the information collection) for each information collection request before it is implemented, and those approvals must be renewed at least every three years. As discussed in more detail later in this report, failure to obtain OIRA approval for an active collection, or the lapse of that approval, represents a violation of the act, and triggers the PRA's public protection provision. Under that provision, no one can be penalized for failing to comply with a collection of information subject to the act if the collection does not display a valid OMB control number, or if the agency does not inform the respondents that they are not required to respond unless the collection of information contains a valid OMB control number. OIRA can disapprove any collection of information if it believes the collection is inconsistent with the requirements of the PRA. The PRA requires that each federal agency establish its own paperwork clearance process within the agency's office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), and requires that the process be "sufficiently independent of program responsibility to evaluate fairly whether proposed collections of information should be approved under this subchapter." An agency cannot conduct a collection of information until after (1) undertaking a review by the agency before submission to OIRA; (2) evaluating public comments received in response to a 60-day notice in the Federal Register (or, if part of a proposed rule, comments received in response to the notice of proposed rulemaking); (3) submitting to OIRA a certification that the proposed information collection meets certain statutory requirements (e.g., that it is written in plain terms and is "necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency"); and (4) publishing a notice in the Federal Register that the certification has been submitted and providing other information about the proposed collection (e.g., a description of the proposed collection and an estimate of its burden). In 2005, GAO reported that agency CIOs sometimes provided the required certifications despite missing or inadequate support from the program offices sponsoring the collections. As a result, GAO said that OMB, the agency, and the public have reduced assurance that the standards in the act (e.g., avoiding duplication and minimizing burden) have been consistently met. GAO suggested several options that Congress could consider to improve compliance (e.g., mandating pilot projects on burden reduction), and recommended that OMB change its guidance in relation to these issues. To date, neither Congress nor OMB has acted on GAO's recommendations. After an agency submits its proposed information collection request to OIRA (with the above-mentioned certification), the PRA requires OIRA to provide at least 30 days for public comment prior to deciding whether to approve the request. If a new proposed information collection is not part of a proposed rule, the PRA requires OIRA to notify the submitting agency of its decision within 60 days of the agency's certification or Federal Register notice (whichever is later).