Federal Paperwork Hours Consume The Equivalent Of 14,883 Human Lifetimes Annually

The White House Office of Management and Budget has this year issued catch-up editions of Information Collection Budget of the United States Government, a task in keeping with longstanding belated and reluctant bipartisan fulfillment of compliance with the 1980 Paperwork Reduction Act and other regulatory oversight laws.

That compliance in part entails “minimiz[ing] the paperwork burden for individuals; small businesses; educational and nonprofit institutions; Federal contractors” and others.

Since 1999, the ICB has been published online. Usually, the calendar year boldly appearing on the cover signified a survey of the just-passed fiscal year.

That “clockwork” changed around 2016 such that by December 2020, a tardy 2018 ICB appeared, covering fiscal-year 2017.

This year, 2023, has brought a flurry of five laggard ICBs in two batches.

A composite Information Collection budget appeared in May, covering fiscal years 2018-2021 with those same corresponding dates printed on the cover.

But that still didn’t catch things up. That was accomplished with a July flourish, whereby the bland and traditional white-paper style ICB format was ditched for a glossier-looking report called Tackling the Time Tax: How the Federal Government Is Reducing Burdens to Accessing Critical Benefits and Services.

Read the full article on Forbes.