# How a Federal Survey Is Approved Before a federal agency may ask ten or more people the same question, someone outside that agency has to say yes. This page maps who, how, and on what clock. The statute is the [[Paperwork Reduction Act]], codified at 44 U.S.C. chapter 35; the regulation that actually runs it is 5 C.F.R. part 1320; and the reviewer is the [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]], a staff office of about fifty people inside the [[Office of Management and Budget]]. This is the only point in the design of a federal survey where a body other than the sponsoring agency can refuse. [[How a Census Question Is Added or Removed]] treats that fact from the census end — the reason a citizenship question had to clear OMB in the first place. This page is the general case, because the same track governs a tax form, a farm subsidy application, a hospital reporting requirement and the [[American Community Survey]] alike. ⭐ **The structural finding is that every clock in the process runs in the asking agency's favour, and the reviewer's silence is a grant.** The two public comment periods have a *floor* — at least 60 days, then at least 30. The review has a *ceiling*: OIRA gets 60 days. And the consequence of the reviewer running out of clock is approval, twice over. Under 5 C.F.R. § 1320.10(c), an agency whose submission sits unanswered for 60 days may simply request a control number, and OMB "shall" assign one. Under 44 U.S.C. § 3507(d), if OMB fails to comment within 60 days of a proposed rule, it generally forfeits the power to disapprove the collection that rule contains. **There is no node anywhere on this map where inaction stops a questionnaire.** Set beside that: a disapproval or an instruction to change must be published and explained, so the one outcome that costs the reviewer anything is the one that says no. The second finding is sharper, and it is about what the public gets. The Act contains exactly one provision written for the respondent rather than for OMB: 44 U.S.C. § 3512, which says no one may be penalised for refusing to answer a collection that does not display a valid control number. The implementing regulation then switches it off for the collections that can actually punish you. 5 C.F.R. § 1320.6(e) provides that the protection "does not preclude the imposition of a penalty on a person for failing to comply with a collection of information that is imposed on the person by statute," and gives as its examples the obligation to file a tax return (26 U.S.C. § 6011(a)) and to give notice before exporting hazardous waste (42 U.S.C. § 6938(c)). Answering the [[Census]] is likewise imposed by statute, at 13 U.S.C. § 221. **The public-protection clause shields you from the voluntary survey and not from the mandatory one.** Sibling maps: [[Federal Statistical System Tree]] is the set of agencies whose output depends on getting through this track; [[Census Bureau Org Chart]] and [[Census Data Products Tree]] are the single agency that uses it most; [[How an Executive Order Is Issued and Challenged]] and [[How Information Is Classified and Declassified]] are the adjacent "a form, a clock and a forum" maps in this folder. > [!note] How to read this chart > `──▶` = the main path · `└─▶` = a branch or a shortcut around the main path · `◇` = a decision point · `⏱` = a statutory or regulatory clock · `⚖` = reviewed by a body outside the sponsoring agency · `⬛` = decided inside the sponsoring agency, no outside review · `✕` = no review of any kind exists · `◈` = a default that resolves in the agency's favour · `★` = changed or acted on in 2025–26 · `[cite]` = the controlling authority. Bare section numbers in the form `§ 3507` are 44 U.S.C.; numbers in the form `§ 1320.10` are 5 C.F.R. Everything inside the fence is plain text; linked entities appear in the prose, Notes and See also. ``` HOW A FEDERAL SURVEY IS APPROVED (as of 20 October 2026) │ The Paperwork Reduction Act clearance track 44 U.S.C. ch. 35 · 5 C.F.R. pt. 1320 │ Legend: ──▶ main path └─▶ branch or shortcut ◇ decision point ⏱ clock │ ⚖ outside the sponsoring agency ⬛ inside the agency only │ ✕ no review exists ◈ default favours the agency │ ★ changed or acted on in 2025-26 [cite] controlling authority │ ■ 0. THE THRESHOLD — is this a "collection of information" at all? │ Facts or opinions put to TEN OR MORE persons by identical questions or │ identical reporting requirements. A VOLUNTARY survey counts. [§ 3502(3)] │ │ │ ├─◇ fewer than ten persons? ................... no clearance needed │ ├─◇ federal employees doing their own jobs? ... no clearance needed │ ├─◇ an open-ended request for comment? ........ no clearance needed │ ├─◇ a public hearing or meeting? .............. no clearance needed │ ├─◇ a criminal investigation or prosecution? .. excluded [§ 3518] │ ├─◇ an intelligence activity? ................. excluded [§ 3518] │ └─◇ GAO · FEC · D.C. · the territories? ....... not an "agency" [§ 3502(1)] │ │ │ └─▶ OTHERWISE: NO COLLECTION WITHOUT AN OMB CONTROL NUMBER [§ 3507(a)] │ ├─◆ A. INSIDE THE AGENCY ⬛ no outside eye yet [§ 3506(c)(1)] │ │ Each agency must run its own review process first. Nothing here is │ │ published, and nothing here is appealable by anyone. │ │ │ ├─ the instrument ......... the form, letter, screen or script itself │ ├─ the supporting statement the justification: authority, purpose, use │ ├─ the burden estimate .... respondents x responses x hours, plus any │ │ fee or equipment the respondent must buy │ └─ the senior official .... the agency CIO or equivalent signs it off │ ◈ OMB may DELEGATE approval to this same │ official outright [§ 3506(a)(2), § 3507(i)] │ ├─◆ B. THE 60-DAY NOTICE ⏱ at least 60 days [§ 3506(c)(2)(A)] │ │ Published in the Federal Register BEFORE the package goes to OMB. │ │ It must invite comment on four things, and only these four: │ │ │ ├─ is the collection NECESSARY for the agency's functions? │ ├─ is the BURDEN ESTIMATE accurate? │ ├─ how could the QUALITY, UTILITY and CLARITY be improved? │ └─ how could the BURDEN be MINIMISED? │ ◈ the agency must CONSIDER the comments. Nothing obliges it to │ adopt one, and no finding on any of the four is required. │ ├─◆ C. THE SUBMISSION AND THE 30-DAY NOTICE ⏱ at least 30 days [§ 1320.10] │ │ The package goes to OIRA through ROCIS, OMB's docketing system, and │ │ a SECOND Federal Register notice runs on or before the same day. │ │ This is the only notice that tells the public where to write: the │ │ named OIRA desk officer, not the agency. │ │ │ └─▶ the docket is public at reginfo.gov for the life of the clearance │ ├─◆ D. THE OIRA DECISION ⚖ ⏱ 60 days from receipt [§ 3507(b), (c)] │ │ The standard the agency must satisfy: LEAST BURDENSOME necessary · │ │ NOT DUPLICATIVE of information already available · of PRACTICAL │ │ UTILITY. [§ 1320.5(d)(1)] │ │ │ ├─◇ APPROVE, with or without change ──▶ control number issued (Part E) │ │ │ ├─◇ INSTRUCT the agency to make substantive or material changes │ │ └─▶ must be made PUBLIC and EXPLAINED [§ 3507(e)(1)] │ │ │ ├─◇ DISAPPROVE ──▶ the agency generally may not proceed │ │ ├─▶ must be made PUBLIC and EXPLAINED [§ 3507(e)(1)] │ │ └─▶ ONE OVERRIDE EXISTS: a multi-member INDEPENDENT REGULATORY │ │ AGENCY may void the disapproval by MAJORITY VOTE of its │ │ members. No other agency has this. [§ 3507(f), § 1320.15] │ │ │ └─◈ SILENCE ──▶ APPROVAL BY DEFAULT. If OMB has not acted in 60 days the │ agency may request a control number and OMB "shall" assign it │ "without delay." The number is then good for ONE year, not three. │ [§ 1320.10(c)] │ ├─◆ E. THE CONTROL NUMBER — what approval actually is │ │ │ ├─ a number displayed on the instrument, with an expiration date │ ├─ THREE YEARS MAXIMUM. OMB cannot approve a collection for longer, │ │ so every standing federal survey comes back through this whole │ │ track at least once a presidential term. [§ 3507(g)] │ ├─ renewal must begin at least 60 days BEFORE expiry [§ 1320.12] │ └─ ✕ no control number means no penalty for refusing to answer — but │ see the carve-out at Part H, which is where that promise ends │ ├─◆ F. THE SHORTCUTS — five ways around the two notices │ │ Each one is lawful. Together they are how most of the estate moves. │ │ │ ├─◆ F1. INSIDE A RULEMAKING [§ 3507(d), § 1320.11] │ │ The collection travels with the proposed rule rather than alone. │ │ ├─ the NPRM names the OIRA desk officer; the rule's own comment │ │ │ period does the work of the 30-day notice │ │ ├─◈ IF OMB FILES NO COMMENT WITHIN 60 DAYS OF THE NPRM IT │ │ │ GENERALLY MAY NOT DISAPPROVE THE COLLECTION AT ALL. │ │ │ The reviewer's silence here forfeits the veto itself. │ │ └─ ✕ a decision to APPROVE, or not to act, is NOT JUDICIALLY │ │ REVIEWABLE by anyone [§ 3507(d)] │ │ │ ├─◆ F2. EMERGENCY PROCESSING [§ 3507(j), § 1320.13] │ │ The agency head certifies urgency; OMB may waive BOTH comment │ │ periods. Approval capped at 180 days and not renewable as such. │ │ │ ├─◆ F3. GENERIC CLEARANCE │ │ One umbrella approval for a family of low-burden voluntary │ │ collections. Individual collections under it go STRAIGHT to OIRA │ │ with NO further public notice at all. │ │ └─◈ for service-delivery collections, approval may be ASSUMED │ │ unless OIRA objects within FIVE days │ │ │ ├─◆ F4. NON-SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE │ │ A revision the agency characterises as not substantive rides on │ │ the existing number. No notice, no new clock, same expiration. │ │ │ └─◆ F5. DELEGATION TO THE AGENCY'S OWN CIO [§ 3506(a)(2), § 3507(i)] │ OMB may hand the approval power to an official inside the │ sponsoring agency, provided that official is "sufficiently │ independent of program responsibility." The outside reviewer │ and the inside reviewer become the same person. │ ├─◆ G. THE STATISTICAL OVERLAY — one extra layer, for surveys only │ │ Statistical collections clear the same track, plus a standards │ │ regime administered from the Statistical Policy Branch of the same │ │ office that does the clearing. │ │ │ ├─ the Chief Statistician of the United States ....... [§ 3504(e)(7)] │ │ the statute's whole design for the post: the OMB Director "shall │ │ appoint a chief statistician who is a trained and experienced │ │ professional statistician." Not Senate-confirmed. No fixed term. │ ├─ the governmentwide standards for survey design, pretesting and │ │ release, issued as OMB Statistical Policy Directives │ ├─ the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy, which the Chief │ │ Statistician chairs [§ 3504(e)(8)] │ └─ ⬛ none of it is a statute, a rule, or reviewable by a court. │ It is guidance issued by one appointee to thirteen agencies. │ └─◆ H. WHAT THE PUBLIC ACTUALLY GETS — and the carve-out │ ├─ THE DOCKET. Every notice, the supporting statement, the burden │ estimate and every comment are public at reginfo.gov. This is │ real, and it is the strongest thing on the page. │ ├─ THE PUBLIC-PROTECTION CLAUSE. No penalty for failing to answer a │ collection that shows no valid control number, or whose sponsor │ failed to say that a valid number is required. [§ 3512] │ └─ ✕ THE CARVE-OUT. That protection "does not preclude the imposition of a penalty on a person for failing to comply with a collection of information that is imposed on the person by statute." Cited examples: the tax return (26 U.S.C. 6011(a)) and the hazardous-waste export notice (42 U.S.C. 6938(c)). The decennial census is imposed by statute too, at 13 U.S.C. 221. SO THE SHIELD COVERS THE VOLUNTARY SURVEY AND NOT THE MANDATORY ONE — which is the reverse of where a penalty can land. [§ 1320.6(e)] ``` ## Notes - **Officeholders (verified October 2026).** [[Russell Vought]] is Director of the [[Office of Management and Budget]]. No one has been confirmed to run [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]] since January 2025: [[Jeffrey Clark]] served as acting administrator from 5 March 2025 until his clock under the [[Federal Vacancies Reform Act]] expired on 4 March 2026, and since that date [[Mark Paoletta]], OMB's general counsel, has performed the administrator's delegated duties. [[Stuart Levenbach]] has been [[Chief Statistician of the United States]] since January 2026, succeeding Mark Calabria; he holds the post alongside his existing job as OMB's associate director for natural resources, energy, science and water. No name appears inside the chart, because the nodes are offices and reporting lines rather than incumbents. - **The reviewer and the sponsor share a chain of command.** This is the structural weakness that explains the rest. OIRA is not an inspector general, a court or a commission; it is a staff office of the President's own budget bureau, reviewing collections proposed by agencies that also answer to the President. When the White House wants the question asked, the check is being run by the office that wants it asked. See [[Unitary Executive Theory]] for the doctrine, and [[Census Citizenship Question]] for the case in which that proposition was litigated. - **The burden estimate is the only number anyone fights about, and nobody audits it.** Every clearance turns on hours the agency itself predicts. OIRA aggregates the predictions into an annual Information Collection Budget, which has run in the neighbourhood of ten billion hours a year — most of it tax forms and health-care reporting — but the aggregate is a sum of self-reported estimates, not a measurement, and the statute requires no verification of any component. - **A worked example from the 2030 cycle.** The [[Local Update of Census Addresses]] operation, by which local and tribal governments review the address list the next decennial count will run on, travelled this track in early 2026: the 30-day notice reached the *Federal Register* on 17 February 2026, and a correction ten days later, on 27 February, fixed a published schedule that had the review window a full year late — October 2028 through March 2029, where the correct dates are October 2027 through March 2028. The docket worked exactly as designed. What the episode shows is how much of the 2030 count's machinery is set by notices like this one rather than by anything Congress votes on. - **Three years is the quiet deadline in the system.** Because no approval can run longer, every standing federal collection is renewable property with an expiry date. That is ordinarily housekeeping. It is also the least visible way to end a survey: a clearance allowed to lapse ends a collection with no decision, no notice and no disapproval to publish. Nothing on this map requires anyone to renew. - **What this page does not cover.** The downstream questions — what happens to the data once collected, how it is protected before publication, and how a published statistic is corrected or withdrawn — belong to [[Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products]] and [[Census Data Products Tree]]. The confidentiality pledge that governs statistical collections specifically runs on a separate statutory track (CIPSEA and, for the census, 13 U.S.C. § 9) and is not mapped here. - **Open questions.** How often OIRA actually disapproves, as against instructing changes, is not published in a form that supports a rate; the independent-agency override at § 3507(f) does not appear to have a documented modern use, but an absence of search results is not a finding and it is marked `[unconfirmed]` rather than asserted; and whether the delegation power at § 3507(i) is in current use at any agency could not be confirmed. ## See also - [[Paperwork Reduction Act]] · [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]] · [[Office of Management and Budget]] - [[How a Census Question Is Added or Removed]] · [[Census Citizenship Question]] · [[Census]] - [[Federal Statistical System Tree]] · [[Chief Statistician of the United States]] · [[Statistical Policy Directive No. 1]] · [[Statistical Policy Directive No. 15]] · [[Interagency Council on Statistical Policy]] - [[Census Bureau Org Chart]] · [[Census Data Products Tree]] · [[Disclosure Avoidance for Statistical Products]] · [[Local Update of Census Addresses]] - [[Federal Register]] · [[Administrative Procedure Act]] · [[How an Executive Order Is Issued and Challenged]] - [[Federal Agencies Hub]] · [[Foundations Hub]]