# Paperwork Reduction Act The statute, codified at 44 U.S.C. chapter 35, that requires a federal agency to obtain approval from the [[Office of Management and Budget]] before collecting information from ten or more persons. [[Jimmy Carter]] signed it on December 11, 1980, and it is the law that created the [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]]. It was reauthorized and broadened in 1995. Approval takes the form of an OMB control number with a term of no more than three years, after which the collection must be cleared again. ## How clearance works - **Two notices.** The process is the reason a federal questionnaire carries two *Federal Register* notices: a 60-day notice inviting comment on the proposed collection, then a 30-day notice when the package goes to OMB. Comments go on the record, but the statute does not oblige the agency to adopt them. - **The public-protection clause.** Under 44 U.S.C. § 3512, no one can be penalized for failing to respond to a collection that does not display a valid control number. This is the one part of the Act that belongs to the public rather than to OMB. - **Burden accounting.** OIRA's annual Information Collection Budget tallies the total. It has run to roughly ten billion hours a year in recent reports, most of it Treasury (the tax forms) and HHS. ## The softest veto in government Structurally the PRA is the only point in the design of a federal survey where a body other than the sponsoring agency can say no. That makes it consequential out of all proportion to its housekeeping name. It is also the softest possible veto. The reviewer is an executive office in the same chain of command as the agency proposing the collection, and the governing standard is the collection's "practical utility." That is why the PRA is the only real veto point on a census question ([[How a Census Question Is Added or Removed]]). It is also why that veto is weakest exactly when the White House wants the question. In 2026, OIRA itself was being run by an official performing the duties rather than a confirmed administrator (see [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]]). A check that depends on OMB's independence from the President's agenda is a weak check under an administration that governs by [[Unitary Executive Theory]]. The public-protection clause and the published docket are what remain. ## See also - [[How a Census Question Is Added or Removed]] · [[Census Citizenship Question]] - [[Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs]] · [[Office of Management and Budget]] - [[Federal Statistical System Tree]] · [[Statistical Policy Directive No. 1]] · [[Chief Statistician of the United States]]