Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Training
    • Class Registration
    • On-demand Training
    • GTPAC COVID-19 Resource Page
    • Cybersecurity Video
    • Veterans Verification Video
    • GTPAC Community
    • Other Training Audio & Video
  • Useful Links
  • Team Directory
    • Albany Counselor
    • Athens Counselor
    • Atlanta Counselors
    • Augusta Counselor
    • Carrollton Counselor
    • Columbus Counselor
    • Gainesville Counselor
    • Savannah Counselor
    • Warner Robins Counselor
  • Directions
    • Athens
    • Atlanta – Training Facility
    • Atlanta – Office
    • Albany
    • Augusta
    • Carrollton
    • Columbus
    • Gainesville
    • Savannah
    • Warner Robins
  • COVID-19
  • New Client Application
  • Contact Us

Agencies must report plans for reducing paperwork burden on small businesses

March 1, 2011 By ei2admin

The Office of Management and Budget last week ordered federal agencies to reduce the paperwork burden and reporting requirements for small businesses.

The White House estimates the public spent 9.8 billion hours responding to federal reporting requirements in 2009, 85 million hours more than in 2008 and 2.9 billion hours more than in 1995, when Congress passed the Paperwork Reduction Act, which sought to reduce the burden on the public.

Some agencies already have made substantial progress. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission took steps to trim reporting requirements 27 percent from 2008 to 2009; the Social Security Administration produced a 13 percent decrease, OMB said.

“Although these developments are encouraging, more should be done,” OMB’s Cass Sunstein, administrator for information and regulatory affairs, wrote in the directive to agency chief information officers. “To that end, this memorandum asks agencies to produce one or more burden reduction initiatives that promise to produce significant progress in the next year.” CIOs must respond by April 22.

The request is part of OMB’s annual call for agencies to outline progress made on paperwork reduction initiatives. This year, the White House asked agencies to give priority to initiatives that provide relief to small businesses or recipients of federal benefits. “Because of economics of scale, a collection may be proportionally more burdensome for a small entity than a large one,” the memo said.

OMB spokeswoman Meg Reilly said the emphasis on small businesses is consistent with a Jan. 18 presidential memorandum andexecutive order on regulatory flexibility, small business and job creation. The OMB memo “supplements and builds upon these efforts to reduce burdens on small businesses and the American public,” she wrote in an e-mail.

To help reduce the burden on small businesses, OMB suggested agencies use electronic forms, reduce the frequency of collecting information, and share and reuse existing data.

“We expect agencies to develop their own unique burden reduction initiatives, in addition to those that fit into the categories we requested,” Reilly said.

While the effort should help cut paperwork, she said, “over 40 percent of the increase in burden from 2000 to 2009 can be attributed to new congressional statutes.”

Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy for the government accountability group OMB Watch, applauded the suggestions. “In terms of burden on small business, it means that there may be some time savings in not filling in [the same] information [many times],” he said. “You fill it in one time; the agency has it, so it saves time there.”

– by Brian Kalish – NextGov.com –  02/28/11 – © 2011 BY NATIONAL JOURNAL GROUP, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: OMB, reporting requirements, small business

Recent Posts

  • DoD publishes long awaited interim rule on CMMC
  • GSA Region 4 OSDBU hosting small business webinar
  • GTPAC launches COVID-19 resource page
  • GDEcD seeks GA Manufacturers and Distributors that can help with critical health care supply needs related to COVID-19
  • Georgia DOAS to hold 4th Annual Georgia Procurement Conference April 21-23, 2020

Popular Topics

8(a) abuse Army bid protest budget budget cuts certification construction contract awards contracting opportunities cybersecurity DoD DOJ False Claims Act FAR federal contracting federal contracts fraud GAO Georgia Tech government contracting government contract training government trends GSA GSA Schedule GTPAC HUBZone innovation IT Justice Dept. marketing NDAA OMB SBA SDVOSB set-aside small business small business goals spending subcontracting technology VA veteran owned business VOSB wosb

Contracting News

DoD publishes long awaited interim rule on CMMC

Small business subcontracting for cloud computing gets easier

Long awaited changes to WOSB/EDWOSB regulations expected this summer

The CMMC has arrived: DoD publishes version 1.0 of its new cybersecurity framework

GSA keeping ‘on track’ with schedule consolidation

Read More

Contracting Tips

A guide to labor and employment obligations for federal contractors

Who pays for CMMC certification?

Other transaction agreements: Where does an unsuccessful bidder go?

Knowledge is power, if you know how to use it

EAJA provides relief to construction contractor for government’s bad actions

Read More

GTPAC News

GSA Region 4 OSDBU hosting small business webinar

GTPAC launches COVID-19 resource page

GDEcD seeks GA Manufacturers and Distributors that can help with critical health care supply needs related to COVID-19

Georgia DOAS to hold 4th Annual Georgia Procurement Conference April 21-23, 2020

MICC Fort Stewart hosting acquisition forecast open house on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020

Read More

Georgia Tech News

Dr. Abdallah testifies on U.S. competitiveness, research, STEM pipeline at Congressional hearing

Georgia Tech’s Technology Square Phase III to include George Tower

Student surprises his teacher with Georgia Tech acceptance news

Georgia Tech Applied Research will support DHS information safeguarding effort

$25 million project will advance DNA-based archival data storage

Read More

  • SAM.gov registration is free, and help with SAM is free, too
APTAC RSS Twitter GTPAC - 30th Year of Service

Copyright © 2021 · Georgia Tech - Enterprise Innovation Institute