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STATEMENT OF JOHN GRAHAM
ADMINISTRATOR
OFFICE OF INFORMATION AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 25, 2001
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Velazquez, and members of
the Small Business
Committee. Thank you for your invitation to testify today. You invited me
to testify about the
Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) role in reviewing information
collection
requirements pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), as well as our
review of
regulations governing the Medicare and Medicaid programs. I was confirmed
by the Senate last
Thursday in my new position as Administrator of the Office of Information
and Regulatory
Affairs (OIRA), and I am pleased that my first opportunity to testify as
the OIRA Administrator is
before this Committee. I look forward to working with this Committee to
reduce the paperwork
and regulatory burdens that the Federal Government imposes on this
country's small businesses. I
hope to leave this hearing today with a better understanding of your
concerns and ideas for further
action that may be taken by my Office in concert with Mr. Scully and the
Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS). I have appreciated the opportunity to read
the testimony at the
May 9th and July 11th hearings.
In your letter of invitation, you requested my views on the
following issues: 1) administrative
changes that OMB can make in ensuring that it properly understands the
impact of reporting and
recordkeeping requirements on small businesses; 2)nbsp;the adequacy of
OMB's review of reporting
and recordkeeping requirements imposed by CMS contractors on small
healthcare providers;
3) recommendations on necessary legislative changes in the Paperwork
Reduction Act; and
4) our opinion on OMB's review of CMS regulations. These are
important questions, and I look forward
to working with the Committee and CMS to address the concerns that have
been raised about the
paperwork burdens that are placed on small healthcare providers. However,
because I assumed
the position of OIRA Administrator less than a week ago, I am not in a
position at the present
time to discuss what has happened in the past with respect to the
relationship between CMS's
contractors and small health care providers, nor can I offer at the present
time any views or
recommendations regarding what deficiencies may exist and how they can be
remedied.
However, I can assure you that one of my priorities as OIRA Administrator
is to reinvigorate the
Executive Branch's implementation of the Paperwork Reduction Act, and I am
committed to
working with OIRA staff and CMS to look into this matter in detail and to
identify actions that
should be taken to address any deficiencies that we identify.
I look forward to the challenge of administering the PRA in the
Medicare and Medicaid
programs. The PRA strikes a balance between the costs and benefits of
government information.
The PRA directs agencies to collect or create only information that is
necessary for the proper
performance of agency functions and that has practical utility. It seeks
to maximize the
usefulness of information collected, used and disseminated by the Federal
government, while
minimizing the Federal and private costs of providing and managing that
information.
Our review of draft regulations under Executive Order 12866 must
also complement our efforts
under the PRA. Many information collections, recordkeeping requirements,
and third-party
disclosure requirements are contained in, or authorized by, regulations as
monitoring or
enforcement tools, while others appear in questionnaires and their
accompanying instructions.
When regulations operate by requiring the public to report, maintain, or
disclose information,
OIRA's information collection and regulatory reviews become closely
intertwined.
There is no question that there are very substantial costs to the
public of responding to the Federal
Government's paperwork requirements. Americans spent some 7.4 billion
hours complying with
such requests in FY 2000.
I would like to briefly summarize the public and OIRA review that
must occur before an agency
can receive OIRA approval to collect information from the public. The 1995
PRA amendments
mandate an extensive agency review process and provide significant
opportunity for public
participation in both the agency and OMB processes. In accordance with the
goals of the PRA,
the Act requires agencies to plan well in advance when they develop new
collections of
information and they consider extending ongoing collections of information.
This advanced
planning is necessary because agencies need to estimate potential burdens
on respondents, prepare
to disclose certain additional information to the public (e.g., time limits
for recordkeeping
requirements), and seek public comment in notices published in the Federal
Register. Only after
doing this, and considering changes based on any comments received, do
agencies submit their
paperwork clearance packages to OMB for review and approval. OIRA then
reviews each agency
information collection requirement before the agency can collect it, and
reevaluates collections
for their continued use at least once every three years. In cases where
outstanding concerns
remain, OIRA may call meetings with CMS staff, other affected Federal
agencies, state groups,
professional organizations, and other interested commenters. Our
objectives are to (1) determine
whether the agency's collection is necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of the
agency; (2) assure that the collection has practical utility and
(3) assess whether these benefits
justify the burden imposed on the public. If the agency cannot demonstrate
to OIRA's satisfaction
that the collection's need and practical utility justifies its paperwork
burden, OIRA disapproves
the collection and the agency may not go forward with the collection.
Through the PRA, OIRA must help agencies meet their obligation to
the public by striking the
proper balance. The PRA should not be used as grounds for denying the
government the ability
to collect from the public what is necessary to fulfill its statutory
mission. On the other hand,
collection of unnecessary or duplicative information imposes unjustified
costs on the businesses
or individuals that must respond, on the taxpayer, and on the economy as a
whole.
OIRA is continuing to make serious efforts in this area, reviewing
individual paperwork
collection proposals and producing an annual Information Collection Budget
that identifies,
agency by agency, the agency initiatives under way to reduce paperwork
burden and improve the
quality of Federal data collection. I plan to place renewed emphasis on a
coordinated effort to
produce better results in this regard.
Thank you for this opportunity to testify and I look forward to
working with you in the future.
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