Summary

Concerns have been raised that the reporting requirements Congress has imposed on federal agencies may be overly burdensome, resulting in duplicative and, in some cases, not very useful reports. This fact sheet examines the number of statutorily required reports that the Office of Management and Budget and other federal agencies provided to the House Committee on Government Operations during the 101st and 102nd Congresses under management-oriented legislation.

GAO found that: (1) legislation requires over 800 federal agency reports; (2) reports outnumbered requirements because a single requirement may generate numerous reports; (3) as of March 1992, there were 3,719 reporting requirements, and 3,331 reports provided to the 102nd Congress; and (4) both Congress and the executive branch expressed concern about the volume and growth of reporting requirements, particularly about the duplication, burdensomeness and usefulness of many reports, but little has been done about the problem.