The Small Business Paperwork Relief
Act of 2002 ("SBPRA") requires a Task Force (chaired by
the Office of Management and Budget and comprised of the
Office of Advocacy and other federal agencies) to consider
the federal paperwork burdens imposed on small business
and to evaluate the feasibility of reducing those burdens.
A draft of the report
was published in the Federal Register on May 9, 2003. The
Final Task Force
report was sent to Congress June 27, 2003, along
with a list of agency resources
for small businesses and the point of contact at each agency
for small business paperwork reduction inquiries. The Office
of Management and Budget maintains an updated list of the
small business
compliance assistance resources and single points
of contact on its website. The contacts are listed for Cabinet
Agencies and Non-Cabinet
Agencies.
On March 4, 2003, Advocacy held a public
meeting to receive the views of small business representatives
on the existing paperwork burden and the usefulness of burden
relief strategies. Meeting participants commented on several
aspects of paperwork relief, including establishing a single
point of contact for paperwork issues within each agency,
eliminating duplicative, redundant paperwork requirements,
waiving penalties for first-time paperwork violations, and
creating a catalogue of paperwork requirements broken down
by industry. The transcript of
the March 4, 2003 public meeting is available below.
Additionally, Advocacy received several
public comments
on paperwork burden and the feasibility of reducing paperwork.
Those comments are also available below.
The Task Force met again in 2004 to consider ways to improve the electronic dissemination of information collected by the Federal government, to develop an interactive Internet-based system to help small businesses better understand and comply with reporting requirements, and to seek better coordination of Federal and State reporting requirements. On February 9, 2004, Advocacy held a second public meeting to hear the opinions of small business representatives regarding these objectives. The public comments received by Advocacy at this meeting are summarized in Appendix 4 of the Task Force's final 2004 report, which was published in the Federal Register on June 28, 2004.
Transcripts
of Proceeding
March 4,
2003
Public Comments
Received
Aircraft Electronics
AssociationAssociation
Connecting Electronics Industries
Chamber
of Commerce Survey
National
Federation of Independent Business Survey
National
Federation of Independent Business
Printing
Industries of America
Screenprinting
and Graphic Imaging Association International
read more about paperwork
relief
