GAO says paperwork still piling up.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: Up front: news, trends & analysis - General Accounting Office - Brief Article

A recent U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report on the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) reveals a record increase in federal agencies' burden estimates. Victor S. Rezendes, GAO managing director for strategic issues, reported that as of September 30, 2002, federal agencies estimated that there were about 8.2 billion "burden hours" of paperwork government-wide--an 8 percent increase over 2001's 7.65 billion burden hours.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) paperwork requirements accounted for about 6.7 billion burden hours, or 81 percent of this estimate. Rezendes said that the "federal paperwork estimate increased by about 570 million burden hours during fiscal year 2002--nearly double the previous record increase for a one-year period. IRS increased its paperwork estimate by about 330 million burden hours during fiscal year 2002. IRS increases were due largely to changes made to the tax code by Congress, most particularly changes made by the 2001 tax cuts, which alone added nearly 17 million hours to the burden associated with IRS reporting requirements. The Department of Transportation's...