By Jennifer White
The House Small Business Committee wants to know: are
burdens on small businesses from paperwork being reduced by the Paperwork
Reduction Act? According to Sam Batkins, the Director of Regulatory Policy at
American Action Forum, the short answer is they are not.
The Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) was designed to reduce the
total amount of paperwork the federal government imposes on private businesses
and citizens. In order to achieve this goal, it imposes procedural requirements
on agencies that wish to collect information from the public. However, between the
sheer volume of instructions that accompany some paperwork, and the lack of
resources at various agencies, it doesn’t seem to be working.
Look, for example, at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
According to Frank Cania, Founder and President of driven HR, the IRS is
responsible for more paperwork than any other agency. “Small businesses fall
into a cycle of having to file new forms every time an honest mistake is made
in order to avoid IRS fines,” said Mr. Cania, who testified on behalf of
Society for Human Resource Management.
For perspective on how time consuming and complex some of
the documents can be, he explained to the Committee that while an I-9 Form is
only two pages long, the instructions are 15 pages long, and the instruction
manual is “a slim 69 pages long.”
According to Sally Katzen, Professor at NYU Law and Senior
Advisor at Podesta Group, another key related issue with an agency like the IRS
is that lack of resources to help individuals with compliance. “Used to, you
could call and get someone to answer on the third ring,” she said. “Now, given
the cuts to the IRS, the waiting period is well over two hours if you bother to
stay on the phone. They’ve had to give up almost all of their assistance with
compliance.”
When asked by the Committee what Congress can do to make it
better, Ms. Katzen answered that the key is investing in resources. “Somebody has
to talk to somebody if you want the system to work. You need to put in the
resources to enable that to happen.”
It is important for agencies to be able to collect
information because it not only aids government decision making, but is often redistributed
to the public which some find critical for making business decisions. However, there
has to be a way to reduce the volume of paperwork. “There is only so much
agencies can do. Only Congress can change the statutory requirements,” Ms.
Katzen concluded.
To see the written testimony and witness list from today’s
hearing, click here.
