Congress loves to tell the Executive Branch to submit reports on all kinds of issues. It's one way to assure oversight, by requiring various federal agencies to detail their work on certain items.
But over the years, Congress has added report after report, requiring agencies to spend more time writing responses to the House and Senate.
For example, take the Obama health law - you can find the word "report" in that law well over 500 times and there are 14 new reports just listed in the bill's table of contents.
So how many reports has Congress mandated in all? That's an answer that I couldn't find in research for this story, no hard estimate of how many reports the Congress forces the feds to author each year - one review just said "thousands."
No matter how many there are, some in the Congress want that number to be reduced.
A bill that was approved Monday by the House would chop 85 off that unknown bottom line number of reports, cutting certain yearly reviews by the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and several other agencies.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that ending these reports would save about $1 million over five years, simply by reducing the administrative work of those agencies.
So, let's get that list going - here are the reports that H.R. 4194 get rid of:
Department of Agriculture
1. Information of Administrative Expenses on Commodity Promotion Programs
2. Unfair Trade Practices Report
3. Farmland Protection Policy Act Annual Report
4. Peanut Base Acres Data Collection and Publication
5. Other Base Acres Data Collection and Publication
6. Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Accounts Pilot Program Report
7. Rural Broadband Access Program Report
8. Report on Export Credit Guarantees to Emerging Markets
9. Commodity Credit Corporation Quarterly Report
10. Evaluation of the Rural Development, Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program Financing of Locally or Regionally Produced Food Products
11. United States Grain Standards Act reports
12. Listing of Rural Areas in Character
13. Notifications to Congress on Release of Names and Addresses of Producers Operating under Marketing Agreements and Orders
14. Plant Pest and Disease Management and Disaster Prevention Action Plans Reports
15. Quarterly Export Assistance Reports
16. Rural Collaborative Investment Program, Secretarial Report on Regional Rural Investment Boards
17. Report by Regional Rural Investment Board to National Rural Investment Board and the Secretary of Agriculture
18. Status Report for Food for Progress Program
19. Status Report for Foreign Market Development
20. Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops Status Report
21. Southeastern Alaska Timber Reports
Department of Commerce
22. Efforts and Progress in Becoming Designated as Sea Grant College or Institute
23. Enterprise Integration Standardization and Implementation
24. Ensuring Equal Access to Sea Grant Fellowship Program
25. Technology Innovation Program Activities at NIST
26. Technology Innovation Program Advisory Board Annual Report
27. Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Activities
Corporation for National and Community Service
28. Reports by Other Federal Agencies to the Corporation
29. Service-Learning Impact Study
Department of Defense
30. Display of Annual Budget Requirements for Air Sovereignty Alert Mission
31. Annual Report on Reliability of Department of Defense Financial Statements
32. Annual Report on Emergency and Extraordinary Expenses
33. Report on Assistance Provided to Foreign Nations to Account for Missing U.S. Personnel
34. Inclusion of Net Floor Area in Requests to Build Military Family Housing
35. Amendment to Small Business Act Commercialization Readiness Program
Department of Education
36. Report on Impact and Construction Justifying Discretionary Grand Awards Eliminated
Department of Energy
37. Science and Engineering Education Pilot Program
38. Strategic Unconventional Fuels Development Program
39. Energy Efficiency Standards for Industrial Equipment
Environmental Protection Agency
40. Great Lakes Management Comprehensive Report
Executive Offices of the President
41. Report Relating to Waive of Certain Sanctions against North Korea
Government Accountability Office
42. Expenditures of Local Educational Agencies
43. Use of Recovery Act Funds by States and Localities Report
44. Help America Vote Act Funds Audit
45. State Small Business Credit Initiative Audit and Report
46. Small Business Lending Fund Program Audit and Report
47. Housing Assistance Council Financial Statement Audit Report
Department of Homeland Security
48. Report on Prohibition on Importation of Products Made with Dog or Cat Fur report
49. Port of Entry Infrastructure Assessment Study and National Land Border Security Plan
50. Modernization of National Distress and Response System
Department of Housing and Urban Development
51. Information Technology Spending Plan for Transformation Initiative
52. Sole Source Contracts Report
Department of the Interior
53. Royalties in-kind Report
Department of Labor
54. Older Americans Act report
55. Andean Trade Preference Act report
Office of the Director of National Intelligence
56. Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
57. Reports on Commerce With, and Assistance to, Cuba from Other Foreign Countries
58. Identification of Countries of Concern with respect to the Diversion of Certain Goods, Services, and Technologies to or Through Iran
Department of State
59. Report on Progress Toward Regional Non-Proliferation in South Asia
60. Report on Tibet Negotiations
Department of Transportation
61. Reports of Air Traffic Service Committee
62. Annual Summaries of Airport Financial Reports
63. Annual Report on Pipeline Safety Information Grants to Communities
64. Annual Report on Pilot Program for Innovative Financing of Air Traffic Control Equipment
65. Reports on Justifications for Air Defense Identification Zones
66. Annual Report on Standards for Aircraft and Aircraft Engines to Reduce Noise Levels
Department of the Treasury
67. Annual Report on the North American Development Base
68. Report on Voting of International Financial Institutions Loan Proposals
69. Report on New IMF Arrangements Regarding Rates and Maturities
70. Report on Significant Modifications
Department of Veterans Affairs
71. Annual Report on Activities and Proposals Involving Contracting for Performance by Contractor Personnel of Work Previously Performed by Department Employees
72. Annual Report on Procurement of Health-Care items
73. Annual Report on Staffing for Nurses and Nurse Anesthetists at Department Facilities
74. Annual Report on Use of Authorities to Enhance Retention of Experienced Nurses
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At the top of this story, I wrote that the bill would cut 85 reports - that's what the Congressional Budget Office reported - yet when I went through the language of the bill, I could only find 74, while the House Oversight Committee says the number is 79.
I guess that's sort of like the unknown number of reports the Congress actually requires from the feds.
Regardless of the final number, this bill now goes to the Senate.
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