[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 327 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  1st Session
                                H. R. 327


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 15, 2001

  Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Governmental 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
To amend chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, for the purpose of 
   facilitating compliance by small businesses with certain Federal 
  paperwork requirements and to establish a task force to examine the 
feasibility of streamlining paperwork requirements applicable to small 
                              businesses.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Business Paperwork Relief 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FACILITATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL PAPERWORK REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) Requirements Applicable to the Director of OMB.--Section 
3504(c) of chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code (commonly 
referred to as the ``Paperwork Reduction Act''), is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (4), by striking ``; and'' and inserting a 
        semicolon;
            (2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period and inserting 
        a semicolon; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
            ``(6) publish in the Federal Register on an annual basis--
                    ``(A) a list of the requirements applicable to 
                small-business concerns (within the meaning of section 
                3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.)) 
                with respect to collection of information by agencies, 
                organized in such a manner that such small-business 
                concerns can easily identify requirements with which 
                they are expected to comply (e.g., organized by North 
                American Industrial Classification System code and 
                industrial/sector description (as published by the 
                Office of Management and Budget)); and
                    ``(B) the agency that issued each such requirement 
                and the website address for such agency; and
            ``(7) make available on the Internet the information 
        described in paragraph (6).''.
    (b) Establishment of Agency Point of Contact.--Section 3506 of such 
chapter 35 is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(i) In addition to the requirements described in subsection (c), 
each agency shall, with respect to the collection of information and 
the control of paperwork, establish one point of contact in the agency 
to act as a liaison between the agency and small-business concerns 
(within the meaning of section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
631 et seq.)).''.
    (c) Additional Reduction of Paperwork for Certain Small 
Businesses.--Section 3506(c) of such chapter is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ``; and'' and 
        inserting a semicolon;
            (2) in paragraph (3)(J), by striking the period and 
        inserting ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) in addition to the requirements of this Act regarding 
        the reduction of paperwork for small-business concerns (within 
        the meaning of section 3 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 
        631 et seq.)), make efforts to further reduce the paperwork 
        burden for small-business concerns with fewer than 25 
        employees.''.
    (d) Effective Date Regarding Publication of Requirements.--The 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall publish the first 
list of requirements required under paragraph (6) of section 3504(c) of 
title 44, United States Code (as added by subsection (a)), and make 
such list available on the Internet as required by paragraph (7) of 
such section (as added by subsection (a)), not later than the date that 
is one year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF TASK FORCE TO STUDY STREAMLINING OF PAPERWORK 
              COLLECTION REQUIREMENTS AND DISSEMINATION FOR SMALL-
              BUSINESS CONCERNS.

    (a) In General.--Chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code, is 
further amended by adding at the end of subchapter I the following new 
section:
``Sec. 3521. Establishment of task force on feasibility of streamlining 
              information collection requirements and dissemination
    ``(a) There is hereby established a task force (in this section 
referred to as the `task force') to study the feasibility of 
streamlining requirements with respect to small-business concerns 
regarding collection of information and strengthening dissemination of 
information.
    ``(b) The members of the task force shall be appointed by the 
Director, and shall include the following:
            ``(1) At least two representatives of the Department of 
        Labor, including one representative of the Bureau of Labor 
        Statistics and one representative of the Occupational Safety 
        and Health Administration.
            ``(2) At least one representative of the Environmental 
        Protection Agency.
            ``(3) At least one representative of the Department of 
        Transportation.
            ``(4) At least one representative of the Department of the 
        Treasury.
            ``(5) At least one representative of the Office of Advocacy 
        of the Small Business Administration.
            ``(6) At least one representative of each of two agencies 
        other than the Department of Labor, the Environmental 
        Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation, the 
        Department of the Treasury, and the Small Business 
        Administration.
            ``(7) At least two representatives of the Department of 
        Health and Human Services, including one representative of the 
        Health Care Financing Administration.
    ``(c) The task force shall examine the feasibility of requiring 
each agency to consolidate requirements regarding collections of 
information with respect to small-business concerns within and across 
agencies without negatively impacting the effectiveness of underlying 
laws regarding such collections of information, in order that each 
small-business concern may submit all information required by an 
agency--
            ``(1) to one point of contact in the agency;
            ``(2) in a single format, or using a single electronic 
        reporting system, with respect to the agency; and
            ``(3) on the same date.
    ``(d)(1) Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of 
the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act, the task force shall submit a 
report of its findings under subsection (c) to--
            ``(A) the chairmen and ranking minority members of the 
        Committee on Government Reform and the Committee on Small 
        Business of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on 
        Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Small Business of the 
        Senate; and
            ``(B) the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
    ``(2) Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of 
such Act, the task force shall submit to the individuals described in 
paragraph (1) a report examining strengthening dissemination of 
information and including--
            ``(A) recommendations for implementing an interactive 
        system for the requirements in section 3504(c)(6) that would 
        allow small-business concerns to identify information 
        collection requirements electronically;
            ``(B) guidelines for each agency for developing interactive 
        reporting systems that include a component that edits the 
        information submitted by a small-business concern for 
        consistency;
            ``(C) recommendations for electronic dissemination of such 
        information; and
            ``(D) recommendations, created in consultation with the 
        Chief Information Officers Council (established pursuant to 
        Executive Order 13011, issued July 16, 1996), for the 
        coordination of information among the points of contact 
        described in section 3506(i), so that those points of contact 
        can provide small-business concerns with information collection 
        requirements from other agencies.
    ``(e) As used in this section, the term `small-business concern' 
has the meaning given that term under section 3 of the Small Business 
Act (15 U.S.C. 631 et seq.).''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections at the beginning 
of such chapter is amended by inserting after the item relating to 
section 3520 the following new item:
``3521. Establishment of task force on feasibility of streamlining 
                            information collection requirements and 
                            dissemination.''.

            Passed the House of Representatives March 15, 2001.

            Attest:

                                                 JEFF TRANDAHL,

                                                                 Clerk.