[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 152 (Tuesday, November 4, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11686-S11687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. McCAIN (for himself and Mr. Levin):
  S. 1364. A bill to eliminate unnecessary and wasteful Federal 
reports; to the Committee on Governmental Affairs.


              THE FEDERAL REPORTS ELIMINATION ACT OF 1997

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to rise today to introduce 
legislation that would eliminate approximately 150 unnecessary reports 
that have been mandated by the Congress. All of these reports have been 
judged as unnecessary, wasteful, or redundant by each of the Federal 
agencies which have been required to produce them. I am also pleased to 
have the considerable assistance of the coauthor of this legislation, 
Senator Levin.
  This proposal is intended to combat the growing problem of the 
thousands of mandatory reports that Congress has been imposing upon the 
executive branch over the last decade. Each year, Members of Congress 
continue to burden the executive branch agencies by mandating numerous 
reports. The price for the wasteful reports is extraordinarily high. 
Not only do they cost American taxpayers hundreds of millions of 
dollars each year, but they exhaust the often limited resources of the 
Federal agencies which have to meet these reporting requirements. 
Furthermore, the thousands of Federal employees who must work for 
months on these unnecessary reports could focus their energies to work 
on far more worthy ventures on behalf of taxpayers. They are a dubious 
use of taxpayers dollars and Government productivity.
  Senator Levin and I began working on various aspects of eliminating 
and sunsetting unnecessary Federal reports

[[Page S11687]]

in 1993. We have both been long concerned about the vast amounts of 
public funds and valuable government personnel resources that are being 
wasted. Let me state just one instructive example of how reporting 
mandates drain public funds and departmental resources. The Department 
of Agriculture alone spent over $40 million in taxpayers money in 1993 
to produce the 280 reports it was required to submit to the Congress 
that year. While many of these reports may provide vital information to 
the Congress and the public, it is undeniable that many others can and 
should be repealed in order to save taxpayer dollars and staff time. 
This is true for virtually every agency of the Federal Government.
  In 1995, Senator Levin and I were able to successfully eliminate 
approximately 200 reports, and sunset several hundred others. However, 
since that time, the administration has highlighted 450 additional 
reports that they would like repealed. Here are a few examples of the 
type of reports I am talking about. Each year, the following are 
required to be sent to the Congress from Federal agencies: Report on 
the Elimination of Notice to Congress Regarding Waiver of Requirement 
for Use of Vegetable Ink in Lithographic Printing; Report on Canadian 
Acid Rain Control Program; and Report on Metal Casting Research and 
Development Activities.
  I have asked OMB to calculate the total amount of public funds we 
would save if the unnecessary or redundant reporting requirements 
contained in this legislation are repealed, and I will provide my 
colleagues with their response. Considering that we currently have over 
a $5 trillion dollar Federal deficit, Mr. President, I'm sure that you 
would agree that our citizens would not support this egregious 
expenditure of hundreds of useless reports each and every year.
  It is important to note that this reporting mandate problem continues 
to grow with each passing year. GAO determined several years ago that 
``Congress imposes about 300 new requirements on Federal agencies each 
year.'' Prompt Senate action to authorize the elimination of wasteful 
reports in this proposal will be an important service to our 
constituents and these agencies. The staffing burdens and paper 
shuffling these outdated reporting mandates cause are of little real 
value to the important work of government. We should lighten the load 
of both overburdened taxpayers and the agencies involved by ending them 
now.
  I would again like to thank Senator Levin for his hard work and 
dedication on this issue over the past few years. Furthermore, I must 
acknowledge the administration for its earnest support of this effort. 
Additionally, the proposed terminations were carefully reviewed and 
then approved by each respective committee chairman and ranking member. 
These reports represent the flagrant waste of taxpayers dollars and 
Government productivity.
  It is clear that this bipartisan effort will put an end to a 
significant part of the unnecessary cycle of waste and misspent 
resources that these reports represent. The adoption of this 
legislation would be a strong contribution toward downsizing Government 
as the American people have repeatedly called upon us to do. I urge my 
colleagues to support this legislation and remove the millstone of 
unnecessary and costly paperwork that Congress has hung around the neck 
of the Federal Government for too long.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator McCain in 
introducing the Federal Reports Elimination Act of 1997, which will 
eliminate or modify 187 outdated or unnecessary congressionally 
mandated reporting requirements. This legislation will reduce 
unnecessary paperwork generated, and staff time spent, in producing 
reports to Congress that are no longer relevant or useful.
  Senator McCain and I introduced and got enacted similar legislation 
in 1995, Public Law 104-66, the Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset 
Act of 1995. In that legislation we eliminated or modified 207 
congressionally mandated reporting requirements and placed a 4-year 
sunset on all other reports that were required to be made on an annual 
or otherwise regular basis. We also required in that legislation that 
the President include in the first annual budget submitted after the 
date of enactment of the Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 
1995 a list of the congressionally mandated reports that he has 
determined to be unnecessary or wasteful. The President provided a list 
of nearly 400 reports in the fiscal year 1997 budget along with 
comments on why the agencies involved felt the reporting requirements 
should be eliminated or modified. In many instances, the administration 
states, the reports are obsolete or contain duplicate information 
already conveyed to Congress in another report or publication.
  For example, one report that is required of the Department of 
Agriculture asks the agency to provide to Congress a list of the 
advisory committee members, principal place of residence, persons or 
companies by whom they are employed, and other major sources of income. 
This information may be useful at the agency level, but is not 
significant to Congress. The administration's recommendation for 
elimination of this report stated that the ``preparation of this report 
is time consuming and may not be of particular interest to Congress. If 
the requirement for an annual report is deleted, the information 
contained in the report would still be available upon request.''
  Another example of unnecessary reporting is the requirement to 
provide reports for programs that have never been funded. The 
Department of Energy was tasked to provide a biennial update to the 
National Advanced Materials Initiative Five-Year Program Plan in 
support of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, for which funds were never 
provided. The Department of Justice never received funding for a 
program that required the submission of a report to the Judiciary 
Committee on the security of State and local immigration and 
naturalization documents and any improvements that occurred as a result 
of the Immigration Nursing Relief Act of 1989. The Department of 
Transportation has never received funding for a requirement to study 
the effects of climatic conditions on the costs of highway construction 
and maintenance. The National Advisory Commission on Resource 
Conservation and Recovery for the Environmental Protection Agency is 
tasked with providing an interim report of its activities. This 
Commission was established and commissioned in 1981 and has never met 
nor received funding for its activities.
  The Vice President's National Performance Review estimated that 
Congress requires executive branch agencies to prepare more than 5,300 
reports each year. That number has increased dramatically from only 750 
such reports required by Congress in 1970. The GAO reports that 
Congress imposes close to 300 new requirements on Federal agencies each 
year.
  And preparation of these reports costs money. The Department of 
Agriculture estimated in 1993 that it spent more than $40 million in 
preparing 280 mandated reports.
  In developing this bill, Senator McCain and I wrote to the chairmen 
and ranking members of the relevant Senate committees and asked them to 
review the list of reports, under their jurisdiction, that the 
administration identified as no longer necessary or useful and, 
therefore, ready for elimination or modification. We wanted to be sure 
that the committees of jurisdiction concurred with the administration 
in their assessment of the lack of need for these reports. Many of the 
committees responded to the request. Those responses were generally 
supportive and some contained only a few changes to the 
administration's recommendations. Some committees identified reports 
under their jurisdiction which they wanted to retain because the 
information contained in the report is still of use to the committee. 
Those suggestions were incorporated into the bill so that the bill 
reflects only those reports for which there is general agreement about 
elimination or modification.
  Senator McCain and I are introducing this bipartisan legislation to 
reduce the paperwork burdens placed on Federal agencies, streamline the 
information that flows from these agencies to Congress, and ultimately 
save millions of taxpayer dollars. I hope we can act quickly on this 
legislation.
                                 ______