Congress tries to cut back on bureaucratic BS

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

1. Efforts and Progress in Becoming Designated as Sea Grant College or Institute

2. Enterprise Integration Standardization and Implementation

3. Ensuring Equal Access to Sea Grant Fellowship Program

4. Technology Innovation Program Activities at NIST

5. Technology Innovation Program Advisory Board Annual Report

6. Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Activities

Corporation for National and Community Service

1. Reports by Other Federal Agencies to the Corporation

2. Service-Learning Impact Study

Department of Defense

1. Display of Annual Budget Requirements for Air Sovereignty Alert Mission

2. Annual Report on Reliability of Department of Defense Financial Statements

3. Annual Report on Emergency and Extraordinary Expenses

4. Report on Assistance Provided to Foreign Nations to Account for Missing U.S. Personnel

5. Inclusion of Net Floor Area in Requests to Build Military Family Housing

6. Amendment to Small Business Act Commercialization Readiness Program

Department of Education

1. Report on Impact and Construction Justifying Discretionary Grand Awards Eliminated

Department of Energy

1. Science and Engineering Education Pilot Program

2. Strategic Unconventional Fuels Development Program

3. Energy Efficiency Standards for Industrial Equipment

Environmental Protection Agency

1. Great Lakes Management Comprehensive Report

Executive Offices of the President

1. Report Relating to Waive of Certain Sanctions against North Korea

Government Accountability Office

1. Expenditures of Local Educational Agencies

2. Use of Recovery Act Funds by States and Localities Report

3. Help America Vote Act Funds Audit

4. State Small Business Credit Initiative Audit and Report

5. Small Business Lending Fund Program Audit and Report

6. Housing Assistance Council Financial Statement Audit Report

Department of Homeland Security

1. Report on Prohibition on Importation of Products Made with Dog or Cat Fur report

2. Port of Entry Infrastructure Assessment Study and National Land Border Security Plan

3. Modernization of National Distress and Response System

Department of Housing and Urban Development

1. Information Technology Spending Plan for Transformation Initiative

2. Sole Source Contracts Report

Department of the Interior

1. Royalties in-kind Report

Department of Labor

1. Older Americans Act report

2. Andean Trade Preference Act report

Office of the Director of National Intelligence

1. Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

2. Reports on Commerce With, and Assistance to, Cuba from Other Foreign Countries

3. Identification of Countries of Concern with respect to the Diversion of Certain Goods, Services, and Technologies to or Through Iran

Department of State

1. Report on Progress Toward Regional Non-Proliferation in South Asia

2. Report on Tibet Negotiations

Department of Transportation

1. Reports of Air Traffic Service Committee

2. Annual Summaries of Airport Financial Reports

3. Annual Report on Pipeline Safety Information Grants to Communities

4. Annual Report on Pilot Program for Innovative Financing of Air Traffic Control Equipment

5. Reports on Justifications for Air Defense Identification Zones

6. Annual Report on Standards for Aircraft and Aircraft Engines to Reduce Noise Levels

Department of the Treasury

1. Annual Report on the North American Development Base

2. Report on Voting of International Financial Institutions Loan Proposals

3. Report on New IMF Arrangements Regarding Rates and Maturities

4. Report on Significant Modifications

Department of Veterans Affairs

1. Annual Report on Activities and Proposals Involving Contracting for Performance by Contractor Personnel of Work Previously Performed by Department Employees

2. Annual Report on Procurement of Health-Care items

3. Annual Report on Staffing for Nurses and Nurse Anesthetists at Department Facilities

4. 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.