Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

There area lots of hurdles to jump when collecting data from the public at a federal agency. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 requires that before agencies collect any data from the public – PII or not – the collection must be reviewed in advance by The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

Exceptions to this include:

• collecting data from less than ten people,
• collecting data from federal employees as part of their official duties,
• requests for feedback such as user surveys, and
• comments and discussions gathered at public hearings or online meeting.

The Paperwork Reduction Act expands on the Privacy Act.