The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently announced that it is seeking feedback on ways to reduce unnecessary reporting burden for recipients of federal grants and contracts. Information will be collected through the “National Dialogue website” and used to inform a two-year pilot study and other activities.

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), has already shared its prior work on administrative burden, including Findings of the FASEB Survey on Administrative Burden and excerpts from Sustaining Discovery in Biological and Medical Sciences, with OMB staff.

ASPET encourages investigators to share specific examples of:
 

• Reporting burdens, such as those described in Findings of the FASEB Survey on Administrative Burden
• Instances in which similar or overlapping information had to be submitted to more than one federal office, agency, or department
• Cases in which separate parts of the federal government used different definitions for the same term
• Opportunities for auto-populating data fields in reporting platforms with previously collected information.

OMB plans to review feedback in mid-October and “to identify specific suggestions and ideas that can be turned into burden-reducing solutions without compromising accountability and integrity.” Select approaches will be tested in a two-year pilot study, as mandated under the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act). Through this pilot, OMB will develop recommendations to standardize reporting elements, eliminate duplicative financial reporting, and reduce compliance costs.

Information collected will also be used to inform OMB activities in the long-term. With coordination and review of significant federal regulations by executive agencies as part of its mission, OMB is well positioned to streamline and harmonize reporting requirements across agencies.

Last updated: August 31, 2015