to publish notice of a proposed requirement in the Federal Register and allow at least 60 days for public comments on the need for and burden of the requirement. The Paperwork Reduction Act mandates that all federal government agencies receive approval from OMB—in the form of a "control number"—before promulgating a paper form, website, survey or electronic submission that will impose an information collection burden on the general public. The term "burden" is defined as anything beyond "that necessary to identify the respondent, the date, the respondent's address, and the nature of the instrument." No one may be penalized for refusing an information collection request that does not display a valid control number. Once obtained, approval must be renewed every three years. The process created by the Paperwork Reduction Act makes OIRA into a centralized clearinghouse for all government forms. Thus, it is able to assess the overall impact of the government bureaucracy on American citizens and businesses. This is done in an annual document called the Information Collection Budget of the United States Government. The 2009 Collection Budget reported that the Federal Government generated 9.71 billion hours of mandatory paperwork burden. The burden in 2016 was 9.78 billion hours. See also Plain Writing Act of 2010 References External links OMB Guide to the Paperwork Reduction Act 44 U.S.C. §§ 3501–21 annotated Paperwork Reduction Act from Archives.gov in the Internet Archive 104th Congress laws passed OMB Form 83-I – Paperwork Reduction Act submission form 1980 in American law United States federal government administration legislation