PL 104-13 [The Federal Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995]

General: The Paperwork Reduction Act requires all federal agencies to obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before collecting information from the public. Ways of collecting information include questionnaires, focus groups, telephone surveys, applications, performance reports, customer satisfaction surveys, studies and evaluations, interviews, forms, and any other means of requesting information from ten or more respondents. See full text at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/legislation/paperwork_reduction.html

Key Provision: Section 3512 of PL 104-13 (The Federal Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 44 USC 3512)

Sec. 3512. - Public protection

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information that is subject to this chapter if -

(1) the collection of information does not display a valid control number assigned by the Director in accordance with this chapter; or

(2) the agency fails to inform the person who is to respond to the collection of information that such person is not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a valid control number.

(b) The protection provided by this section may be raised in the form of a complete defense, bar, or otherwise at any time during the agency administrative process or judicial action applicable thereto.