Current Assets Current Liabilities Annual Sales No. of males employed Increase (decrease) in employment in last 12 months DEAR DICK: Thank you for your recent letter concerning your proposal for a uniform business information and statistics report, and for your kind remarks regarding my efforts to lessen paperwork burdens. I appreciate having the benefit of your further thoughts on the matter and have taken the liberty of forwarding your letter to Mr. Lynn for his comments and suggestions on the feasibility of implementing your proposal. I have enclosed a copy of my supporting letter to Mr. Lynn and shall keep you posted on his response. Best regards. WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, U.S. Senator. U.S. SENATE, JAMES T. LYNN, Washington, D.C., April 28, 1976. Director, Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, D.C. DEAR JIM: Thank you for your letter of March 27 in which you responded to my inquiry in behalf of one of my constituents, Mr. Richard G. Kendall, regarding his idea for simplification of reporting requirements and for elimination of duplicative information requests. I appreciated your attention to this request and was pleased to hear of your endorsement of his idea. I also can understand your desire that more details be provided in order that a realistic analysis of the potential for implementation might be made. Consequently, I forwarded your letter to Mr. Kendall, and have enclosed a copy of his response. Mr. Kendall proposes that a basic governmental reporting form be filed with the Commerce department, OMB, or perhaps some other department or agency. Mr. Kendall has enclosed a sample draft of the general form such a report might take. This report should take the form necessary to include most of the information generally required in all government reports which could thereby be supplied to any interested agency that had a legitimate interest in the information. The information could then serve as a trigger for any additional informa tion desired by the particular agency. The information, if updated on an annual basis, could also be an important policy tool for both the Executive Branch and Congress. Along with the benefits sought by Mr. Kendall of a lessened reporting burden on business, this trigger could also work to impose upon the departments and agencies affected, a requirement to inform particular businesses of government programs of potential benefit to the businesses, or to contact businesses about the possibility of becoming involved in government contract work. Constructed in this fashion, the reporting requirements would be imposed on a more efficient basis, the information gathered would have a beneficial purpose to both government and business, and, most importantly, federal reports would be seen by private enterprise as a key to provision of government services rather as burdens and intrusions. I realize this proposed structure is rather general, but necessarily so, since it does represent a radical departure from present policy I would appreciate your reaction to this proposal and am willing to offer my assistance in further modifying it to achieve a workable structure. Sincerely, WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, U.S. Senator. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, Hon. WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR HATHAWAY: This will acknowledge and thank you for your letter to the Director in behalf of Mr. Richard G. Kendall, regarding his proposed Uniform Business Information and Statistics Report. Analysis of Mr. Kendall's report is requiring more time than had first been anticipated. We will nevertheless send you a letter commenting on Mr. Kendall's idea in the near future. DEAR MR. KENDALL: Enclosed please find a copy of an interim response I received from the Office of Management and Budget. It appears you have given them something to think about! Best regards. Sincerely, WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, U.S. Senator. EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, Hon. WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR HATHAWAY: I am writing to comment on the "Uniform Business Information and Statistics Report" which has been proposed for use by the Government by your constituent, Mr. Richard G. Kendall, as promised on June 1, Mr. Kendall has proposed, as we understand it, a general purpose Uniform Business Information Statistics Report to be filed annually by about 11 million firms with some government agency. All Federal agencies would have access to the information from these reports to the extent that a need for the information could be demonstrated. While we believe that the information collected by such a report would be most valuable for many purposes, we have serious reservations about the desirability of the proposed data collection. Our most substantial reservation is that it would increase the reporting burden on small businesses. Except for tax returns, there is no present Federal form which seeks to collect information from all businesses. There is no denying that the report envisioned by Mr. Kendall, if filed by all businesses, would provide a superb statistical universe from which samples could be drawn for more carefully targeted reports to meet particular needs; there is also no doubt that the Government's informational needs could be better met if we had a better universe from which we could develop appropriate samples. We believe, however, that there are other ways to do this and are presently seeking to secure the general objective sought by Mr. Kendall without placing an additional reporting requirement on business establishments. Our second reservation about Mr. Kendall's proposal is that it would not save businesses from filling out those reports which are required to assure compliance with specific laws. Some of the more onerous reporting and recordkeeping requirements placed on business are associated with this type of reporting. Since there would be no clear way of identifying from the Uniform Report those businesses subject to various compliance reporting requirements, it seems unlikely that the proposal would save any reporting burden of this type. We also have considerable doubt that the Federal Government would be able to secure the promptness necessary in reporting, processing and disseminating information from 11 million reports each year to secure the objectives Mr. Kendall has in mind. Some of the information Mr. Kendall proposes to collect by way of his report is available in the administrative records of the Government. Increasing use is being made of administrative records for statistical purposes, e.g., tax and social security reports, etc. For instance, if the Bureau of the Census is allowed to substitute certain data from administrative records of the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration, it will not be necessary to survey one-half of the 5.5 million firms in scope for the 1977 Economic Censuses. Since our policy has been to make do with as few reports as possible, we are reluctant to sponsor a report that would impact on 11 million firms. There are some other technical and operational problems associated with the proposal which make it appear to us to be rather unlikely to be successful. While I appreciate your bringing Mr. Kendall's proposal to our attention. he may find our reaction rather disappointing. I hope that you will express to him our appreciation for giving us an opportunity to consider it in detail. While we do find difficulties with the particulars of his proposed Uniform Report, we share his general objective: to reduce the reporting burden on business by using existing records, by sampling, by eliminating the smallest firms from reporting requirements, wherever and whenever this kind of procedure appears to be appropriate. Sincerely yours, ALAN M. KRANOWITZ, U.S. SENATE, Mr. RICHARD G. KENDALL, DEAR DICK: I have enclosed for your information the further response of the Office of Management and Budget to your suggestion for reforming reporting requirements. There would appear to be considerable resistance to your idea in the Executive Branch, and, without its support, there is little chance such an idea could be implemented short of a legislative mandate. Even then, the Executive Branch can be ingenious in finding ways to avoid Congressional intent. If you wish the matter pursued further, I would be happy to bring your idea and the correspondence generated to the attention of the Small Business Committee for further study. Best regards. WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, U.S. Senator. VERIBEST SYSTEMS Co., Lewiston, Maine, July 8, 1967. Hon. WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR BILL: Thank you for the information concerning the proposed Uniform Business Information report. Apparently Mr. Kranowitz sees more difficulties than advantages in developing such a proposed standardized report form. Perhaps he is right. The issue is not so important that I would pursue it further. Without more at stake I would be reluctant to spend too much time and energy overcoming any bureaucratic inertia, or resistance, to the idea. It is not that serious a problem. I do want to thank you for your concern about the matter and your diligence in pursing the possibility of it being implemented. Evidently it is not practical at this time. Cordially, RICHARD KENDALL. U.S. SENATE, Washington, D.C., July 14, 1976. RICHARD KENDALL, Lewiston, Maine. DEAR DICK: Thank you for your recent letter regarding our mutual attempt to rationalize the present federal reporting requirements. I appreciate your kind remarks about my efforts; I was happy to do it, and I hope you will share with me any other ideas you may come up with. Perhaps the next time we will run into less resistance in the Executive branch! Best personal regards. Sincerely, WILLIAM D. HATHAWAY, U.S. Senator. Senator NELSON. We also have a statement of Senator John G. Tower, which will also be made a part of the record. [The statement of Senator Tower follows:] STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN G. TOWER BEFORE THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS JANUARY 7, 1977 Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to testify in support of these proposals to increase the loan authorization levels for several Small Business Administration programs which have been particularly helpful to minority businesses throughout this country. Among these programs are the Economic Opportunity Loan Program, the Small Business Investment Company Program, and the State and Local Development Companies Loan Program. Along with the Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Company, these programs have contributed significantly to the development of minority small business in America. In my own State of Texas, we are taking positive steps to move members of the two largest ethnic groups, Blacks and Mexican Americans, into the mainstream of American business. The Small Business Administration has assisted this effort considerably through the funding of minority enterprises which likely would have had a much more difficult time in building a viable business without these programs. Mr. Chairman, these programs are well administered, fairly and equitably. Based on the latest figures available to me from SBA, Mexican American and Black businessmen have received about 19 per cent of the loans approved by SBA, and although I feel a greater proportion of these funds could be directed toward these groups, I feel that the record reflects an effort by SBA to address postively the needs of minority business. |