Eliminate Useless Reports Act of 2024
Sponsors
Jon Ossoff
D-GA | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
Passed SenatePassed Senate (inferred from es version)
Mr. Ossoff (for himself and Mr. Lankford) introduced the following …
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill creates a process for agencies to identify and eliminate unnecessary recurring reports to Congress. Agency heads must include in their budget justification materials a list of reports they consider outdated or duplicative, with recommendations to sunset, modify, consolidate, or reduce frequency. Congressional committees can then agree or disagree with recommendations and take legislative action. The bill explicitly excludes Armed Services Committee reports from this process.
Who Benefits and How
- Federal agencies can reduce administrative burden by identifying and potentially eliminating duplicative or outdated reporting requirements.
- Agency budget and reporting staff may see reduced workload if reports are sunset or consolidated.
- Congress gains a structured process to receive agency input on which reports provide value and which don't.
- Taxpayers may benefit from reduced government costs if unnecessary reports are eliminated.
- Multi-agency coordinating bodies have a consultation process to address reports requiring inter-agency input.
Who Bears the Burden and How
- Agency heads must annually review all recurring reports and prepare recommendations with justifications.
- Congressional committees must review agency recommendations and decide whether to act.
- Agencies with inter-agency reports must consult with all partner agencies before listing a report as duplicative.
Key Provisions
- Agencies must list outdated/duplicative recurring reports in budget justification materials
- Must recommend to sunset, modify, consolidate, or reduce frequency for each
- Must cite legal authority and identify relevant congressional committees
- Must justify each recommendation including resource estimates
- Inter-agency consultation required for coordinated reports - all must agree to list
- Congressional committees may agree, disagree, or postpone decisions
- Does not relieve agencies from current reporting requirements until law changes
- Explicitly excludes Senate Armed Services Committee reports
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Requires federal agencies to identify outdated or duplicative recurring reports to Congress in their budget justification materials and recommend whether to sunset, modify, consolidate, or reduce their frequency.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Reduce government reporting burden through structured agency-Congress review process while preserving congressional prerogative"
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "agency_heads"
- → Heads of federal agencies
- "congressional_committees"
- → Relevant congressional committees
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Has the meaning given in section 3(b)(2) of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006
Any plan or report submitted to Congress by at least 1 agency on a recurring basis in accordance with Federal law or congressional report direction, excluding Armed Services Committee reports
A congressional committee to which a recurring plan or report is required to be submitted
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology