Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The Crystal Clarity of Congress

I love this bit buried in the farm bill: (page 145)

"PAPERWORK REDUCTION
.—In order to conserve Federal resources and prevent unnecessary paperwork burdens, the Secretary shall ensure that any additional paperwork required as a result of the regulations promulgated pursuant to subsection (a) be limited to those persons who are subject to such regulations.
 We're talking here about payment limitation and the actively engaged determination.  Either the language is meaningless, because every potential recipient of payments is "subject to" the regulations; or it's an attempt to say you can only require people who might make over the limitation to fill out any forms.  But how do you know who they are unless you collect the information?

(Similar issue arose with payment limitation back in the mid-80's.)

No comments: