ICYMI: Wall Street Journal: "Biden Takes on Nightmare Government Paperwork"

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced efforts to simplify government paperwork and reduce administrative burdens for Americans accessing government services. A Wall Street Journal report highlights some of the ongoing work: "The State Department is speeding up passport renewals by allowing some citizens to apply online. The Education Department is using federal data to calculate eligibility for financial aid for college, cutting down on the paperwork that applicants have to fill out. The Internal Revenue Service is weighing a free government-run, electronic income-tax filing system."

The Administration's success in simplifying government paperwork is already making life easier for Americans across the country. The Wall Street Journal spoke to Luciano Alvarado, a blueberry farmer from North Carolina, who said an updated USDA Farm Service Administration form was "shorter, more straight to the point."

As the Wall Street Journal reports, this announcement "is part of a broader push by President Biden to address issues that vex Americans in their daily lives, such as 'junk fees' and poor customer service." Recent announcements over the past weeks continue to drive home President Biden's commitment to saving Americans time and money in their daily lives—a key pillar of Bidenomics.

Read the full story below:

Wall Street Journal: Biden Takes On Nightmare Government Paperwork
[Andrew Restuccia, 7/10/2023]

WASHINGTON—Just how burdensome is form SSA-454-BK, the lengthy paperwork low-income disabled people must fill out to continue receiving government payments? "More frightening than having cancer—twice," one beneficiary told Biden administration officials recently.

Government forms have gotten so awful that the administration is overhauling applications for a range of federal benefits and services—a bid to remake a notoriously stubborn bureaucratic system that has exasperated Americans for generations. The effort faces considerable hurdles, given previous administrations have tried and failed to cut red tape from federal services.

Paperwork can run more than a dozen pages, contain confusing and repetitive questions and include documentation requests that take days to complete. The complex system makes it difficult for tens of millions of Americans to access disability benefits, secure farm loans, obtain passports and tap in to other government programs. At least $142 billion in potential aid goes unclaimed every year across food stamps, welfare and other programs, in part because of the burdens associated with applying, according to Matthew Desmond, a sociologist at Princeton University.

Federal agencies across the government have taken steps in recent months to simplify government forms.

The State Department is speeding up passport renewals by allowing some citizens to apply online. The Education Department is using federal data to calculate eligibility for financial aid for college, cutting down on the paperwork that applicants have to fill out. The Internal Revenue Service is weighing a free government-run, electronic income-tax filing system.

"It can feel demeaning and degrading to have to fill out a form for the 80th time and all you want is access to this benefit program that's necessary to put food on the table for your kids, to provide money you need for rent or a car payment," said Sam Berger, one of the White House officials who is overseeing the effort.

The effort carries risks that the government makes it so easy to apply for public benefits that Americans who aren't qualified could gain access to the programs. The White House said it will remain vigilant to prevent abuse.

The campaign is part of a broader push by President Biden to address issues that vex Americans in their daily lives, such as "junk fees" and poor customer service. The president's advisers are betting those issues will resonate with voters ahead of next year's election. Republicans say high inflation and other economic frustrations will remain the dominant theme of the campaign.

Presidents of both parties largely haven't delivered on promises to make the government more user-friendly. Donald Trump and congressional Republicans pledged that Americans would be able to file their tax returns on a piece of paper the size of a postcard, but many people still have to fill out reams of forms come tax-filing season. Barack Obama sought to simplify healthcare forms, but patients are still regularly saddled with piles of paperwork.

In a report set to be released Monday, the White House identified nearly 100 measures it has taken to reduce paperwork and other administrative burdens at 20 federal agencies.

For years, farmers had to wade through 10 forms totaling 29 pages to apply for a loan through the Agriculture Department. The loans are a lifeline for farmers who have been unable to secure credit from private entities. The complicated application process has exposed inequities in the system, advocates and government officials said, with Black farmers making up a small proportion of the recipients of the loans.

"The reality is that 89% of our producers make more than half of their income off the farm, so they don't have the idle time to be filling out voluminous forms," said Zach Ducheneaux, the administrator of USDA's Farm Service Agency, which runs the loan program.

The Agriculture Department recently published an overhauled application that combines the documents into a single 12-page form.

Luciano Alvarado, 43 years old, owns a blueberry farm outside Fayetteville, N.C., and has spent nearly two decades trying to secure enough financing to support it. He applied for farm loans in 2003 and 2010, using the more complicated form, and was denied both times. After years of appeals, he was eventually approved for a loan that was a fraction of the amount he requested.

Now, Alvarado is trying again. He submitted his latest application using the Agriculture Department's new form last week "It was shorter, more straight to the point," he said, adding that his experience with FSA's loan officers, which had long been contentious, had also improved. Alvarado said he is hopeful he will secure financing to buy new equipment and purchase his father's nearby farm.

For disability recipients, the Social Security Administration earlier this year released a new version of form SSA-454-BK that is a few pages shorter, asks for less detailed information and eliminates redundant questions.

The old form, at 15 pages, required beneficiaries, many with serious physical and mental disabilities, to provide information about doctors' visits, hospital stays, medications, medical tests and procedures, including the dates they occurred. Legal aid workers said beneficiaries sometimes spend days collecting information from medical providers, some of which the SSA already has.

"When people are given these massive forms, it has a deterrent effect," said Jen Burdick, who helps people fill out the form as a lawyer at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

Jahan Johnson, 37, of Philadelphia, has received disability benefits since 2007 for ailments including bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. She said the old version of the form, which she filled out last year to continue receiving her benefits, was a significant burden. "It's the volume of paperwork; it's the repetitive questions," she said. She described the new form as "massively improved."