DOLE, SECRETARY OF LABOR, ET AL. v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA ET AL.
No. 88-1434
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Argued November 6, 1989-Decided February 21, 1990
494 U.S. 26
Laurence Gold argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief for respondents United Steelworkers of America et al. were George H. Cohen, Jeremiah A. Collins, David C. Vladeck, Alan B. Morrison, and Elihu I. Leifer. Maurice Baskin filed a brief for respondents Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., et al.*
JUSTICE BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.
Among the regulatory tools available to Government agencies charged with protecting public health and safety are rules which require regulated entities to disclose information directly to employees, consumers, or others. Disclosure rules protect by providing access to information about what dangers exist and how these dangers can be avoided. Today we decide whether the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has the authority under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980,
I
In 1983, pursuant to the Ocсupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act), 84 Stat. 1590,
*Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the Business Council on the Reduction of Paperwork by Clark R. Silcox; for the National-American Wholesale Grocers’ Association et al. by Arthur Y. Tsien; for the National Wholesale Druggists’ Association by Lawrence W. Bierlein; and for Senator Lawton Chiles by Daniel J. Popeo, Paul D. Kamenar, and Wayne Hartke.
Burton D. Fretz, Toby S. Edelman, and Edward F. Howard filed a brief for the Action Alliance of Senior Citizens et al. as amici curiae urging affirmance.
Respondent United Steelworkers of America, among others, challenged the standard in the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. That court held that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had not adequately explained why the regulation was limited to the manufaсturing sector, in view of the OSH Act‘s clear directive that, to the extent feasible, OSHA is to ensure that no employee suffers material impairment of health from toxic or other harmful agents. The court directed OSHA either to apply the hazard standard rules to workplaces in other sectors or to state reasons why such application would not be feasible. United
When DOL responded by initiating an entirely new rulemaking proceeding, the union and its copetitioners sought enforcement of the earlier order. The Third Circuit directed DOL, under threat of contempt, to publish in the Federal Register within 60 days either a hazard communication standard applicable to all workers covered by the OSH Act or a statement of reasons why such a standard was not feasible, on the basis of the existing record, as to each category of excluded workers. United Steelworkers of America v. Pendergrass, 819 F. 2d 1263, 1270 (1987).
DOL complied by issuing a revised hazard communication standard that applied to work sites in all sectors of the economy. See 52 Fed. Reg. 31852 (1987). At the same time, DOL submitted the standard to OMB for review of any paperwork requirements. After holding a public hearing, OMB approved all but three of its provisions. OMB rejected a requirement that employees who work at multiemployer sites (such as construction sites) be provided with data sheets describing the hazardous substances to which they were likely to be exposed, through the activities of any of the companies working at the same site. The provision permitted employers either to exchange data sheets and make them available at their home offices or to maintain all relevant data sheets at a central location on the work site.
OMB disapproved these provisions based on its determination that the requirements were not necessary to protect em-
The union and its copetitioners responded by filing a motion for further relief with the Third Circuit. That court ordered DOL to reinstate the OMB-disapproved provisions. The court reasoned that the provisions represented good-faith compliance by DOL with the court‘s prior orders, that
Petitioners sought review in this Court. We granted certiorari to answer the important question whether the Paperwork Reduction Act authorizes OMB to review and countermand agency regulations mandating disclosure by regulated entities directly to third parties. 490 U. S. 1064 (1989). We hold that the Paperwork Reduction Act does not give OMB that authority, and therefore affirm.
II
The Paperwork Reduction Act was enacted in response to one of the less auspicious aspects of the enormous growth of our federal bureaucracy: its seemingly insatiable appetite for data. Outcries from small businesses, individuals, and state and local governments, that they were being buried under demands for paperwork, led Congress to institute controls.3 Congress designated OMB the overseer of other agencies with respect to paperwork and set forth a comprehensive scheme designed to reduce the paperwork burden. The Act charges OMB with developing uniform policies for efficient information processing, storage, and transmittal systems, both within and among agencies. OMB is directed to reduce federal collection of all information by set percentages, establish a Federal Information Locator System, and develop and implement procedures for guarding the privacy of those providing confidential information. See
The Act prohibits any federal agency from adopting regulations which impose paperwork requirements on the public unless the information is not available to the agency from another source within the Federal Government, and the agency
Typical information collection requests include tax forms, Medicare forms, financial loan applications, job applications, questionnaires, compliance reports, and tax or business records. See S. Rep., at 3-4. These information requests share at least one characteristic: The information requested is provided to a federal agency, either directly or indirectly.4 Agencies impose the requirements on private parties in order to generate information to be used by the agency in pursuing some other purpose. For instance, agencies use these information requests in gathering background on a particular subject to develop the expertise with which to devise or fine-tune appropriate regulations, amassing diffuse data for processing into useful statistical form, and monitoring business records and compliance reports for signs or proof of nonfeasance to determine when to initiate enforcement measures.
By contrast, disclosure rules do not result in information being made available for agency personnel to use. The promulgation of a disclosure rule is a final agency action that represents a substantive regulatory choice. An agency charged with protecting employees from hazardous chemicals has a
No provision of the Act expressly declares whether Congress intended the Paperwork Reduction Act to apply to disclosure rules as well as information-gathering rules. The Act applies to “information collection requests” by a federal agency which are defined as
“a written report form, application form, schedule, questionnaire, reporting or recordkeeping requirement, collection of information requirement, or other similar method calling for the collection of information.”
44 U. S. C. § 3502(11) (1982 ed., Supp. V).
“Collection of information,” in turn, is defined as
“the obtaining or soliciting of facts or opinions by an agency through the use of written report forms, application forms, schedules, questionnaires, reporting or recordkeeping requirements, or other similar methods calling for either-
“(A) answers to identical questions posed to, or identical reporting or recordkeeping requirements imposed on, ten or more persons, other than agencies, instrumentalities, or employеes of the United States; or
“(B) answers to questions posed to agencies, instrumentalities, or employees of the United States which are to be used for general statistical purposes.”
44 U. S. C. § 3502(4) (1982 ed.).
Petitioners urge us to read the words “obtaining or soliciting of facts by an agency through . . . reporting or record-
“On a pure question of statutory construction, our first job is to try to determine congressional intent, using traditional tools of statutory construction.” NLRB v. Food and Commercial Workers, 484 U. S. 112, 123 (1987). Our “starting point is the language of the statute,” Schreiber v. Burlington Northern, Inc., 472 U. S. 1, 5 (1985), but “in expounding a statute, we are not guided by a single sentence or member of a sentence, but look to the provisions of the whole law, and to its object and policy.” Massachusetts v. Morash, 490 U. S. 107, 115 (1989), quoting Pilot Life Ins. Co. v. Dedeaux, 481 U. S. 41, 51 (1987). See also K mart Corp. v. Cartier, Inc., 486 U. S. 281, 291 (1988) (same).
Petitioners’ interpretation of “obtaining or soliciting facts by an agency through . . . reporting or recordkeeping requirements” is not the most natural reading of this language. The commonsense view of “obtaining or soliciting facts by an agency” is that the phrase refers to an agency‘s efforts to gather facts for its own use and that Congress used the word “solicit” in addition to the word “obtain” in order to cover information requests that rely on the voluntary cooperation of information suppliers as well as rules which make compliance
That a more limited reading of the phrase “reporting and recordkeeping requirements” was intended derives some further support from the words surrounding it. The traditional canon of construction, noscitur a sociis, dictates that ” ‘words grouped in a list should be given related meaning.’ ” Massachusetts v. Morash, supra, at 114-115, quoting Schreiber, supra, at 8. The other examples listed in the definitions of “information collection request” and “collection of information” are forms for communicating information to the party requesting that information. If “reporting and recordkeeping requirements” is understood to be analogous to the examples surrounding it, the phrase would comprise only rules requiring information to be sent or made available to a federal agency, not disclosure rules.
The same conclusion is produced by a consideration of the object and structure of the Act as a whole. See Offshore Logistics, Inc. v. Tallentire, 477 U. S. 207, 220-221 (1986) (concluding that the meaning of a phrase was clarified by the language and purpose of the Act as a whole). Particularly useful is the provision detailing Congress’ purposes in enacting the statute. Thе Act declares that its purposes are:
“(1) to minimize the Federal paperwork burden for individuals, small businesses, State and local governments, and other persons;
“(2) to minimize the cost to the Federal Government of collecting, maintaining, using, and disseminating information;
“(3) to maximize the usefulness of information collected, maintained, and disseminated by the Federal Government;
“(4) to coordinate, integrate and, to the extent practicable and appropriate, make uniform Federal information policies and practices;
“(5) to ensure that automatic data processing, telecommunications, and other information technologies are acquired and used by the Federal Government in a manner which improves service delivery and program management, increases productivity, improves the quality of decisionmaking, reduces waste and fraud, and wherever practicable and appropriate, reduces the information processing burden for the Federal Government and for persons who provide information to and for the Federal Government; and
“(6) to ensure that the colleсtion, maintenance, use and dissemination of information by the Federal Government is consistent with applicable laws relating to confidentiality, including . . . the Privacy Act.”
44 U. S. C. § 3501 (1982 ed. and Supp. V) (emphasis added).
Disclosure rules present none of the problems Congress sought to solve through the Paperwork Reduction Act, and none of Congress’ enumerated purposes would be served by subjecting disclosure rules to the provisions of the Act. The statute makes clear that the first purpose-avoiding a burden on private parties and state and local governments-refers to avoiding “the time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to provide information to a Federal agency.”
Congress’ second purpose-minimizing the Federal Government‘s cost of handling information-also would not be advanced by review of disclosure rules because such rules do not impose any information processing costs on the Federal
This conclusion is buttressed by the language and import of other provisions of the Act. For instance, every federal agency is required to take three internal preliminary steps before adopting an information collection request. The agency must take action to
“(A) eliminate, through the use of the Federal Information Locator System and other means, information collections which seek to obtain information available from another source within the Federal Government;
“(B) reduce to the extent practicable and appropriate the burden on persons who will provide information to the agency; and
“(C) formulate plans for tabulating the information in a manner which will enhance its usefulness to other agencies and to the public.”
44 U. S. C. § 3507(a)(1) (1982 ed.) (emphasis added).
These requirements affect agencies only when they gather information for their own use. The first directs an agency not to ask for information that it can acquire from another agency.5 The second requires an agency to consider the burden it places on the public, but only as to information provided to the agency. The third encourages an agency to
Also instructive are the provisions governing OMB‘s review of proposed agency information collection requests that cast that review in terms applicable to information-gathering regulations but not to disclosure rules. OMB‘s examination is limited to “determining whether the collection of information by an agency is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility for the agency.”
However, in reviewing the disclosure rules at issue in this case, OMB was unable to consider what OSHA planned to do with information regarding hazardous chemicals at the various work sites, because OSHA was not to be the recipient of this information. Nothing was to be given to OSHA to process-in a timely fashion or otherwise. OMB instead disapproved the three OSHA rules on the ground that the mandated disclosures would be of little benefit to the employees OSHA sought to protect. But there is no indication in the Paperwork Reduction Act that OMB is authorized to determine the usefulness of agency-adopted warning requirements to those being warned. To the contrary, Congress focused exclusively on the utility of the information to the agency. And the only criteria specified are whether the agency can process the information quickly and use it in pursuit of its substantive mandate.
While the grammar of this text can be faulted, its meaning is clear: the public is protected under the Paperwork Reduction Act from paperwork regulations not issued in compliance with the Act, only when those regulations dictate that a person maintain information for an agency or provide information to an agency. By its very terms, the statute‘s enforcement mechanism does not apply to rules which require disclosure to a third party rather than to a federal agency. Thus either Congress intended the Paperwork Reduction Act to cover information-gathering rules only, or Congress intended the Act to cover disclosure rules but intended to exempt them from this agency compliance mechanism. Because the latter is counterintuitive and contrary to clear legislative history,7 § 3512 is further evidence that Congress did not intend the Act to cover disclosure rules.
For the foregoing reasons, we find that the terms “collection of information” and “information collection request,” when considered in light of the language and structure of the Act as a whole, refer solely to the collection of information by, or for the use of, a federal agency; they cannot reasonably be interpreted to cover rules mandating disclosure of information to a third party. In addition, we find unpersuasive petitioners’ claims that there is a “clearly expressed legislative intention [to the] contrary,” see INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S. 421, 432, n. 12 (1987).
Petitioners rely on statements from various stages of the Act‘s legislative history as evidence that Congress intended “collection of information” to include disclosure rules.8 However, the statements show merely that the Act was intended
Because we find that the statute, as a whole, clearly expresses Congress’ intention, we decline to defer tо OMB‘s interpretation.10 See Board of Governors of Federal Reserve
It is so ordered.
JUSTICE WHITE, with whom THE CHIEF JUSTICE joins, dissenting.
The Court‘s opinion today requires more than 10 pages, including a review of numerous statutory provisions and legislative history, to conclude that the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 (PRA or Act) is clear and unambiguous on the question whether it applies to agency directives to private parties to collect specified information and disseminate or make it available to third parties. On the basis of that questionable conclusion, the Court refuses to give any deference to the Office of Management and Budget‘s (OMB‘s) longstanding and consistently applied interpretation that such requirements fall within the Act‘s scope. Because in my view the Aсt is not clear in that regard and deference is due OMB under
In Chevron, supra, we set forth the general principles to be applied in cases such as this one:
“When a court reviews an agency‘s construction of the statute which it administers, it is confronted with two questions. First, always, is the question whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue. If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. If, however, the court determines Congress has not directly addressed the precise question at issue, the court does not simply impose its own construction on the statute, as would be necessary in the absence of an administrative interpretation. Rather, if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency‘s answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute.” Id., at 842-843 (footnotes omitted).
As the Court acknowledges, there is no question in this case that OMB is the agency charged with administering the PRA. Unless Congress has directly spoken to the issue whether an agency request that private parties disclose to, or maintain for, third parties information such as material safety data sheets (MSDS‘s) is an “information collection request” or a “recordkeeping requirement” within the Act‘s scope, OMB‘s interpretation of the Act is entitled to deference, provided of course that it is based on a permissible construction of the statute.
The Court concedes that the Act does not expressly address “whether Congress intended the Paperwork Reduction Act to apply to disclosure rules as well as information-gathering rules.” Ante, at 34. Curiously, the Court then almost immediately asserts that interpreting the Act to provide coverage for disclosure requests is untenable. Ante, at
The hazard communication standards propounded by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) require chemical manufacturers to develop hazard information about their products, to adequately label such products, and to prepare for their products MSDS‘s to be sent to downstream employers who utilize those products. See
OMB, as I see it, reasonably concluded that these requirements were subject to its approval under the PRA, which
An “information collection request” is defined as “a written report form, application form, schedule, questionnaire, reporting or recordkeeping requirement, collection of information requirement, or other similar method calling for the collection of information.”
“the obtaining or soliciting of facts or opinions by an agency through the use of written report forms, application forms, schedules, questionnaires, reporting or recordkeeping requirements, or other similar methods calling for either-
“(A) answers to identical questions posed to, or identical reporting or recordkeeping requirements imposed on, ten or more persons, other than agencies, instrumentalities, or employees of the United States; or
“(B) answers to questions posed to agencies, instrumentalities, or employees of the United States which are to be used for general statistical purposes.”
44 U. S. C. § 3502(4) (1982 ed.).
“Reporting requirement” is not specifically defined by the statute.
As it is directed to do by the PRA, see § 3516, OMB has issued regulations and rules for exercising its authority under the statute. Although the statute itself does not in so many
Section 3502(4) likewise defines “collection of information” as including reporting and recordkeeping requirements, but that definition begins with the words “the obtaining or soliciting of facts or opinions by an agency” through written report forms, etc. The Court‘s argument is that this definition limits the PRA to facts or opinions obtained by an agency for its own use and hence excludes recordkeeping, reporting requirements, and information collection designed to inform or benefit third parties such as employees, customers, or the public. This argument, however, pays too little attention to the precise language of the provision. First, an agency does not “obtain” information when it imposes a recordkeeping requirement. Second, § 3502(4) not only speaks of “obtaining” facts and opinions by an agency but of the “soliciting” of facts and opinions by an agency. The word “soliciting” would appear to mean something beside “obtaining” and is commonly understood as including a request for another person to per-
Furthermore, the Court does not explain why if “information collection requests” and the “collection of information” are limited to agency directives that information be provided to the agency, the statutory definitions of those terms explicitly include “recordkeeping requirement[s].” See
It is common ground in this case that if the information required to be reported or made available to employees were first sent to the agency and then distributed to employees, there would be no question about OMB‘s authority. Likewise, as I understand it, the mere fact that the records ordered to be kept are not physically delivered to the agency does not bar OMB jurisdiction, so long as the records are kept for examination and use by the agency. The Court concedes as much, noting that requests for information provided indirectly to an agency, such as requirements that tax and business records be kept on hand, fall within the PRA‘s scope because those documents are subject to “possible examination as part of a compliance review.” Ante, at 33, n. 4.
Also curious is the Court‘s reliance on the statement that one purpose of the Act was to reduce the paperwork burden “for persons who provide information to and for the Federal Government.”
Contrary to the Court‘s assertions, disclosure requests do present some of the problems Congress sought to solve through the PRA. The Court concedes that Congress intended the Act to apply when information is “filed with an agency for possible dissemination to the public (i. e., when the agency is an intermediary in the process of data dissemination).” Ante, at 42. But if that is true, how can it be so clear that Congress intended to permit agencies to bypass the Act by simply requesting private parties to submit information dirеctly to third parties? From a policy perspective, and certainly from the private sector‘s perspective, it makes little difference whether an agency collects information and then disseminates it or requires those in possession of the information to submit it directly to the relevant third parties. In fact, the latter option generally will impose greater paperwork burdens on private parties, although either choice results in a federal agency imposing major paperwork burdens on the private sector. The Court‘s response is that one approach imposes costs on the Federal Government and the other does not. But that distinction is flawed because it promotes a secondary objective of the PRA and ignores what I consider to have been Congress’ primary objective in enacting the statute.
In addition, the legislative history on which the Court relies is unconvincing. Like the statute itself, the legislative history never expressly addresses the question of disclosure
Since the statute itself is not clear and unambiguous, the legislative history is muddy at best, and OMB has given the statute what I believe is a permissible construction, I cannot agree with the outcome the Court reaches. If Chevron is to have meaning, it must apply when a statute is as ambiguous on the issue at hand as the PRA is on the subject of disclosure requirements. Contrary to the Court of Appeals and to the majority, I would defer to OMB‘s position that the obligation to compile copies of MSDS‘s and the labeling requirements are information collection requests subject to its approval. It follows that OMB was not acting contrary to the statute in disapproving the three provisions specifically involved in this case.
But even accepting for the moment the Court‘s construction of the statute, it is notable that the Court fails to consider whether the requirement that employers at multiemployer work sites file all of the relevant MSDS‘s in a central location or exchange them and make them available at their home offices, see
Finally, an argument that the Court does not make but which the United Steelworkers do is that Chevron should not apply in this case because OMB‘s regulations actually determine the scope of its jurisdiction under the Act. This Court has never accepted that argument and in fact, as JUSTICE SCALIA pointed out in his lucid concurrence in Mississippi Power & Light Co. v. Mississippi ex rel. Moore, 487 U. S. 354, 377 (1988), there are good reasons not to accept it, reasons which JUSTICE SCALIA has adequately set forth and which I will not repeat here. I note, however, that Chevron itself and several of our cases decided since Chevron have deferred to agencies’ determinations of matters that affect their own statutory jurisdiction.6 See, e. g., Massachusetts v. Morash, 490 U. S. 107, 116-118 (1989); K mart Corp. v. Cartier, Inc., 486 U. S. 281, 292-293 (1988); EEOC v. Commercial Office Products Co., 486 U. S. 107, 114-116 (1988); NLRB v. Food and Commercial Workers, 484 U. S. 112,
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.
Notes
“The claim is pure pettifoggery. Appellants cannot seriously believe that in enacting the Reports Act Congress was concerned solely or primarily with private parties’ costs of mailing data to Washington; it is the recordkeeping and data-gathering that constitute the burden. Moreover, OMB and its predecessor, the Bureau of the Budget, have interpreted the statutory term ‘collection of information’ for nearly half a century to encompass ‘[a]ny general or specific requirement for the establishment or maintenance of records . . . which are to be used or be available for use in the collection of information.’ Regulation A, Federal Reporting Services, Clearance of Plans and Reports Forms, Title I(1)(e) (February 13, 1943) . . . . Even under the deference we owe the agency, Chevron U. S. A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council [, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 842-845 (1984)], we doubt we could uphold a view of the Reports Act that made physical delivery to an agency essential to the notion of ‘collection of information.’ Happily we confront no such oddity.” 269 U. S. App. D. C., at 467-468, 846 F. 2d, at 1453-1454 (emphasis in original).
Notably, by enacting the PRA Congress intended to expand the scope of authority OMB and its predecessor had been given under the Reports Act. See Paperwork and Redtape Reduction Act of 1979: Hearing on S. 1411 before the Subcommittee on Federal Spending Practices and Open Govern- ment of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, 96th Cong., 1st Sess., 24-60, 119-125 (1979) (hereinafter S. 1411 Hearings) (comments of OMB and the Comptroller General nоting that the proposed legislation would cure deficiencies in the coverage of the Federal Reports Act); S. Rep. No. 96-930, p. 13 (1980).
OMB wanted OSHA to exempt, in addition, all products packaged in the same form and concentration as a consumer product, whether or not used for the same purpose or with the same exposure, as well as all Food and Drug Administration regulated drugs handled in the nonmanufacturing sector. 52 Fed. Reg. 46078 (1987). OMB drew its recommended exemption for consumer products from § 311(e)(3) of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, 100 Stat. 1615,
“(c) ‘Collection of information’ means the obtaining or soliciting of information by an agency from ten or more persons by means of identical questions, or identical reporting or recordkeeping requirements, whether such collection of information is mandatory, voluntary, or required to obtain a benefit. For purposes of this definition, the ‘obtaining or soliciting of information’ includes any requirement or request for persons to obtain, maintain, retain, report, or publicly disclose information. In the Act, a ‘collection of information requirement’ is a type of ‘information collection request.’ As used in this part, a ‘collection of information’ refers to the act of collecting information, to the information to be collected, to a plan and/or an instrument calling for the collection of information, or any of these, as appropriate.
“(1) A ‘collection of information’ includes the use of written report forms, application forms, schedules, questionnaires, reporting or recordkeeping requirements, or other similar methods. Similar methods may include disclosure requirements [and] labeling requirements . . . .
“(2) Requirements by an agency for a person to obtain or compile information for the purpose of disclosure to members of the public or to the public at large, through posting, notification, labeling, or similar disclosure requirements, constitute the ‘collectiоn of information’ whenever the same requirement to obtain or compile information would be a ‘collection of information’ if the information were directly provided to the agency. The public disclosure of information originally supplied by the Federal government to the recipient for the purpose of disclosure to the public is not included within this definition.
. . . . .
“(p) ‘Recordkeeping requirement’ means a requirement imposed by an agency on persons to maintain specified records and includes requirements that information be maintained or retained by persons but not necessarily provided to an agency.
“(q) ‘Reporting requirement’ means a requirement imposed by an agency on persons to provide information to another person or to the agency. Reporting requirements may implicitly or explicitly include related recordkeeping requirements.” (Emphasis added.)
“Any disapproval by the Director, in whole or in part, of a proposed information collection request of an independent regulatory agency . . . may be voided, if the agency by a majority vote of its members overrides the Director‘s disapproval or exercise of authority. The agency shall certify each override to the Director, [and] shall explain the reasons for exercising the override authority. Where the override concerns an information collection request, the Director shall without further delay assign a control number to such request, and such override shall be valid for a period of three years.”