Finally, I'd like to offer the following observations on the new G-PEA and the Blue Pages: The Paperwork REDUCTION Act was enacted in 1995. "Reduction" is a relative term. Exactly what it means is a little fuzzy, although Congress established specific percentage reduction objectives for the burden placed upon the public from year to year. Now we have the Government Paperwork ELIMINATION Act (G-PEA). "Elimination" is a little more clear cut. There should be no doubt about what it means. Moreover, if it takes us 5 years to give the public the opportunity to submit forms and documents to us by electronic means, that will be a symptom of the failure of the Federal bureaucracy. We should aim to do so within less than half that time... The focus of the Blue Pages initiative is on the printed, local telephone directories. However, the data will also be made available on-line, and the opportunity will be provided to supply URLs for FAQ and FAD (frequently accessed documents) along with phone numbers. The immediate objective is to enable the public to reach the appropriate office on the first call. However, the longer-term objective should be to deliver the actual information or service they need, without having to leave voice mail messages, play phone tag, or wait for snail mail. All of our E-forms, FAD, and answers to FAQ should be readily available on-line for quick and easy retrieval via Blue Pages queries. Finally, the commonly understood terms used to describe agency functions in the telephone directories should also be used to catalog agency records.

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