While filling out a National Do Not Call Registry complaint form, I noticed this at the bottom of the page (emphasis mine):

This voluntary complaint form is designed to improve public access to the FTC Do-Not-Call Complaint Registry. The estimated time of completion is 2 minutes. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, as amended, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The OMB control number for this collection is 3084-0047.

How can I tell what a valid control number is? There’s no link for me to verify it, so the whole point of the above paragraph is lost.

After a whole lot of Googling (believe me this wasn’t easy to find), I unearthed the Inventory of Active Information Collections, the Office of Management and Budget’s exhaustive list of OMB control numbers, sorted by agency. There are 1,251 in all, though many are expired. There’s also a list of agencies represented.

Here are some highlights from randomly thumbing through the file:

• Testing and Recordkeeping Requirements under the Standard for the Flammability of Mattresses and Mattress Pads (OMB No. 3041-0014)
• Information Collection Requirements for Sound Levels for Toy Caps (OMB No. 3041-0080)
• Metal-Cored Candle Wicks Containing Lead and Candles with Such Wicks (OMB No. 3041-0131)
• Medical Clearance Process for Deployment to the Polar Regions (OMB No. 3145-0177)
• Statement Regarding Chinese Custom Marriage (OMB No. 0960-0086)

There is also a government-run E-Forms Catalog where you can look for a specific form. (Bonus: changing “citizen” to “administrator” in the URL takes you to a login page.)

This entry was posted Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Secrets, Security, Trivia. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.