Paperwork and Redtape Reduction Act of 1979

Paperwork and Redtape Reduction Act of 1979 - Title I: Central Management and Control Responsibility - Establishes, within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Office of Federal Information Management Policy to have Government-wide responsibility for setting policies and coordinating procedures governing the budgeting, management, and control of Federal information management activities and of costs imposed by Federal programs on individuals, organizations, and other institutions outside the Federal Government.

Directs the Administrator of such office to: (1) set annual levels for the number of person-hours of reporting and recordkeeping which each agency may require of individuals, organizations, and other institutions outside the Federal Government; (2) publish an annual report of the costs to each Federal agency of the administration of, and to organizations of compliance with, Federal agency reporting requirements; (3) annually review the paperwork reduction activities of each Federal agency to ascertain their adequacy; (4) develop and recommend to the President and the Congress policies and standards on information disclosure, confidentiality, and safeguarding the security of information collected or maintained by Federal agencies or in conjunction with Federal programs; (5) conduct a research program to develop improved cost accounting and reduction techniques; and (6) keep Congress fully informed of the activities of such office.

Requires that the formal meetings of such Office for the purpose of establishing information management procedures be open to the public.

Delegates to the Administrator the authority and responsibility of the Director of the OMB under the Federal Reports Act and the Privacy Act of 1974.

Makes it the responsibility of the Administrator of the General Services Administration to conduct studies and promulgate standards with respect to records retention requirements imposed on the public by Federal agencies.

Title II: Elimination of Unnecessary Duplication - Establishes a Federal Information Locator System composed of an information locator, a data element dictionary, and an information referral service.

Directs the System to serve as the authoritative register of all public use reports. Establishes within the General Services Administration a Federal Information Locator Office.

Requires the Director of such Locator Office to: (1) prepare a data profile for each public use report; and (2) register all approved new reports and other information holdings in the Federal Information Locator System.

Requires data profiles for planned new requirements to be matched against existing profiles in the information locator. Directs the results of such matching to be made available to Federal agencies and the general public.

Requires the Director to establish procedures and to insure that at a minimum all data items in public-use reports are registered in the Federal Locator System.

Requires the Director to insure that no actual data is contained within the locator system, except descriptive data profiles necessary to identify duplicative data or to locate information. Requires that any information holding which contains a data element of a personal or proprietary nature within the meaning of the Privacy Act of 1974 be identified as such and restricted in access and use.

Title III: Miscellaneous Provisions - Authorizes the appropriation of such sums as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.