Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Notices 68965

[FR Doc. 04–26115 Filed 11–24–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4210–27–C

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service 

Information Collection Renewal 

Submitted to the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) for Approval Under 

the Paperwork Reduction Act; OMB 

Control Number 1018–0112; U.S. Fish 

and Wildlife Service Employee Exit 

Follow-Up, Authorized by the Merit 

System Principles (5 U.S.C. 2301)

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice; request for comments.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 

Fish and Wildlife Service (We/Service) 

is requesting that OMB extend an 

existing approval to collect information 

from former employees. We will use the 

information that we collect to assist us 

in developing strategies to improve 

employee retention.

DATES: You must submit comments on 

or before December 27, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments on 

this information collection renewal to 

the Desk Officer for the Department of 

the Interior at OMB–OIRA at (202) 395–

6566 (fax) or at 

OIRA_DOCKET@OMB.eop.gov (e-mail). 

Please provide a copy of your comments 

to Hope Grey, Information Collection 

Clearance Officer, Fish and Wildlife 

Service, MS 222–ARLSQ, 4401 N. 

Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203 

(mail); (703) 358–2269 (fax); or at 

hope_grey@fws.gov (e-mail).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To 

request a copy of the information 

collection requirements, the related 

form, or explanatory information, 

contact Hope Grey at the address or fax 

number listed above or by telephone at 

(703) 358–2482.

SUPPLEMENTATARY INFORMATION: We 

have sent a request to OMB to renew 

approval of the information collection 

clearance requirements for an Employee 

Exit Follow-up Survey. Currently, we 

have approval from OMB to collect 

information under OMB control number 

1018–0112. This approval expires on 

November 30, 2004. We may not 

conduct or sponsor, and a person is not 

required to respond to, a collection of 

information unless we display a 

currently valid OMB control number. 

OMB regulations at 5 CFR 1320, which 

implement provisions of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 

et seq.), require that interested members 

of the public and affected agencies have 

an opportunity to comment on 

information collection and 

recordkeeping activities (see 5 CFR 

1320.8(d)). OMB has up to 60 days to 

approve or disapprove our information 

collection request, but their response 

may be given as early as 30 days after 

our submittal. Therefore, to ensure 

consideration, send your comments to 

OMB by the date listed in the DATES 

section near the beginning of this notice. 

On August 6, 2004, we published in 

the Federal Register (69 FR 47948) a 60-

day notice of our intent to request 

renewal of this information collection 

authority from OMB. In that notice, we 

solicited public comments for 60 days 

ending on October 5, 2004. We received 

one comment regarding this notice. The 

commenter expressed general 

opposition to the use of the survey and 

encouraged the Service to protect 

wildlife. The commenter did not 

provide specific reasons for objecting to 

the survey or address the information 

collected. Service management has 

made it a high priority to ensure that we 

retain the highest caliber employees 

possible. We can do this only if we 

examine and analyze the reasons for 

employee separation from the Service. 

Therefore, we have not made any 

changes to the survey based on this 

comment. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service is the 

principal Federal agency responsible for 

conserving, protecting, and enhancing 

fish, wildlife, and plants and their 

habitats for the continuing benefit of the 

American people. We manage the 95-

million-acre National Wildlife Refuge 

System, which encompasses 545 

national wildlife refuges, thousands of 

small wetlands, and other special 

management areas. We also operate 69 

national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery 

resource offices, and 81 ecological 

services field stations. We enforce 

Federal wildlife laws, administer the 

Endangered Species Act, manage 

migratory bird populations, restore 

nationally significant fisheries, conserve 

and restore wildlife habitat such as 

wetlands, and help foreign governments 

with their conservation efforts. We also 

oversee the Federal Assistance program 

that distributes hundreds of millions of 

dollars of excise taxes on fishing and 

hunting equipment to State fish and 

wildlife agencies. We have made it a 

high priority to recruit and retain valued 

employees to accomplish these 

responsibilities. As part of an active 

career development program, we have 

instituted an Employee Exit Follow-up 

Survey to collect feedback from former 

Service employees so that we may 

discover relevant issues that impact 

employee retention. If this survey were 

not used, there would be no way we 

could analyze the reasons for employee 

separation.

We estimate that the total annual 

burden associated with the request will 

be 100 hours. This represents an average 

of 400 respondents with each taking an 

estimated 15 minutes to complete the 

survey. 

Title: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

Employee Exit Follow-up, authorized by 

the Merit System Principles (5 U.S.C. 

2301). 

OMB Control Number: 1018–0112. 

Form Number: FWS Form 3–2186. 

Frequency of Collection: Occasionally. 

Description of Respondents: Former 

Fish and Wildlife Service employees. 

Total Annual Responses: 400. 

Total Annual Burden Hours: 100 

hours. 

We again invite comments on this 

information collection renewal on: (1) 

Whether or not this collection of 

information is necessary for us to 

properly perform our functions, 

including whether or not this 

information will have practical utility; 

(2) the accuracy of our estimate of 

burden, including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions we use; 

(3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, 

and clarity of the information we are 

proposing to collect; and (4) ways for us 

to minimize the burden of the collection 

of information on respondents, 

including through the use of appropriate 

automated, electronic, mechanical, or 

other technological collection 

techniques or other forms of information 

technology. 

Our practice is to make comments, 

including names and home addresses of 

respondents, available for public review 

during regular business hours. 

Individual respondents may request that 

we withhold their home addresses from 

the record, which we will honor to the 

extent allowable by law. If you wish to 

withhold your name and/or address, 

you must state this clearly at the 

beginning of your comment. We will not 

consider anonymous comments. We 

generally make all submissions from 

organizations or businesses, and from 

individuals identifying themselves as 

representatives or officials of 

organizations or businesses, available 

for public inspection in their entirety.

Dated: November 5, 2004. 

Hope Grey, 

Information Collection Clearance Officer, 

Fish and Wildlife Service.

[FR Doc. 04–26150 Filed 11–24–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–55–P