[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 237 (Wednesday, December 9, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79162-79163]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-27041]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Service Annual Survey

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the 
general public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and 
continuing information collections, which helps us assess the impact of 
our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. Public comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on September 21, 2020 during a 60-day comment period. 
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Service Annual Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0422.
    Form Number(s): There are 91 individual forms, too numerous to list 
here.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a 
Currently Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 93,722.
    Average Hours per Response: 1.5305.
    Burden Hours: 143,437.
    Needs and Uses: Over 50 percent of all economic activity is 
generated by businesses in the services sectors, defined to exclude 
retail and wholesale trade. The U.S. Census Bureau currently measures 
the total output of most of the service industries annually in the 
Service Annual Survey (SAS). This survey currently covers all or 
portions of: Utilities; Transportation and Warehousing; Information; 
Finance and Insurance; Real Estate and Rental and Leasing; 
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; Administrative and 
Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services; Educational 
Services; Health Care and Social Assistance; Arts, Entertainment, and 
Recreation; Accommodation and Food Services; and Other Services (except 
Public Administration) as defined by the North American Industry 
Classification System (NAICS). The SAS provides the only official 
source of annual revenue estimates for the service industries.
    Estimates from the SAS are essential to measurement of economic 
growth, real output, prices, and productivity for our nation's economy. 
A broad spectrum of government and private stakeholders use these 
estimates in analyzing economic activity; forecasting economic growth; 
and compiling data on productivity, prices and the gross domestic 
product (GDP). In addition, trade and professional organizations use 
these estimates to analyze industry trends, benchmark their own 
statistical products and develop forecasts. Private businesses use 
these estimates to measure market share, analyze business potential, 
and plan investments.
    Collected data include operating revenue for both taxable and tax-
exempt firms and organizations, sources of revenue and expenses by type 
for selected industries, operating expenses, and selected industry-
specific items. In addition, e-commerce data is collected for all 
industries, and export and inventory data are collected for selected 
industries. The availability of these data greatly improves the quality 
of the intermediate inputs and value-added estimates in the annual 
input-output and GDP by industry accounts produced by the Bureau of 
Economic Analysis (BEA).
    Beginning in survey year 2020, the operating expenses content on 
all SAS questionnaires will change to a version that will be used in 
Economic Census years and non-Economic Census years. This change will 
aid in creating a consistent survey experience for respondents from 
year to year and better meet the needs of our data users. The proposed 
expense questions are shown in Attachment 2. This spreadsheet shows the 
different versions of the expense questions that will appear on each 
SAS form variation.
    Minor changes will also be made to various forms to increase 
clarity of what is being asked of respondents (e.g., improving 
instructions or removing parts of a question), improve the quality of 
data the Census Bureau receives, and further reduce respondent burden.
    To improve data quality, harmonize survey content, and reduce 
respondent burden, the Service Annual Survey will alter a question 
asking about organizational change within a company. This question 
appears as question 3 for respondents in all industries SAS covers. The 
question inquires about any organizational changes a company 
experienced during the given year and currently refers to acquisitions, 
mergers, sales, and divestitures. The revision will alter the question 
text to include instances where a company ceased operations and would 
add ``ceased operation'' as an answer choice. This change would provide 
additional information about a company's activity in a given year, 
having the potential to improve data quality. Additionally, the 
revision would synchronize SAS content with the relevant questions on 
the Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS) and the Annual Wholesale Trade 
Survey (AWTS), making the surveys more consistent for respondents.
    In addition, with the increased use of telemedicine services during 
this public health emergency, the Service Annual Survey proposes 
expanding the scope of questions on telemedicine beyond ambulatory 
health care providers to include hospitals and nursing homes. 
Telemedicine is an important mode of

[[Page 79163]]

service delivery for the healthcare industry, and its importance has 
increased during the current pandemic. Expanding the collection of data 
on telemedicine use will support measurement on changes in its adoption 
during this unprecedented public health emergency. SAS currently asks 
ambulatory health care providers (NAICS 621) about telemedicine 
services in relation to patient visits. This proposal will add a 
question about revenues from telemedicine services for hospitals (NAICS 
622) and nursing homes (NAICS 623). Furthermore, to standardize content 
across industries and provide consistency for respondents, the current 
telemedicine question asked of the ambulatory health care providers 
would be revised to match the question being added to the other 
industries.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 182 
authorize the collection. Sections 224 and 225 make reporting 
mandatory.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. 
Find this particular information collection by selecting ``Currently 
under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0607-0422.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2020-27041 Filed 12-8-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P