Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 4 / Thursday, January 7, 2021 / Notices 1117 

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 

SECURITY 

Federal Emergency Management 

Agency 

[Docket ID: FEMA–2020–0035; OMB No. 

1660–0072] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Submission for OMB 

Review; Comment Request; Flood 

Mitigation Assistance (FMA); Building 

Resilient Infrastructure and 

Communities (BRIC); Pre-Disaster 

Mitigation (PDM) 

AGENCY: Federal Emergency 

Management Agency, Department of 

Homeland Security (DHS). 

ACTION: 30-Day notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: The Federal Emergency 

Management Agency (FEMA) will 

submit the information collection 

described below to the Office of 

Management and Budget for review and 

clearance in accordance with the 

requirements of the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995. While this 

information collection continues to 

include the Flood Mitigation Assistance 

(FMA) and Pre-Disaster Mitigation 

(PDM) programs, it introduces the 

Building Resilient Infrastructure and 

Communities (BRIC) program, and 

addresses the process for using a BRIC 

fiscal year (FY) 20 National Competition 

Panel Review Expression of Interest 

Form to solicit panel members to review 

competitive BRIC grant applications. 

After reviewing all the comments 

submitted, FEMA has decided to use the 

BRIC FY20 National Competition Panel 

Review Expression of Interest Form to 

solicit interest from potential panelists. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

received on or before February 8, 2021. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent 

within 30 days of publication of this 

notice to 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. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Jennie Orenstein, Grants Policy Branch 

Chief, Federal Insurance and Mitigation 

Administration, FEMA, 

Jennie.Orenstein@fema.dhs.gov, (202) 

212–4071. You may contact the Records 

Management Division for copies of the 

proposed collection of information at 

email address: FEMA-InformationCollections-Management@fema.dhs.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

collection of information is necessary to 

implement grants for the Flood 

Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program, 

Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM), and 

Building Resilient Infrastructure and 

Communities (BRIC) program. 

The FMA program is authorized 

pursuant to Section 1366 of the National 

Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as 

amended (42 U.S.C. 4104c). FMA was 

created as part of the National Flood 

Insurance Reform Act (NFIRA) of 1994, 

Public Law 103–325. The Biggert-Waters 

Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 

(BW–12), Public Law 112–141, 

consolidated the Repetitive Flood 

Claims (RFC) and Severe Repetitive Loss 

grant (SRL) programs into FMA. Under 

FMA, cost-share requirements were 

changed to allow more Federal funds for 

properties with repetitive flood claims. 

The FMA program, under 44 CFR part 

79, provides funding for measures taken 

to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk 

of flood damage to buildings, 

manufactured homes, and other 

structures insured under the National 

Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). 

PDM was authorized under Section 

203 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 

Relief and Emergency Assistance Act 

(Stafford Act), Public Law 93–288, as 

amended by Section 102 of the Disaster 

Mitigation Act of 2000, Public Law 106– 

390 (42 U.S.C. 5133). As a result of 

amendments by the Disaster Recovery 

Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA), the PDM 

program is being replaced with the BRIC 

program. Therefore, PDM is established 

as a legacy program. The PDM program 

provided grants for cost-effective 

mitigation actions prior to a disaster 

event to reduce overall risks to the 

population and structures while also 

reducing reliance on funding from 

actual disaster declarations. While the 

last cycle of the PDM program awards 

were made in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, 

information collection will continue 

through FY 2020–2021 for grant 

monitoring and closeout. 

The Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 

2018, Section 1234, National Public 

Infrastructure Pre-Disaster Hazard 

Mitigation, amended Section 203 of the 

Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5133) to 

authorize BRIC. The BRIC program is 

designed to promote a national culture 

of preparedness and public safety 

through encouraging investments to 

protect our communities and 

infrastructure and through 

strengthening national mitigation 

capabilities to foster resilience. The 

BRIC program seeks to fund effective 

and innovative projects that will reduce 

risk, increase resilience, and serve as a 

catalyst to encourage the whole 

community to invest in and adopt 

policies related to mitigation. 

The guiding principles of the BRIC 

program are to (1) support state and 

local governments, tribes, and territories 

through capability and capacitybuilding to enable them to identify 

mitigation actions and implement 

projects that reduce risks posed by 

natural hazards; (2) encourage and 

enable innovation while allowing 

flexibility, consistency, and 

effectiveness; (3) promote partnerships 

and enable high-impact investments to 

reduce risk from natural hazards with a 

focus on critical services and facilities, 

public infrastructure, public safety, 

public health, and communities; (4) 

provide a significant opportunity to 

reduce future losses and minimize 

impacts on the Disaster Relief Fund; and 

(5) support the adoption and 

enforcement of building codes, 

standards, and policies that will protect 

the health, safety, and general welfare of 

the public, take into account future 

conditions, and have long-lasting 

impacts on community risk reduction, 

including for critical services and 

facilities and for future disaster costs. 

The BRIC program will distribute funds 

annually and apply a federal/nonfederal cost share. 

In accordance with OMB Circular A– 

102, FEMA requires that all parties 

interested in receiving FEMA mitigation 

grants to submit an application package 

for grant assistance. Applications and 

sub-applications for the BRIC and FMA 

programs are submitted via the FEMA 

Grants Outcome (GO) system. 

Information necessary for the ongoing 

monitoring and closeout of the PDM 

program for FY 2019 and prior will be 

collected via the e-Grants system. The 

FEMA GO and e-Grants systems have 

been developed to meet the intent of the 

e-Government initiative, authorized by 

Public Law 106–107. This initiative 

requires that all government agencies 

both streamline grant application 

processes and provide for the means to 

electronically create, review, and submit 

a grant application via the internet. 

To increase transparency in decisionmaking while building capability and 

partnerships, FEMA will convene a 

National Review Panel to score 

applications and sub-applications based 

on qualitative evaluation criteria. The 

qualitative criteria are narrative 

submissions to allow applicants and 

sub-applicants the flexibility to fully 

explain the strengths of the proposed 

project. Qualitative evaluation criteria 

have graded scales of point scoring. 

The BRIC program will need to solicit 

volunteers from State, local, Tribal, and 

territorial governments (SLTTs) and 


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1118 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 4 / Thursday, January 7, 2021 / Notices 

Other Federal Agencies (OFAs) to 

review applications that are routed to 

the qualitative panel reviews. The 

volunteers will review and score 

applications based on a pre-determined 

scoring criterion. 

This proposed information collection 

previously published in the Federal 

Register on October 27, 2020, with a 60- 

day public comment period. The 

comment period closed on December 

28, 2020. FEMA received one comment 

with two parts via www.regulations.gov 

in response to Information Collection 

1660–0072. A summary of the comment 

and FEMA’s response is provided 

below. 

The first part of the comment stated 

that because ‘‘community’’ is used in 

program descriptions, applications and 

sub-applications submitted by SLTTs 

for BRIC and FMA grants should 

include additional information such as 

evidence of public outreach and 

education on proposed mitigation 

activities and public comment on the 

proposed mitigation activities. In 

response, while FEMA appreciates this 

comment, the Federal Register notice 

for this information collection was 

published to solicit feedback about the 

expression of interest form created to 

solicit potential panelists for the BRIC 

application review process. Adding 

additional requirements to BRIC 

applications and sub-applications is 

outside the scope of this matter. 

The second part of the comment seeks 

additional information about the 

makeup of the qualitative panel, the 

review process, and whether panelists 

will be compensated for their 

participation in the review process. In 

response, FEMA provides the following 

information. 

BRIC applications and subapplications will be reviewed for 

Eligibility and Completeness (E&C) by 

FEMA’s respective regional offices. 

During the E&C review, projects that are 

submitted to the national competition 

will also be provided a technical score. 

Technical scores are made up of 100 

points, which are binary points. After 

applications have gone through the E&C 

review, they will be forwarded to the 

National Technical Review (NTR). 

Projects that are marked as standard or 

decentralized during the E&C review 

will be reviewed and issued an NTR 

memo. After NTR has concluded, the 

projects that are submitted to the 

national competition will be sent to the 

qualitative panels. During the 

qualitative panels, applications will be 

reviewed by representatives from the 

SLTTs and OFAs that comprise the 

panel and scored based on a gradient 

scale. Qualitative scoring has a total of 

100 possible points. The scoring is made 

up of six (6) criteria, all ranging in 

different point value. The panelists will 

leverage their mitigation experience and 

expertise during the review to assess the 

degree to which subapplications meet 

the six BRIC qualitative evaluation 

criteria. The subapplication’s final 

qualitative score will be calculated by 

averaging the qualitative scores from 

each panelist. The six criteria include 

the following: (1) Risk Reduction/ 

Resiliency Effectiveness possible 35 

points, (2) Future Conditions possible 

15 points, (3) Implementation Measures 

possible 15 points, (4) Population 

Impacted possible 15 points, (5) 

Outreach Activities possible 5 points, 

and (6) Leveraging Partners possible 15 

points. More information on the 

background, evaluation process and 

scoring, and criteria can be found here: 

https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/ 

files/2020-08/fema_bric-qualitativecriteria_support_document_08-2020.pdf 

. For the qualitative panels, each 

application will be reviewed and scored 

by three (3) volunteer panel members. 

The panelists will not be compensated 

for their participation. 

Collection of Information 

Title: Mitigation Grant Programs. 

Type of Information Collection: 

Revision of a currently approved 

collection. 

OMB Number: 1660–0072. 

FEMA Forms: Building Resilient 

Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) 

FY20 National Competition Panel 

Review Expression of Interest Form. 

Abstract: FEMA’s FMA and BRIC 

programs use an automated grant 

application and management system 

called FEMA GO. The Pre-Disaster 

Mitigation program uses an automated 

grant application and management 

system called e-Grants. These grant 

programs provide funding for the 

purpose of reducing or eliminating the 

risks to life and property from hazards. 

The FEMA GO and e-Grants systems 

include all the application information 

needed to apply for funding under these 

grant programs. FEMA and SLTTs will 

use the information submitted via the 

FY20 National Competition Panel 

Review Expression of Interest Form to 

solicit volunteers from SLTTs and OFAs 

to review applications that are routed to 

the BRIC qualitative panel reviews. The 

volunteers will review, and score 

applications based on a pre-determined 

scoring criterion. 

Affected Public: Federal Government; 

State, local, Tribal, and territorial 

governments; Individuals or 

Households. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

436. 

Estimated Number of Responses: 

5,364. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 58,248. 

Estimated Total Annual Respondent 

Cost: $3,324,211. 

Estimated Respondents’ Operation 

and Maintenance Costs: None. 

Estimated Respondents’ Capital and 

Start-Up Costs: None. 

Estimated Total Annual Cost to the 

Federal Government: $7,586,635. 

Comments 

Comments may be submitted as 

indicated in the ADDRESSES caption 

above. Comments are solicited to (a) 

evaluate whether the proposed data 

collection is necessary for the proper 

performance of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) evaluate the 

accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the 

burden of the proposed collection of 

information, including the validity of 

the methodology and assumptions used; 

(c) enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) minimize the burden 

of the collection of information on those 

who are to respond, including through 

the use of appropriate automated, 

electronic, mechanical, or other 

technological collection techniques or 

other forms of information technology, 

e.g., permitting electronic submission of 

responses. 

Millicent L Brown, 

Acting Records Management Branch Chief, 

Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, 

Mission Support, Federal Emergency 

Management Agency, Department of 

Homeland Security. 

[FR Doc. 2021–00027 Filed 1–6–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 9111–BW–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Indian Affairs 

[212A2100DD/AAKC001030/ 

A0A501010.999900 253G] 

Advisory Board for Exceptional 

Children 

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of meeting. 

SUMMARY: The Bureau of Indian 

Education (BIE) is announcing that the 

Advisory Board for Exceptional 

Children will hold an online meeting. 

The purpose of the meeting is to meet 

the mandates of the Individuals with 

Disabilities Education Act of 2004 


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