Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 18 / Friday, January 29, 2021 / Notices 7527 

modified the Employment and Training 

(E&T) Program so that States’ efforts are 

now focused on a particular segment of 

the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance 

Program (SNAP) population—ablebodied adults without dependents 

(ABAWDs). 

Requests for Additional E&T Funds: 7 

CFR 273.7(d)(1)(i)(D) provides that if a 

State agency will not expend all of the 

funds allocated to it for a fiscal year, 

FNS will reallocate unexpended funds 

to other State agencies during the fiscal 

year or the subsequent fiscal year as 

FNS considers appropriate and 

equitable. After FNS makes initial E&T 

allocations, under 7 CFR 273.7(d)(1)(i), 

State agencies may request additional 

E&T funds if needed. FNS will 

reallocate available funds (e.g., funds 

that are unallocated or funds that are 

allocated but will not be spent) in a fair 

and equitable manner. 

Retention and Custody of Records. 

Under 7 CFR 277.12 (1) and (2), all 

financial records, supporting 

documents, statistical records, 

negotiated contracts, and all other 

records pertinent to program funds shall 

be maintained for three years from the 

date of submission of the annual 

financial status report or if any 

litigation, claim, or audit is started 

before the expiration of the three-year 

period, the applicable records shall be 

retained until these have been resolved. 

Need and Use of the Information: FNS 

will review requests about their E&T 

programs so that the Department can 

monitor State performance to ensure 

that the program is being efficiently and 

economically operated. Without the 

information, FNS would be unable to 

make adjustments or allocate 

exemptions in accordance with the 

statute. 

Description of Respondents: State, 

Local, or Tribal Government. 

Number of Respondents: 53. 

Frequency of Responses: 

Recordkeeping; Reporting: Occasionally; 

Annually. 

Total Burden Hours: 50. 

Ruth Brown, 

Departmental Information Collection 

Clearance Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2021–01994 Filed 1–28–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–30–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Census Bureau 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

Review and Approval; Comment 

Request; Quarterly Services 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 August 20, 

2020 during a 60-day comment period. 

This notice allows for an additional 30 

days for public comments. 

Agency: U.S. Census Bureau. 

Title: Quarterly Services Survey. 

OMB Control Number: 0607–0907. 

Form Number(s): QSS–1A, QSS–1E, 

QSS–1PA, QSS–1PE, QSS–2A, QSS–2E, 

QSS–3A, QSS–3E, QSS–3SA, QSS–3SE, 

QSS–5A, QSS–5E, QSS–4A, QSS–4E, 

QSS–4FA, QSS–4FE, QSS–4SA, QSS– 

4SE. 

Type of Request: Regular submission, 

Request for an Extension, without 

Change, of a Currently Approved 

Collection. 

Number of Respondents: 22,500. 

Average Hours per Response: 10 

minutes: QSS–1A, QSS–1E, QSS–1PA, 

QSS–1PE, QSS–2A, QSS–2E, QSS–3A, 

QSS–3E, QSS–3SA, QSS–3SE, QSS–5A, 

QSS–5E. 15 minutes: QSS–4A, QSS–4E, 

QSS–4FA, QSS–4FE, QSS–4SA, QSS– 

4SE. 

Burden Hours: 19,300. 

Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census 

Bureau requests an extension, without 

change of the Quarterly Services Survey 

(QSS). In the 1980s, it was determined 

that the service economy, despite its 

growing importance and share of Gross 

Domestic Product (GDP), was not 

adequately covered by the existing 

federal statistical programs. At the time, 

the only services data available came 

from the Service Annual Survey (SAS) 

and the quinquennial Economic Census, 

therefore the decision was made to 

create a new principal economic 

indicator designed to expand upon the 

Census Bureau’s existing annual survey. 

The QSS was first released in 2004, 

making it the first new U.S. federal 

government economic indicator in 30 

years. The QSS is now a major source 

for the development of quarterly GDP 

and an indicator of short-term economic 

change. 

The initial scope of the QSS was 

driven primarily by the Bureau of 

Economic Analysis (BEA) priorities and 

what the budget initiative would allow. 

The goal was to begin covering the most 

dynamic sectors of the service economy 

for which BEA had little to no alternate 

source data. In the wake of the dot-com 

bubble in the early 2000s, it was clear 

that information services and high-tech 

industries needed to be a priority as 

BEA experienced major revisions to 

their GDP estimates as annual data came 

in later. So, at the time it was launched, 

QSS produced estimates for just three 

North American Industry Classification 

System (NAICS) sectors (51, 54, and 56). 

Shortly after the Financial Crisis in 

2007–2008, QSS received approval to 

expand the scope of the survey to match 

that of the Economic Census of Services. 

A major part of this expansion would 

provide for tracking of the Financial 

sector which, of course, was now in the 

spotlight. Between 2009 and 2010, QSS 

underwent a multi-phased expansion, 

increasing the total coverage from three 

to eleven NAICS sectors. 

QSS expanded yet again in 2012 to 

cover the Accommodation subsector 

which was the only remaining service 

industry with no sub-annual coverage. 

We currently publish estimates based 

on the 2012 NAICS. The QSS covers all 

or parts of the following NAICS sectors: 

Utilities (excluding government owned); 

Transportation and warehousing (except 

rail transportation and postal) services; 

Information; Finance and insurance 

(except funds, trusts, and other financial 

vehicles); Real estate and rental and 

leasing; Professional, scientific, and 

technical services; Administrative and 

support and waste management and 

remediation services; Educational 

services (except elementary and 

secondary schools, junior colleges, and 

colleges, universities, and professional 

schools); Health care and social 

assistance; Arts, entertainment, and 

recreation; Accommodation; and Other 

services (except public administration). 

See Section 19 (NAICS Codes Affected) 

for a list of all of the QSS industries. 

The QSS provides the most current 

official measures of total revenue and 

percentage of revenue by class of 

customer (for selected industries) on a 

quarterly basis. In addition, the QSS 

provides the most current official 

quarterly measure of total expenses from 

tax-exempt firms in industries that have 

a large not-for-profit component. All 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
7528 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 18 / Friday, January 29, 2021 / Notices 

respondent data are received by mail, 

telephone, or internet reporting. 

The total revenue estimates produced 

from the QSS provide current trends of 

economic activity in the service 

industry in the United States from 

service providers with paid employees. 

In addition to revenue, we also collect 

total expenses from tax-exempt firms in 

industries that have a large not-for-profit 

component. Expenses provide a better 

measure of the economic activity of 

these firms. Expense estimates produced 

by the QSS, in addition to inpatient 

days and discharges for the hospital 

industry, are used by the Centers for 

Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 

to project and study hospital regulation, 

Medicare payment adequacy, and other 

related projects. For select industries in 

the Arts, entertainment, and recreation 

sector, the survey produces estimates of 

admissions revenue. 

Beginning with the release of 2016 

fourth quarter estimates on February 17, 

2017, the first Advance Quarterly 

Services Report was released in an effort 

to meet data users’ needs for more 

timely data. Published approximately 50 

days following the end of the quarter, 

the Advance Quarterly Services Report 

contains a snapshot of quarterly 

estimates of revenue for selected sectors, 

subsectors, and industries on a not 

seasonally adjusted basis. Our research 

found that these selected levels were 

good predictors of the estimates 

published in the full quarterly services 

report. 

Beginning with the release of 2019 

first quarter estimates on May 17, 2019, 

the Advance Quarterly Services Report 

includes a seasonally adjusted estimate 

for the Selected Services Total. 

Additionally, with the release of 2019 

fourth quarter estimates on March 12, 

2020, the Quarterly Services Report now 

includes 100 seasonally adjusted series. 

Seasonal adjustment is the process of 

estimating and removing seasonal 

effects from a time series in order to 

better reveal certain non-seasonal 

features. Many data users prefer 

seasonally adjusted data because they 

want to see those characteristics that 

seasonal movements tend to mask, 

especially changes in the direction of 

the series. 

The notice in Federal Register on 

August 20, 2020, Vol. 85, No. 162, pages 

51406–51408) announcing our plans to 

submit this request included 

information on the possible upcoming 

collection of a new module of business 

expectation. At this time, research and 

testing for an uncertainty pilot 

collection is still underway; once any 

concrete timeline is determined, a 

request for this additional module will 

be submitted. 

Reliable measures of economic 

activity are essential to an objective 

assessment of the need for, and impact 

of, a wide range of public policy 

decisions. The QSS supports these 

measures by providing the latest 

estimates of service industry output on 

a quarterly basis. 

Currently, the U.S. Census Bureau 

collects, tabulates, and publishes 

estimates to provide, with measurable 

reliability, statistics on domestic service 

total revenue, total expenses, and 

percentage of revenue by class of 

customer for select service providers. In 

addition, the QSS produces estimates 

for inpatient days and discharges for 

hospitals. 

The BEA is the primary Federal user 

of QSS results. The BEA utilizes the 

QSS estimates to make improvements to 

the national accounts for service 

industries. In the National Income and 

Product Accounts (NIPA), the QSS 

estimates allow more accurate estimates 

of both Personal Consumption 

Expenditures (PCE) and private fixed 

investment. For example, published 

revisions to the quarterly NIPA 

estimates are often the result of 

incorporation of the latest source data 

from the QSS. Revenue estimates from 

the QSS are also used to produce 

estimates of gross output by industry 

that allow BEA to produce a much 

earlier release of the gross domestic 

product by industry estimates. 

Estimates produced from the QSS are 

used by the BEA as a component of 

quarterly GDP estimates. The estimates 

also provide the Federal Reserve Board 

(FRB) and Council of Economic 

Advisors (CEA) with timely information 

on current economic performance. All 

estimates collected from this survey are 

used extensively by various government 

agencies and departments on economic 

policy decisions; private businesses; 

trade organizations; professional 

associations; academia; and other 

various business research and analysis 

organizations. 

The CMS uses the QSS estimates to 

develop hospital spending estimates in 

the National Health Expenditure 

Accounts. In addition, the QSS 

estimates improve their ability to 

analyze changes in spending trends for 

hospitals and other healthcare services. 

The CMS also uses the estimates in its 

ten-year health spending forecast 

estimates and in studies related to 

Medicare policy and trends. 

The Medicare Payment Advisory 

Commission (MedPac) utilizes the QSS 

estimates to assess payment adequacy in 

the current Medicare program. 

The FRB and the CEA use the QSS 

information to better assess current 

economic performance. In addition, 

other government agencies, businesses, 

and investors use the QSS estimates for 

market research, industry growth, 

business planning and forecasting. 

Private sector data users and other 

government agencies both benefit from 

an earlier release of U.S. services data. 

The Advance Quarterly Services Report 

allows policymakers and private data 

users to make data-driven decisions 

sooner due to this high-level snapshot of 

economic data. In addition, the release 

also allows the BEA to incorporate 

services data into the second estimate of 

the GDP. Prior to the implementation of 

the Advance Quarterly Services Report, 

Quarterly Services Survey estimates 

were incorporated in the third estimate 

of GDP. 

Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations. 

Frequency: Quarterly. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., 

Sections 131 and 182. 

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 0607–0907. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer, Commerce 

Department. 

[FR Doc. 2021–01936 Filed 1–28–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

International Trade Administration 

[A–428–847, A–475–840] 

Forged Steel Fluid End Blocks From 

the Federal Republic of Germany and 

Italy: Amended Final Antidumping 

Duty Determination for the Federal 

Republic of Germany and Antidumping 

Duty Orders 

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, 

International Trade Administration, 

Department of Commerce. 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES