58316 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 164 / Friday, August 25, 2023 / Notices 

current approval is scheduled to expire 

on April 30, 2024. 

Agency: Employee Benefits Security 

Administration, Department of Labor. 

Title: Furnishing Documents to the 

Secretary of Labor on Request Under 

Employee Retirement Income Security 

Act Section 104(a)(6). 

Type of Review: Extension of a 

currently approved collection of 

information. 

OMB Number: 1210–0112. 

Affected Public: Not-for-profit 

institutions, Businesses or other forprofits. 

Respondents: 893. 

Responses: 893. 

Estimated Total Burden Hours: 41. 

Estimated Total Burden Cost 

(Operating and Maintenance): $721. 

Description: Prior to the enactment of 

the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (Pub. L. 

105–34, August 5, 1997) (TRA ‘97), 

section 104(a) of the Employee 

Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) 

required administrators of employee 

benefit plans automatically to file the 

plan’s summary plan description (SPD) 

and any summaries of material 

modification (SMMs) with the Secretary 

of the Department of Labor (the 

Department). TRA ‘97 eliminated the 

requirement that these documents be 

filed automatically with the 

Department, but added ERISA section 

104(a)(6), requiring a plan administrator 

to furnish documents related to an 

employee benefit plan to the 

Department upon request. The 

requirement that administrators furnish 

the Department requested plan 

documents other than SPDs and SMMs 

was part of section 104(a) prior to 

enactment of TRA ’97; that requirement 

was moved by TRA ’97 to section 

104(a)(6) and consolidated with the new 

furnishing requirement pertaining to 

SPDs and SMMs. 

Pursuant to the regulation, the 

Department requests documents under 

section 104(a)(6) when a participant or 

beneficiary has previously requested the 

documents directly from the plan 

administrator and the administrator has 

failed or refused to provide them. The 

Department therefore uses the requested 

information to respond to participants’ 

requests to the Department for 

documents that the participants were 

unable to obtain from their plan 

administrators. 

The Department has received 

approval from OMB for this ICR under 

OMB Control No. 1210–0112. The 

current approval is scheduled to expire 

on June 30, 2024. 

II. Focus of Comments 

The Department is particularly 

interested in comments that: 

• Evaluate whether the collections of 

information are necessary for the proper 

performance of the functions of the 

agency, including whether the 

information will have practical utility; 

• Evaluate the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the collections of 

information, including the validity of 

the methodology and assumptions used; 

• Enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and 

• 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., by permitting electronic 

submissions of responses. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and/or 

included in the ICR for OMB approval 

of the information collection; they will 

also become a matter of public record. 

Signed at Washington, DC, this 18th day of 

August 2023. 

Lisa M. Gomez, 

Assistant Secretary, Employee Benefits 

Security Administration, U.S. Department of 

Labor. 

[FR Doc. 2023–18276 Filed 8–24–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND 

BUDGET 

Statistical Policy Directive No. 3: 

Compilation, Release, and Evaluation 

of Principal Federal Economic 

Indicators—Proposal To Change 

Timing of Public Comments by 

Employees of the Executive Branch 

AGENCY: Office of Information and 

Regulatory Affairs, Office of 

Management and Budget, Executive 

Office of the President. 

ACTION: Notice of solicitation of 

comments. 

SUMMARY: The Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) issues a request for 

public comments on a proposal to 

modify one provision within Statistical 

Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, 

Release, and Evaluation of Principal 

Federal Economic Indicators (Directive 

No. 3). The procedures in Directive No. 

3, published in 1985, were designed to 

ensure equitable, policy-neutral, and 

timely release and dissemination of 

Principal Federal Economic Indicators 

(PFEIs). The goals of Directive No. 3 

remain sound; this Notice proposes 

updates to procedures consistent with 

these goals to reflect advances in 

communication technologies and 

methods. In particular, OMB proposes 

to modify the provision, ‘‘employees of 

the Executive Branch shall not comment 

publicly on the data until at least one 

hour after the official release time,’’ by 

replacing ‘‘one hour’’ with ‘‘thirty 

minutes.’’ This proposed change would 

reduce the delay after official release 

time before commentary from 

employees of the Executive Branch. 

Additional discussion of the request for 

public comment may be found in the 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section 

below. 

DATES: To ensure consideration of 

comments on this notice, they must be 

received no later than October 24, 2023. 

Because of delays in the receipt of 

regular mail related to security 

screening, respondents are encouraged 

to send comments electronically (see 

ADDRESSES, below). 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments through 

www.regulations.gov—a Federal EGovernment website that allows the 

public to find, review, and submit 

comments on documents that agencies 

have published in the Federal Register 

and that are open for comment. Enter 

‘‘OMB–2023–0016’’ (in quotes) in the 

Comment or Submission search box, 

click Go, and follow the instructions for 

submitting comments. Comments 

received by the date specified above 

will be included as part of the official 

record. 

Privacy Notice: Information submitted 

in response to this RFI will be 

maintained in the OMB Public Input 

System of Records, OMB/INPUT/01 88 

FR 20913. OMB generally makes 

comments received from members of the 

public available for public viewing on 

the Federal Rulemaking Portal at 

www.regulations.gov. As such, 

commenters should not include 

information that they do not wish to 

make publicly available, including 

information of a confidential nature, 

such as sensitive personal information 

or proprietary information. Please note 

that if you submit your email address, 

it will be automatically captured and 

included as part of the comment that is 

placed in the public docket; however, 

www.regulations.gov does include the 

option of commenting anonymously. 

For more detail about how OMB may 

maintain and disclose submitted 

information, please review the System 

of Records Notice at 88 FR 20913. 

Electronic Availability: This notice is 

available on the internet on the OMB 


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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 164 / Friday, August 25, 2023 / Notices 58317 

1The full text of Directive No. 3 is available at 

www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_

drupal_files/omb/assets/OMB/inforeg/statpolicy/ 

dir_3_fr_09251985.pdf. 

2Public comments received in response to the 

April 2019 FRN are available at 

www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2019-0001- 

0001/comment. 

3The full text of Directive No. 3 is available at 

www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/legacy_

drupal_files/omb/assets/OMB/inforeg/statpolicy/ 

dir_3_fr_09251985.pdf. 

website at https://www.whitehouse.gov/ 

omb/. Federal Register notices are also 

available electronically at https://

www.federalregister.gov/. 

Instructions: Response to this Notice 

is voluntary. Respondents may provide 

input on any aspects of this solicitation. 

OMB will not respond to individual 

submissions. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

information about this request for 

comments, contact Kerrie Leslie, Office 

of Management and Budget, New 

Executive Office Building, Washington, 

DC 20503, telephone (202) 395–1093, 

email Statistical_Directives@

omb.eop.gov with the subject ‘‘More 

Info: Directive No. 3.’’ 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background: The Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) issues a 

request for comments on a proposal to 

change one provision within Statistical 

Policy Directive No. 3: Compilation, 

Release, and Evaluation of Principal 

Federal Economic Indicators (50 FR 

38932, Sep. 25, 1985) (Directive No. 3), 

issued under the Budget and 

Accounting Procedures Act of 1950 (31 

U.S.C. 1104(d)) and the Paperwork 

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

3504(e)) (the PRA).1 The stated purposes 

of Directive No. 3 are to preserve the 

time value of the economic indicators, 

strike a balance between timeliness and 

accuracy, provide for periodic 

evaluation of each indicator, prevent 

early access to information that may 

affect financial and commodity markets, 

and preserve the distinction between 

the policy-neutral release of data by 

statistical agencies and their 

interpretation by policy officials. 

Directive No. 3 remains a robust, 

comprehensive source of guidance for 

Federal statistical agencies and 

recognized statistical units producing 

Principal Federal Economic Indicators 

(PFEIs). The government and private 

sector widely watch and heavily rely 

upon these statistical series as 

indicators of the current condition and 

direction of the economy. 

The procedures in Directive No. 3, 

published in 1985, were designed to 

ensure equitable, policy-neutral, and 

timely release and dissemination of 

Principal Federal Economic Indicators 

(‘‘PFEIs’’). The goals of Directive No. 3 

remain sound, and this Notice does not 

seek to change them. Specifically, in 

furtherance of these goals, we are 

proposing to retain the requirement that 

some period of time needs to elapse 

between the policy-neutral release of the 

data and the public interpretation of 

such data by policy officials in the 

Executive Branch. More background and 

history on the policies of Directive No. 

3 can be found in the April 2019 

Federal Register Notice (84 FR 14682, 

Apr. 11, 2019) (April 2019 FRN), 

available at www.federalregister.gov/ 

documents/2019/04/11/2019-07172/ 

statistical-policy-directive-no-3- 

compilation-release-and-evaluation-ofprincipal-federal-economic. 

Previous proposal. In April 2019, 

OMB published in the Federal Register 

a request for comments on a proposal to 

reduce the duration of the prohibition of 

commentary by employees of the 

Executive Branch following the PFEI 

release from one hour to something 

shorter, including the consideration of 

the option of having no delay at all (84 

FR 14682, Apr. 11, 2019). OMB received 

sixteen in-scope comments in response 

to that Notice.2 All in-scope 

commenters strongly supported either a 

retention of the one-hour delay, or a 

delay of some duration, after official 

release time before employees of the 

Executive Branch could comment on the 

PFEI releases, with no commenters in 

support of removing the delay entirely. 

Updated proposal. OMB agrees with 

the previous comments on this issue 

submitted in 2019, and understands that 

maintaining some delay as part of 

Directive No. 3 continues to be 

important to maintain the bright line 

between the release of data and any 

commentary on such data by Executive 

Branch officials. OMB is seeking public 

comment on the updated proposal that 

would modify the delay from one hour 

to thirty minutes. OMB is considering 

this updated proposal because, while 

the delay is important to ensuring a 

clear bright line between the data 

release and the Executive Branch’s 

policy interpretation, OMB also 

understands that since 1985 there have 

been many changes in the way we 

communicate within and across society, 

as well as in how the relevant agencies 

disseminate information. For example, 

in addition to more traditional means of 

dissemination (e.g., newspaper or 

radio), agencies now disseminate and 

society interacts with data releases 

through the internet, including through 

websites, social media platforms, and 

other applications. These newer 

dissemination platforms in particular 

offer nearly instantaneous access to any 

information supplied by the agencies 

producing the PFEI data, including the 

data releases. These platforms can also 

offer direct attribution of the data to the 

agencies that produce it; these agencies 

are required to meet data quality 

standards and are trusted to implement 

those requirements. These advances in 

the timing and attribution of 

dissemination can contribute to the 

ability of society to fully digest the data 

releases sooner than when such 

dissemination methods were not 

available. 

In addition, society generally 

communicates and interacts differently 

now than in 1985. In particular, various 

platforms exist now that allow society to 

interact seconds after a new data release 

comes out. This means that for these 

PFEI data releases, non-governmental 

actors are engaging in dialogue almost 

immediately following the official 

release time and can be offering 

perspectives on the meaning of the data. 

Under the current Directive No. 3, this 

dialogue is missing any Executive 

Branch interpretation until at least one 

hour after the data’s official release 

time. Under this proposal to reduce the 

delay to thirty minutes, Executive 

Branch officials could enter the dialogue 

thirty minutes earlier. OMB is 

considering the proposed change 

because we believe it is likely to lead to 

a more robust discussion without 

compromising the underlying principles 

of Directive No. 3, including the benefits 

of having some time delay. 

OMB is not considering any other 

alternatives in this proposal; this means 

that OMB is neither considering 

removing the delay entirely, nor is it 

considering any other changes to any 

other policies in Directive No. 3. OMB 

proposes changing the italicized text in 

the excerpt from Directive No. 3 below, 

which is part of the last paragraph of 

Section 5 of Directive No. 3 3: 

5. Release Procedure. * * * Except for the 

authorized distribution described in this 

section, agencies shall ensure that no 

information or data estimates are released 

before the official release time. 

The agency will provide prerelease 

information to the President, through the 

Chairman of the Council of Economic 

Advisers, as soon as it is available. The 

agency may grant others prerelease access 

only under the following conditions: 

(a) The agency head must establish 

whatever security arrangements are necessary 

and impose whatever conditions on the 

granting of access are necessary to ensure 

that there is no unauthorized dissemination 

or use. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
58318 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 164 / Friday, August 25, 2023 / Notices 

(b) The agency head shall ensure that any 

person granted access has been fully 

informed of and agreed to these conditions. 

(c) Any prerelease of information under an 

embargo shall not precede the official release 

time by more than 30 minutes. 

(d) In all cases, prerelease access shall 

precede the official release time only to the 

extent necessary for an orderly review of the 

data. 

All employees of the Executive Branch 

who receive prerelease distribution of 

information and data estimates as authorized 

above are responsible for assuring that there 

is no release prior to the official release time. 

Except for members of the staff of the agency 

issuing the principal economic indicator who 

have been designated by the agency head to 

provide technical explanations of the data, 

employees of the Executive Branch shall not 

comment publicly on the data until at least 

one hour after the official release time. 

Under OMB’s proposal, the italicized 

text would be changed to ‘‘at least thirty 

minutes after the official release time.’’ 

Any changes to the text from Section 

5 would neither affect nor replace any 

of the other standards and guidelines 

articulated in Directive No. 3. 

Request for comments. OMB seeks 

comments from all interested parties, 

including data users, businesses, 

organizations, and the media. 

Specifically, OMB seeks comments from 

the public about the proposal to change 

the delay from one hour to thirty 

minutes, including whether such a 

change could still meet the goals of 

Directive No. 3 to ensure equitable, 

policy-neutral, and timely release and 

dissemination of PFEIs. OMB also seeks 

input on whether to maintain the onehour delay. 

Richard L. Revesz, 

Administrator, Office of Information and 

Regulatory Affairs. 

[FR Doc. 2023–18313 Filed 8–23–23; 11:15 am] 

BILLING CODE 3110–01–P 

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND 

SPACE ADMINISTRATION 

[NOTICE: 23–090] 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Proposals, Submissions, 

and Approvals 

DATES: Comments are due by September 

25, 2023. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments and 

recommendations for this 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: 

Requests for additional information or 

copies of the information collection 

instrument(s) and instructions should 

be directed to Bill Edwards-Bodmer, 

NASA Clearance Officer, NASA 

Headquarters, 300 E Street SW, JF0000, 

Washington, DC 20546, 757–864–7998, 

or b.edwards-bodmer@nasa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract 

This information collection enabled 

NASA to pre-test methods to collect 

information from individuals to 

determine community response to the 

new, quieter sonic booms, prior to the 

start of flight testing the X-plane. No 

public exposure to any form of sonic 

boom occurred during the pre-testing 

phase. 

The pre-test was conducted by 

telephone interview. NASA wanted to 

evaluate telephone surveys to assess 

prompt public response associated with 

experiencing low amplitude sonic 

booms over multiple, geographically 

dispersed communities. Responses were 

voluntary. 

The new X-plane is designed to 

produce low amplitude sonic booms. 

Ultimately, flight testing of the X-plane 

is intended to (1) demonstrate and 

validate the technology necessary for 

civil supersonic flights that create low 

amplitude sonic booms, and (2) assess 

community response to the new, 

quieter, sonic booms. 

II. Methods of Collection 

Telephone. 

III. Data 

Title: Pilot Testing of Telephone 

Interviewing Approaches to Assess 

Community Response to New, Quieter 

Boom Experiences. 

OMB Number: 2700–0166. 

Type of Review: Reinstatement. 

Affected Public: Individuals. 

Estimated Annual Number of 

Activities: 5,000. 

Estimated Number of Respondents 

per Activity: 1. 

Annual Responses: 5,000. 

Estimated Time per Response: 3 

minutes. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 250. 

IV. Request for Comments 

Comments are invited on: (1) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of NASA, including 

whether the information collected has 

practical utility; (2) the accuracy of 

NASA’s estimate of the burden 

(including hours and cost) of the 

proposed collection of information; (3) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (4) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including automated 

collection techniques or the use of other 

forms of information technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and 

included in the request for OMB 

approval of this information collection. 

They will also become a matter of 

public record. 

William Edwards-Bodmer, 

NASA PRA Clearance Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2023–18269 Filed 8–24–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7510–13–P 

NATIONAL FOUNDATION ON THE 

ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES 

National Endowment for the Arts 

60-Day Notice for the ‘‘Generic 

Clearance for the Collection of 

Qualitative Feedback on Agency 

Service Delivery’’ 

AGENCY: National Endowment for the 

Arts. 

ACTION: Notice of proposed collection; 

comment request. 

SUMMARY: The National Endowment for 

the Arts (NEA), as part of its continuing 

effort to reduce paperwork and 

respondent burden, conducts a 

preclearance consultation program to 

provide the general public and Federal 

agencies with an opportunity to 

comment on proposed and/or 

continuing collections of information in 

accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995. This program 

helps to ensure that requested data can 

be provided in the desired format, 

reporting burden (time and financial 

resources) is minimized, collection 

instruments are clearly understood, and 

the impact of collection requirements on 

respondents can be properly assessed. 

Currently, the NEA is soliciting 

comments concerning the proposed 

information collection for Generic 

Clearance for the Collection of 

Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service 

Delivery. A copy of the current 

information collection request can be 

obtained by contacting the office listed 

below in the address section of this 

notice. 

DATES: Written comments must be 

submitted to the office listed in the 

address section below within 60 days 

from the date of this publication in the 

Federal Register. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1