[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 60 (Wednesday, March 28, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18788-18789]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7417]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: 2012 Company Organization Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0444.
    Form Number(s): NC-99001, NC-99801.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Burden Hours: 96,134.
    Number of Respondents: 284,000.
    Average Hours Per Response: 20 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau requests an extension of the 
currently approved Company Organization Survey (COS) data collection 
for the 2012 survey year. The Census Bureau will conduct the 2012 COS 
in conjunction with the 2012 Economic Census and will coordinate these 
collections so as to minimize response burden.
    The Census Bureau conducts the annual COS to update and maintain a 
centralized, multipurpose Business Register (BR). In particular, the 
COS supplies critical information on the organizational structure, 
operating characteristics, and employment and payroll of multi-location 
enterprises.
    The BR serves two fundamental purposes:
    <bullet> First and most important, it provides sampling populations 
and enumeration lists for the Census Bureau's economic surveys and 
censuses, and it serves as an integral part of the statistical 
foundation underlying those programs. Essential for this purpose is the 
BR's ability to identify all known United States business 
establishments and their parent companies. Further, the BR must 
accurately record basic business attributes needed to control sampling 
and enumeration. These attributes include industry and geographic 
classifications, measures of size and economic activity, ownership 
characteristics, and contact information (for example, name and 
address).
    <bullet> Second, it provides establishment data that serve as the 
basis for the annual County Business Patterns (CBP) statistical series. 
The CBP reports present data on number of establishments, first quarter 
payroll, annual payroll, and mid-March employment summarized by 
industry and employment size class for the United States, the District 
of Columbia, island areas, counties, and county-equivalents. No other 
annual or more frequent series of industry statistics provides 
comparable detail, particularly for small geographic areas.
    Form NC-99001 is mailed to multi-location enterprises. We ask 
questions on ownership or control by a domestic parent, ownership or 
control by a foreign parent, and ownership of foreign affiliates; 
research and development; company activities such as employees from a 
professional employer organization, operating revenue and net sales, 
royalties and license fees for the use of intellectual property and 
manufacturing activities. Establishment inquiries include questions on 
operational status, mid-March employment, first-quarter payroll, and 
annual payroll of establishments.
    In addition to the mailing of multi-location enterprises, the 
Census Bureau will collect data for single-location companies on Form 
NC-99801 to continue to capture data for the Enterprise Statistics 
Program (ESP). In 2011, we submitted a non-substantive change to the 
COS questionnaire. This revision added three new inquiries as part of 
the ESP. These three inquiries were: (1) Operating Revenues and Net 
Sales; (2) Royalties and Licenses Fees for the Use of Intellectual 
Property; and (3) Manufacturing Activities. For 2012 it is our 
intention to continue to ask these additional questions on the COS that 
we received OMB clearance for in 2011. We also ask questions on 
ownership or control by a foreign parent, and

[[Page 18789]]

ownership of foreign affiliates; research and development; royalties 
and license fees for the use of intellectual property and manufacturing 
activities.
    The consolidated 2012 COS/Census will request company-level 
information from the entire universe of multi-establishment enterprise, 
which comprises roughly 164,000 parent companies and more than 1.6 
million establishments with industrial activities in-scope of the 2012 
Economic Census. COS inquiries sent to each of the 164,000 multi-
establishment enterprises will include inquiries on ownership or 
control by a domestic parent, ownership or control by a foreign parent, 
and ownership of foreign affiliates; research and development; company 
activities, such as employees from a professional employer 
organization, operating revenue and net sales, royalties and license 
fees for the use of intellectual property, and manufacturing 
activities. Establishment inquiries include questions on operational 
status, mid-March employment, first-quarter payroll, and annual payroll 
of establishments.
    The 2012 COS will request additional information from 15,000 multi-
location establishments with industry classifications that are out-of-
scope of the Economic Census. For those out-of-scope establishments, we 
will collect the following basic operating data for each listed 
establishment: End-of-year operating status, mid-March employment, 
first quarter payroll, and annual payroll. The Economic Census will 
collect data for all other establishments of multi-establishment 
enterprises, including those items above.
    In addition to the 164,000 multi-establishment enterprises, the 
2012 COS will include approximately 120,000 single-location companies 
(including 20,000 ASM companies) to continue to capture data for the 
Enterprise Statistics Program (ESP) on Form NC-99801. Questions will 
include inquiries on ownership or control by a foreign parent, and 
ownership of foreign affiliates; research and development; royalties 
and license fees for the use of intellectual property and 
manufacturing. In 2010 the Census Bureau pretested ESP questions under 
its Generic Clearance for pretesting research. In 2011 the COS 
collected data from all multi-location companies and will use these 
data to baseline the 2012 Economic Census data.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Farms; Not-for-
profit institutions; State, local or Tribal Government.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 131, 182, 224, and 225.
    OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Jennifer Jessup, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0336, Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f298989781818782b2969d91dc959d84"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="761c1c13050503063612191558111900">[email protected]</span></a>).
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245) 
or email (<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#87e5efe6f5f5eef4ecc7e8eae5a9e2e8f7a9e0e8f1"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="096b61687b7b607a624966646b276c6679276e667f">[email protected]</span></a>).

    Dated: March 23, 2012.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2012-7417 Filed 3-27-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P


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