Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 248 / Thursday, December 28, 2023 / Notices 89655 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) conducts a pre-clearance 

consultation program to provide the 

public and Federal agencies an 

opportunity to comment on proposed, 

revised, and continuing information 

collections before submitting them to 

the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB). 

This program helps to ensure 

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 can be properly assessed. 

USDA is requesting an increase the 

approved burden hours to cover grant or 

cooperative agreement activity and 

funding announcements of new 

programs for other types of Federal 

financial assistance. USDA requests an 

increase in the responses by 880,000, 

and the burden hours by 1.5 million 

hours. USDA has successfully used the 

existing approval for ongoing 

information collection activities and is 

expecting to well beyond the initial 

estimates when the ICR was first 

approved by OMB. The increase has 

been for the Federal financial 

assistances for new programs. 

Grants or Cooperative Agreement 

Periodically USDA solicits grant 

applications on http://grants.gov by 

issuing a Funding Opportunity 

Announcement, Request for 

Applications, Notice of Funding 

Announcement, Notice of Solicitation of 

Applications, Grants.gov 

announcement, or other funding 

announcement type. To ensure grants 

are awarded to the applicant(s) best 

suited to perform the functions of the 

grant, applicants are generally required 

to submit an application. The first part 

of USDA grant applications consists of 

submitting the application form(s), 

which includes the Standard Form 424, 

Application for Federal Assistance and 

may include additional standard grant 

application forms. The second part of a 

grant application usually requires a 

technical proposal demonstrating the 

applicant’s capabilities in accordance 

with a statement of work or selection 

criteria and other related information as 

specified in the funding announcement. 

Following the grant award, the grant 

awardee may also be required to provide 

progress reports or additional 

documents. 

Federal Financial Assistance Programs 

In addition to grants and agreements, 

there are other types of funding 

announcements. USDA agencies 

announce new Federal financial 

assistance programs in the Federal 

Register in a Notice of Funding 

Availability (NOFA) or other types of 

funding or program announcements. 

Generally, the applicants need to apply 

for financial assistance under the new 

program. The agencies generally require 

application forms and related forms for 

the applicants can apply for the Federal 

financial assistance. 

A Federal agency generally cannot 

conduct or sponsor a collection of 

information, and the public is generally 

not required to respond to an 

information collection, unless it is 

approved by OMB under the PRA and 

displays a currently valid OMB control 

number. In addition, notwithstanding 

any other provisions of law, no person 

will be subject to penalty for failing to 

comply with a collection of information 

if the collection of information does not 

display a valid control number (see 5 

CFR 1320.5(a) and 1320.6). USDA 

intends to seek approval from OMB for 

the revision request for this collection of 

information for 3 years. 

Interested parties are encouraged to 

provide comments to the individual 

listed in the ADDRESSES section above. 

Comments must be written to receive 

consideration, and they will be 

summarized and included in the request 

for OMB approval of the final ICR. The 

comments will also become a matter of 

public record. Comments responsive to 

this request will be made available online, without redaction, as part of the 

submission to OMB; therefore, USDA is 

particularly interested in comments 

that: 

• Evaluate whether the proposed

collection of information is 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 burden of the 

proposed collection 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 using 

appropriate automated, electronic, 

mechanical, or other technological 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology, for example, 

permitting electronic submission of 

responses. 

USDA will consider the comments 

received and amend the ICR as 

appropriate. The final ICR package will 

then be submitted to OMB for review 

and approval. At that time, USDA will 

issue another Federal Register notice to 

announce the submission of the ICR to 

OMB and the opportunity to submit 

additional comments to OMB. 

Agency: USDA Office of the Secretary. 

Type of Review: Revision. 

OMB Control Number: 0503–0028. 

Title of Collection: USDA Generic 

Solution for Solicitation for Funding 

Opportunity Announcements. 

Affected Public: State, Local, and 

Tribal Governments; Private Sector— 

businesses or other for-profits and notfor-profit institutions. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 1 

million. 

Frequency: On occasion. 

Total Estimated Annual Responses: 1 

million. 

Estimated Average Time per 

Response: 20 hours. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 20 million hours. 

Total Estimated Annual Other Cost 

Burden: $0. 

Stephen O’Neill, 

Legislative and Regulatory Division, OBPA– 

USDA. 

[FR Doc. 2023–28571 Filed 12–27–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–90–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Submission for OMB Review; 

Comment Request 

The Department of Agriculture has 

submitted the following information 

collection requirement(s) to OMB for 

review and clearance under the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 

Public Law 104–13. Comments are 

requested regarding whether the 

collection of information is necessary 

for the proper performance of the 

functions of the agency, including 

whether the information will have 

practical utility; the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of burden including 

the validity of the methodology and 

assumptions used; ways to enhance the 

quality, utility and clarity of the 

information to be collected; and ways to 

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. 

Comments regarding this information 

collection received by January 29, 2024 

will be considered. 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/ 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
89656 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 248 / Thursday, December 28, 2023 / Notices 

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. 

An agency may not conduct or 

sponsor a collection of information 

unless the collection of information 

displays a currently valid OMB control 

number and the agency informs 

potential persons who are to respond to 

the collection of information that such 

persons are not required to respond to 

the collection of information unless it 

displays a currently valid OMB control 

number. 

Food Safety and Inspection Service 

Title: Salmonella Initiative Program 

(SIP). 

OMB Control Number: 0583–0154. 

Summary of Collection: FSIS has been 

delegated the authority to exercise the 

functions of the Secretary (7 CFR 2.18 

and 2.53), as specified in the Federal 

Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) (21 U.S.C. 

601, et seq.), the Poultry Products 

Inspection Act (PPIA) (21 U.S.C. 451, et 

seq.), and the Egg Products Inspection 

Act (EPIA) (21 U.S.C. 1031, et seq.). 

These statutes mandate that FSIS 

protect the public by verifying that 

meat, poultry, and egg products are safe, 

wholesome, and properly labeled. 

Need and Use of the Information: SIP 

offers incentives to meat and poultry 

slaughter establishments to control 

Salmonella in their operations. SIP does 

this by granting waivers of regulatory 

requirements with the condition that 

establishments test for Salmonella, 

Campylobacter (if applicable), and 

generic E. coli or other indicator 

organisms and share all sample results 

with FSIS. SIP benefits public health 

because it encourages establishments to 

test for microbial pathogens, which is a 

key feature of effective process control. 

Description of Respondents: Business 

or other for-profit. 

Number of Respondents: 79. 

Frequency of Responses: Reporting: 

On occasion. 

Total Burden Hours: 17,628. 

Ruth Brown, 

Departmental Information Collection 

Clearance Officer. 

[FR Doc. 2023–28576 Filed 12–27–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–DM–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Natural Resources Conservation 

Service 

[Docket No. NRCS–2023–0018] 

Notice of Intent To Prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement for 

the Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Plan, 

in Stafford, Pratt, Rice, Reno, and 

Edwards Counties, Kansas 

AGENCY: Natural Resources 

Conservation Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent (NOI) to prepare 

an environmental impact statement 

(EIS). 

SUMMARY: The Natural Resources 

Conservation Service (NRCS) Kansas 

State Office in cooperation with U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), 

Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA), Kansas Department of Health and 

the Environment (KDHE), Kansas 

Department of Agriculture (KDA), and 

Big Bend Groundwater Management 

District 5 (GMD–5) (project sponsor), 

announces its intent to prepare a 

watershed plan and EIS for the 

Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Plan, in 

Stafford County, KS. The proposed 

watershed plan will examine alternative 

solutions for GMD–5 to provide 

agricultural water management 

measures to Rattlesnake Creek and 

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge 

(NWR). NRCS is requesting comments to 

identify significant issues, potential 

alternatives, information, and analysis 

relevant to the proposed action from all 

interested individuals, Federal and State 

agencies, and Tribes. 

DATES: We will consider comments that 

we receive by February 12, 2024. 

Comments received after close of the 

comment period will be considered to 

the extent possible. 

ADDRESSES: We invite you to submit 

comments in response to this notice. 

You may submit your comments 

through one of the methods below: 

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to

http://www.regulations.gov and search 

for docket ID NRCS–2023–0018. Follow 

the online instructions for submitting 

comments; or 

• Mail or Hand Delivery: Larry

Schieferecke, Kansas State Conservation 

Engineer, USDA, NRCS, Kansas State 

Office, 760 South Broadway Boulevard, 

Salina, Kansas 67401–4604. In your 

comments, specify the docket ID NRCS– 

2023–0018. 

All comments received will be posted 

without change and made publicly 

available on www.regulation.gov. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Larry Schieferecke; telephone: (785) 

823–4534; email: larry.schieferecke@

usda.gov. Individuals who require 

alternative means for communication 

should contact the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture (USDA) Target Center at 

(202) 720–2600 (voice and text

telephone (TTY)) or dial 711 for

Telecommunications Relay service (both

voice and text telephone users can

initiate this call from any telephone).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose and Need 

The primary purpose of the watershed 

plan is to provide for long-term, 

sustainable agricultural water 

management within the Rattlesnake 

Creek subbasin, including project 

components to address the impairment 

at Quivira NWR. GMD–5 has been 

awarded federal funding from NRCS 

through the Watershed Protection and 

Flood Prevention Act (Pub. L. 83–566, 

16 U.S.C. 1001–1008—referred to as PL– 

566 in this document) to provide for 

long-term, sustainable agricultural water 

management within the Rattlesnake 

Creek subbasin of GMD–5, including 

project components to help address the 

impairment at Quivira NWR. The 

project is essential for the Quivira 

NWR’s ongoing senior water right 

impairment (as described below), and 

the importance of groundwater to the 

agricultural economy. The sustainability 

of Quivira NWR relies on surface water 

diversions that the KDA Division of 

Water Resource (KDA–DWR) has 

deemed impaired due to junior 

groundwater pumping. A predictable 

and consistent source of water is also 

required to support the region’s 

agricultural economy. Providing longterm agricultural water management for 

the region would help provide water 

resources for both the agricultural 

economy and help remedy Quivira 

NWR’s impaired senior water right. 

A project will be developed through 

the preparation of the EIS that would 

assure a water supply for Quivira NWR 

while considering and minimizing 

economic impacts to the surrounding 

agricultural economy. In the state of 

Kansas, the use of water is monitored 

and regulated by KDA–DWR. 

Individuals that use the state water 

resources for any purpose other than 

domestic use is required to obtain a 

permit, or ‘‘water right.’’ The state 

regulates the water use under the prior 

appropriation doctrine, which provides 

priority access to individuals with older 

(or senior) water rights during water 

shortages as opposed to individuals 

with newer (or junior) water rights. The 


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