[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 215 (Wednesday, November 6, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 88014-88017]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-25793]


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COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposals, Submissions, 
and Approvals

AGENCY: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely 
Disabled.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or 
Severely Disabled operates as the U.S. AbilityOne Commission 
(Commission). This notice announces the Commission's intent to submit 
the Information Collection Request (ICR) described below to the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval under applicable provisions 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act. This notice provides an opportunity to 
interested members of the public and affected agencies to comment on a 
proposed Participating Employee Information (PEI) form.

DATES: Submit comments within 30 days of this notice, on or before 
December 5, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments through www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Stewart, Compliance and 
Enforcement Attorney, Office of General Counsel, U.S. AbilityOne 
Commission, 355 E Street SW, Suite 325, Washington, DC 20024; 
telephone: (703) 254-6172;

[[Page 88015]]

email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#395a4a4d5c4e584b4d79585b5055504d4056575c175e564f"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="81e2f2f5e4f6e0f3f5c1e0e3e8ede8f5f8eeefe4afe6eef7">[email protected]</span></a>. If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or 
have a speech disability and wish to access telecommunications relay 
services, please dial 7-1-1.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Overview of ICR: This notice pertains to an ICR the Commission 
intends to submit to OMB for approval of a form that a participating 
nonprofit agency (NPA) employer will fill out to document relevant 
information for each of its blind or significantly disabled employees 
whose work on a requirement on the Procurement List contract is counted 
by the NPA as direct labor hours. These individuals are called 
``Participating Employees.''
    This ICR is consistent with OMB regulations at 5 CFR part 1320, 
which implement provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). These regulations require the Commission to 
provide an opportunity to interested members of the public and affected 
agencies to comment on information collection and recordkeeping 
activities (see 5 CFR 1320.8(d)) such as those proposed to be 
implemented through this form. The Commission may not require 
completion of this form without receiving approval from OMB and is 
required to display a valid control number.
    The Commission is responsible for implementing the Javits-Wagner-
O'Day (JWOD) Act, 41 U.S.C. 8501-8506. In doing so, the Commission 
oversees the AbilityOne Program (Program), an employment program in 
which individuals who are blind or have significant disabilities 
provide products and services to Federal agencies, thereby creating 
employment opportunities for such individuals. The Commission maintains 
a Procurement List of mandatory source products and services provided 
by more than 400 qualified NPAs.
    Consistent with the Commission's Strategic Plan, the Agency is 
working to ensure that Participating Employees in the AbilityOne 
program are afforded high quality employment opportunities with the 
possibility for lateral, upward, and outward, mobility. Measuring the 
Commission's success in this regard requires the Commission to gather 
data as to the matters covered by this form and the other forms on 
which the Commission is seeking public comment.
    This PEI form will collect data from qualified NPAs regarding 
Participating Employees to ensure the integrity and further the mission 
of the AbilityOne Program. This form will provide data on matters such 
as employee wages, the nature of Participating Employees' disabilities, 
what job supports and accommodations the Participating Employees are 
receiving, and a description of employee career development activities 
that are available to Participating Employees, if an NPA is currently 
providing such activities.
    The form described in this ICR is the second of three forms 
designed to modernize the Commission's information gathering efforts 
and align it with the Commission's Strategic Plan for FY 2022-2026, as 
well as with Commission regulations, including, inter alia, 41 CFR 51-
4.3.
    The Commission is also developing a new Policy 51.405 which will 
set forth an NPA's responsibility to provide Participating Employees 
with employee career development activities such as job 
individualization and employee career plans. Although the requirements 
of Policy 51.405 will be implemented over time, this form will allow 
those NPAs that are already providing such employee career development 
activities to provide data on what they offer.
    The PEI form will be filled out and submitted annually for each 
Participating Employee through an electronic system that will be 
established by the Central Nonprofit Agency(ies) (CNAs) for the use of 
the NPAs.
    The Commission published a 60-day notice for this form on May 3, 
2024, (89 FR 36774). In that notice, the Commission called this form 
the ``Individual Employee Information'' form, but it is now called the 
Participating Employee Information form. The Commission received 48 
comments in response.
    A few commenters stated their support for the Commission's purposes 
of helping ensure the integrity of and furthering the mission of the 
Program. A commenter noted that some aspects of the information 
collection are simplified, while promoting the growth and development 
of Participating Employees. One commenter stated that the forms present 
a good opportunity to collect data to measure Program accountability 
and increase transparency.
    The Commission also received comments questioning the necessity of 
collecting the proposed information and asserting that the information 
to be collected was too extensive or excessive. Some comments noted 
that the proposed data collection is not required by law. Some also 
stated that the rationale for collecting the information was too 
general to substantiate the collection. Finally, some commenters 
requested information about the Commission's planned use for the 
information.
    In addition, the Commission received comments expressing concerns 
over the potential collection of personally identifiable information 
(PII) covered by the Privacy Act. Some suggested that personal 
identifiers could raise concerns for NPAs under the Americans with 
Disabilities Act (ADA), and still others were concerned that the Health 
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) may be implicated. 
However, no commenter offered a legal analysis as to why HIPAA would be 
implicated.
    Other commenters suggested revisions to the disabilities and job 
supports listed on the form. Commenters also noted that some employees 
might object to listing additional disabilities beyond those qualifying 
them for the program.
    A number of commenters questioned why the wage data was required 
and stated that the wage data requested on the form would require 
significant work by different employees to complete.
    Commenters expressed concerns about providing data regarding 
employees' career mobility and requested clarification as to how to 
fill out the form for an employee who did not desire career mobility.
    One commenter requested clarification as to why the form requested 
both the date of hire and the date of eligibility for an employee.
    As to the burden of completion, commenters opined that the 
Commission's estimated time for completing the form was too short, 
though only a few offered an alternative estimate. Similarly, one 
commenter questioned the Commission's assessment of the salary for 
someone completing the form, but here again, the Commission received 
little feedback as to an alternative amount. Some commenters contrasted 
the proposed form to the Commission's prior requirements for 
information, which required record keeping but not data reporting. 
Commenters noted that the CNAs presently collect some of the 
information collected in this form.
    In response to the comments received, the Commission has 
significantly updated the form. First, to address the privacy concerns, 
the form will no longer require the name of any employee. Instead, the 
form will have only a form reference number. The NPA will maintain the 
information required to associate the form with the specific employee, 
and the NPA will make that information available for certain employees 
during qualification assessments. In order to share this information 
with CNA staff during such

[[Page 88016]]

qualification assessments (also known as compliance inspections), the 
NPA will have been required to collect any consent forms that might be 
required under law from the individual at the onset of employment, or 
the NPA will be required to meet an exemption under the law.
    With respect to the Privacy Act, the law does not apply because the 
forms will not be retrievable by the Commission via a search of any 
personally identifiable information. Moreover, searches of the forms 
will be limited to the broad category of an NPA and any form references 
numbers that may appear in that search will not be able to be 
correlated to any personally identifiable information. Therefore, the 
Commission is confident that the Privacy Act is not implicated in the 
collection of this information.
    With regard to HIPAA, the Commission believes that, even to the 
extent some NPAs are covered entities under that law, submitting the 
form would constitute an exception for disclosures required for 
``[e]ntities subject to government regulatory programs for which health 
information is necessary for determining compliance with program 
standards[.]'' 45 CFR 164.512(d)(1)(III). Moreover, the Commission has 
removed personal identifiers from the form, creating another built-in 
layer of privacy.
    If the NPA believes that submitting the form would constitute a 
transaction under 45 CFR part 162, the NPA should consult with its 
HIPAA compliance officer for any updates to its existing HIPAA release 
form(s).
    With regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the 
inclusion of information on the form about an employee's disability and 
the reasonable accommodations the employee is receiving, it is true 
that the ADA requires that such information be kept confidential, 
subject to only limited exceptions. However, an exception exists where 
release of the information is required or necessitated by another 
Federal law. Since disability is a statutory prerequisite to be able to 
count an individual's direct labor hours toward an NPA's ratio under 
the JWOD Act, proof of disability is necessary for complying with the 
law. To the extent NPAs have any additional concerns, they may also 
obtain the authority to release this information for these very limited 
purposes upon hire.
    This form does not change an NPA's record keeping requirements 
except insofar as the NPA is required to maintain a record of which 
employee is associated with which Form Reference Number. That duty is a 
natural consequence of NPAs' regulatory requirements to maintain a file 
on each employee as required to participate in the AbilityOne Program. 
See 51.4.3(b) and (c).
    With regard to comments about the difficulty of providing 
information on wages, the Commission has deleted the questions 
regarding the average hours worked per week and median wages. Instead, 
the form asks only about the employee's W-2 wages in the past calendar 
year and the employee's hourly wage as reflected on the most recent pay 
stub for the employee.
    The listed disabilities were reorganized, as were the significant 
job supports, and supports were added in response to specific 
suggestions.
    The form makes clear that only the disability(ies) that qualifies 
the individual for the program must be recorded on the form, although 
employees may choose to provide information on other disabilities 
(particularly those for which they are receiving job supports).
    With regard to career mobility, collecting and analyzing data in 
this area is necessary to identify the career opportunities available 
in this program. The Commission has also added an option permitting the 
NPA to note an employee's desire not to participate in career mobility 
and, in addition, to record whether the employee's desire not to move 
to a job with higher pay was due to the employee's concern with losing 
government-funded health care or other benefits.
    With respect to burden, the Commission agrees with commenters that 
some of the information requested in this form is already being 
collected by one of the CNAs. Once this form is approved, the CNAs will 
be required to have an electronic data system that can collect this 
information, and the Commission will ensure the CNAs will not be 
collecting information that duplicates the information in this form. 
Moreover, the Commission believes that making the form available in 
electronic format will significantly ease the burden of compliance. 
Nevertheless, based on all of the comments received, the Commission has 
revised its estimate for completing the form upward to two hours.
    A draft version of the PEI form is available at www.abilityone.gov.
    To calculate the burden for completion of the form in units of 
hours, the Commission multiplied the estimated total number of annual 
responses by 2, the number of hours the Commission estimates will be 
needed to complete the form. NPAs can assess the burden to their 
particular organization by multiplying the time by their total number 
of Participating Employees.
    The cost burden is based upon national average pay data from the 
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, using the May 2022 National 
Occupational Employment and Wage Estimate of $30.88 as the median 
hourly wage for a Human Resources Specialist (OC 13-1070). (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#11-0000) The table below represents 
the time and cost burden the Commission estimates this form will 
necessitate. The Commission believes that collecting this critical data 
will further the Program's mission and ultimately result in an 
expansion in opportunities for the individuals employed through the 
AbilityOne Program.

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                                                                           Change due
                                                  Program      Program         to       Change due
                                   Requested    change due    change due   adjustment  to potential   Previously
                                                  to new      to agency    in agency   violation of    approved
                                                  statute     discretion    estimate      the PRA
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Annual Number of Responses for         37,377
 this IC........................
Annual IC Time Burden (Hour)....       74,754
Annual IC Cost Burden (Dollars).   $2,308,404
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    With respect to this collection of information via the proposed 
form, the Commission welcomes comments on the following:
    1. The necessity to collect this information to support the 
Commission's mission and oversight responsibilities.
    2. Whether there are better or different means of requesting the 
information sought in the form.

[[Page 88017]]

    3. Whether there are additional pieces of information that should 
be collected in the form.
    4. Methodology to improve the accuracy of the estimated time 
burden.
    5. Suggestions or methods to minimize the burdens associated with 
collecting the information described in this ICR.

Michael R. Jurkowski,
Director, Business Operations.
[FR Doc. 2024-25793 Filed 11-5-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6353-01-P


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