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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 219 (Wednesday, November 13, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 89587-89588]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-26270]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau

Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES)

    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 26, 2024, during a 60-day comment period. 
This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
    Title: Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES).
    OMB Control Number: 0607-1024.
    Form Number(s): This electronic collection has no form number.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a 
Currently Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 305,340.
    Average Hours per Response: 2 hours, 34 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 784,950.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval to revise the Annual Integrated 
Economic Survey (AIES). The AIES is a survey which has integrated and 
replaced seven existing annual business surveys into one survey. The 
AIES provides the only comprehensive national and subnational data on 
business revenues, expenses, and assets on an annual basis. The AIES is 
designed to combine several Census Bureau collections to reduce 
respondent burden, increase data quality, and allow the Census Bureau 
to operate more efficiently.
    The AIES collects the following information from employer 
businesses in sample:

 Business characteristics, including employment, operating 
status, organizational change, ownership information, and co-op status
 Business classification, including business activity, type of 
operation, and tax status

[[Page 89588]]

 Revenue, including sales, shipments, and receipts, revenue by 
class of customer, taxes, contributions, gifts, and grants, products, 
and e-commerce activity
 Operating expenses, including purchased services, payroll, 
benefits, rental payments, utilities, interest, resales, equipment, 
materials and supplies, research and development, and other detailed 
operating expenses
 Assets, including capital expenditures, and inventories
 Robotic equipment expenditures and usage

    Additional topics of collections in the AIES include sources of 
revenue and/or expense for providers (e.g., hospitals and other 
businesses in the health industry) of select services such as inpatient 
days, outpatient visits to hospitals, patient visits for other selected 
health industries, revenue from telemedicine services, and expenses for 
electronic health records. Merchandise lines data will be collected 
from businesses operating in select retail industries. North American 
Product Classification System (NAPCS) broadlines will be collected from 
businesses in manufacturing.
    The AIES may include new questions each year based on relevant 
business topics. Potential topics for such new questions could include 
technological advances, management and business practices, exporting 
practices, and globalization. Any new questions will be submitted to 
OMB for review using the appropriate clearance vehicle.
    To reduce respondent burden in the 2024 Annual Integrated Economic 
Survey, the Census Bureau plans to implement several key changes to 
streamline the data collection process. In the 2023 AIES, we collected 
select data at both the company and establishment levels. For the 2024 
AIES, we will collect this overlapping data exclusively at the 
establishment-level, allowing the Census Bureau to derive necessary 
company-level information without additional input from respondents. We 
have also eliminated questions that frequently resulted in poor 
reporting and significant data suppression, leading to a clearer and 
more manageable survey experience. To further enhance efficiency, some 
items will now be collected only in the first year of a new sample, 
facilitating effective content rotation. Additionally, we have combined 
specific content to minimize suppression rates and increase the 
availability of usable data. The Census Bureau removed content that was 
not disseminated to the public and/or was collected solely for a 
federal stakeholder, which was deemed non-essential for their programs 
following discussions with the stakeholders and gaining mutual 
agreement.
    Additionally, approximately 80,000 single-unit companies will be 
removed from collection and will not receive a questionnaire. The 
Census Bureau will obtain data for these non-mailed companies using 
information from the administrative records of the IRS and the Social 
Security Administration.
    These changes are designed to create a more efficient survey 
process while maintaining our commitment to high data quality 
standards.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    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 0607-1024.

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024-26270 Filed 11-12-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
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