93908 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 229 / Wednesday, November 27, 2024 / Notices 

1995, this notice announces that the 

Procurement Policy and Warrant 

Management Service, Office of 

Procurement Policy, Systems and 

Oversight, Office of Acquisition and 

Logistics, Department of Veterans 

Affairs, will submit the collection of 

information abstracted below to the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) for review and comment. The 

PRA submission describes the nature of 

the information collection and its 

expected cost and burden, and it 

includes the actual data collection 

instrument. 

DATES: Comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection should be sent by 

December 27, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: To submit comments and 

recommendations for the proposed 

information collection, please type the 

following link into your browser: 

www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain, 

select ‘‘Currently under Review—Open 

for Public Comments’’, then search the 

list for the information collection by 

Title or ‘‘OMB Control No. 2900–0587.’’ 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: VA 

PRA information: VA PRA Clearance 

Office, 202–461–8900, 

vacopaperworkreduact@va.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: VAAR Clause 852.211–70, 

Equipment Operation and Maintenance 

Manuals. 

OMB Control Number: 2900–0587 

https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/ 

PRASearch. 

Type of Review: Revision of a 

currently approved collection. 

Abstract: The contracting officer shall 

insert the clause at 852.211–70, 

Equipment Operation and Maintenance 

Manuals, in solicitations and contracts 

for technical medical equipment, and 

other technical and mechanical 

equipment and devices where the 

requiring activity determines manuals 

are a necessary requirement for 

operation and maintenance of the 

equipment. Contractors are required to 

furnish both operation manuals and 

maintenance/repair manuals with the 

equipment provided to the Government. 

This clause sets forth those 

requirements and the minimum 

standards those manuals must meet to 

be acceptable. Generally, this is the 

same operation manual furnished with 

each piece of equipment sold to the 

general public and the same repair 

manual used by company technicians in 

repairing the company’s equipment. The 

cost of the manuals is included in the 

contract price or listed as separately 

priced line items on the purchase order. 

The operation manual will be used by 

the individual actually operating the 

equipment to ensure proper operation 

and cleaning. The repair manual will be 

used by VA equipment repair staff to 

repair the equipment. 

An agency may not conduct or 

sponsor, and a person is not required to 

respond to a collection of information 

unless it displays a currently valid OMB 

control number. The Federal Register 

Notice with a 60-day comment period 

soliciting comments on this collection 

of information was published at 

89FR76193, September 17, 2024. 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

Households. 

Estimated Annual Burden: 745 hours. 

Estimated Average Burden per 

Respondent: 2 minutes. 

Frequency of Response: On occasion. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

22,337. 

Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. 

Maribel Aponte, 

VA PRA Clearance Officer, Office of 

Enterprise and Integration, Data Governance 

Analytics, Department of Veterans Affairs. 

[FR Doc. 2024–27863 Filed 11–26–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8320–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS 

AFFAIRS 

Notice of Plans for Department of 

Veterans Affairs to Assess Exposures 

and Conditions of Interest for Veterans 

Who Served At Karshi-Khanabad Air 

Base and To Solicit Public Comment 

AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Department of Veterans 

Affairs (VA) announces that it plans to 

conduct an assessment of scientific 

literature and historical claims data to 

determine whether there is an 

association between military 

environmental exposure to toxic 

substances related to military service at 

Camp Stronghold Freedom in KarshiKhanabad (K2) in Uzbekistan from 2001 

to 2005 and medical conditions. VA 

entered into an agreement with the 

Center for Disease Control and 

Prevention’s Agency for Toxic 

Substances and Disease Registry and 

published a Report to Congress in 2022 

that identified the known health 

consequences associated with the 

identified toxic substances, chemicals, 

and airborne hazards at K2. As part of 

a continuing effort to assess the health 

risks that may be associated with 

military service at K2, VA is soliciting 

public comment on environmental 

exposures at K2 and medical conditions 

developed by Veterans who served 

there. This notice provides an 

opportunity for Veterans, caregivers, 

survivors, and the public to share 

relevant information with VA to inform 

decisions regarding presumptive 

benefits that could impact the roughly 

16,000 Veterans who served at K2. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before December 27, 2024. 

ADDRESSES: Comments must be 

submitted through www.regulations.gov. 

Except as provided below, comments 

received before the close of the 

comment period will be available as 

soon as possible after they have been 

received at www.regulations.gov for 

public viewing, inspection, or copying, 

including any personally identifiable or 

confidential business information that is 

included in a comment. VA will not 

post public comments that make threats 

to individuals or institutions or suggest 

that the commenter will take actions to 

harm an individual. VA encourages 

individuals not to submit duplicative 

comments. We will post comments from 

multiple unique commenters even if the 

content is identical or nearly identical 

to other comments. Any public 

comment received after the comment 

period’s closing date is considered late 

and will not be considered in any 

potential future rulemaking. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Peter D. Rumm, M.D., MPH, Director of 

Policy, Health Outcomes Military 

Exposures, Veterans Health 

Administration, Department of Veterans 

Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue NW, 

Washington, DC 20420, at 202–461– 

7297. This is not a toll-free number. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Camp 

Stronghold Freedom was established at 

a former Soviet Air Base in K2 located 

in Southwest Uzbekistan in October 

2001 and occupied by U.S. forces 

through the middle of 2005. During this 

period, several environmental site 

surveys were conducted by the 

Department of Defense (DOD) to assess 

contaminants that could impact the 

operational readiness of U.S. military 

operations and the safety of U.S. forces 

that deployed to K2. These surveys 

identified several contaminants, such as 

dust and particulate matter, 

underground jet fuel plumes, surface 

dirt with traces of asbestos, depleted 

uranium, benzene, chromium, and 

others. The Public Health website of the 

Defense Health Agency of the DOD lists 

contaminants of concern it identified at 

K2 [1]. 

Since 2021, VA has been assessing the 

potential health effects, including 

respiratory conditions and cancers, 

among K2 Veterans. Section 2010 of the 

Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 229 / Wednesday, November 27, 2024 / Notices 93909 

Veterans Health Care and Benefits 

Improvement Act of 2020, Public Law 

116–315 (the Isakson and Roe Act) [2], 

directed VA to engage the Center for 

Disease Control and Prevention’s 

Agency for Toxic Substances and 

Disease Registry to describe the known 

health effects associated with the toxic 

substances, chemicals, airborne hazards, 

and other substances DOD identified at 

K2. This effort has been completed, and 

a report was submitted to Congress in 

January 2022, which documented the 

DOD identified contaminants of 

concern, medium of exposure, along 

with the potential cancer and noncancer 

health effects. The findings from this 

report can be found on VA’s K2 website 

[3]. The Department of Defense has also 

studied the mortality among K2 Service 

members and found that a more indepth study of health issues is necessary 

[4]. Section 2010 of the Isakson and Roe 

Act also directed VA to assess the health 

effects associated with deployment to 

K2, with a final report due to Congress 

no later than 2030 [2]. VA created a 

public health surveillance program to 

address this requirement. Analyses are 

underway and data are updated 

annually on all K2 Veterans to allow VA 

to address new information on adverse 

health outcomes and health concerns of 

veterans as they become known. 

The purpose of this Notice is to 

provide the K2 community (K2 

Veterans, their caregivers, and their 

survivors) and the broader public the 

opportunity to share relevant 

information for VA to determine if VA 

should recognize the unique 

environmental exposures (individually 

and in combination) and medical 

conditions as presumptive based on a 

Veteran’s service at K2. VA encourages 

the K2 community and broader public 

to submit thoughts, recommendations, 

and requests regarding the exposures 

and health conditions they feel are 

related to K2 service and warrant 

specific consideration by VA as a 

presumptive condition. VA also invites 

the public to submit information, 

evidence, and suggestions that may help 

VA assess potential exposures at K2 and 

health effects that may be associated 

with such exposures. 

In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 1172, as 

created by section 202 of the Sergeant 

First Class Heath Robinson Honoring 

our Promise to Address Comprehensive 

Toxics Act of 2022 (PACT Act), VA is 

publishing this notice about its planned 

scientific assessment of the possibility 

of a relationship between all medical 

conditions and military environmental 

exposures related to service at Camp 

Stronghold Freedom in K2 from 2001 to 

2005. Pursuant to section 202, the VA 

Secretary must determine whether to 

establish or remove presumptions for 

service connections based on military 

environmental exposure and the 

evaluation of adverse health outcomes. 

VA’s procedure includes issuing a 

public notice regarding reviews, 

soliciting public comment, and 

recommendations for corrections to the 

Secretary from the working group 

subject matter experts to better reflect 

Veterans and dependents. Here, in 

recognition of the unique exposure 

environment at K2, Secretary 

McDonough directed a PACT Act 

presumptive process to formally solicit 

stakeholder input and demonstrate the 

rigor VA continues to apply to 

important questions concerning the 

contaminants present at K2 and the 

conditions that K2 Veterans developed 

following service there. 

In accordance with 38 U.S.C. 1119 

and 1120, as created by the PACT Act, 

Uzbekistan is included as an eligible 

country covered under the PACT Act for 

certain presumptions of exposure and 

service connection. Thus, K2 Veterans 

are eligible for hundreds of individual 

presumptive conditions encompassed 

by the 23 disease categories designated 

under this landmark legislation [5]. 

Additionally, K2 Veterans are eligible to 

receive health care from the Veterans 

Health Administration, regardless of 

whether they have filed a claim for 

disability [6]. VA encourages all K2 

Veterans to register for health care and 

encourages all K2 Veterans and their 

survivors to submit a claim for any 

adverse health outcome, even if not 

covered under the PACT Act, that they 

feel is related to their military service at 

K2 or elsewhere. 

Signing Authority 

Denis McDonough, Secretary of 

Veterans Affairs, signed and approved 

this document on November 15, 2024, 

and authorized the undersigned to sign 

and submit the document to the Office 

of the Federal Register for publication 

electronically as an official document of 

the Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Jeffrey M. Martin, 

Assistant Director, Office of Regulation Policy 

& Management, Office of General Counsel, 

Department of Veterans Affairs. 

References 

1. Karshi-Khanabad Airbase Exposures, 

(2024). https://ph.health.mil/topics/ 

envirohealth/hrasm/Pages/K2-AirbaseExposures.aspx 

2. Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. 

Veterans Health Care and Benefits 

Improvement Act of 2020, Public Law 

116–315, § 2010. https://

www.congress.gov/116/plaws/publ315/ 

PLAW-116publ315.pdf 

3. Karshi-Khanabad (K2) Air Base in 

Uzbekistan Potential Historical 

Contaminants of Concern (COCs) (2022). 

https://www.publichealth.va.gov/docs/ 

exposures/K2_Contaminants.pdf#. 

4. Environmental Hazards Study: Mortality 

Among U.S. Service Members Deployed 

to Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, Uzbekistan 

(2024). https://health.mil/MilitaryHealth-Topics/Health-Readiness/ 

Environmental-Exposures/ 

Environmental-Hazards-Study-K2 

5. Exposure to Burn Pits and Other Specific 

Environmental Hazards (2024). https://

www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/ 

hazardous-materials-exposure/specificenvironmental-hazards/ 

6. Eligibility for VA Health Care (2024). 

Eligibility For VA Health Care √ Veterans 

Affairs. 

[FR Doc. 2024–27833 Filed 11–26–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8320–01–P 


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