This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains documents other than rules or

proposed rules that are applicable to the

public. Notices of hearings and investigations,

committee meetings, agency decisions and

rulings, delegations of authority, filing of

petitions and applications and agency

statements of organization and functions are

examples of documents appearing in this

section.

Notices Federal Register

17025 

Vol. 80, No. 61 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

National Institute of Food and 

Agriculture 

Notice of Intent To Request Approval 

To Establish a New Information 

Collection 

AGENCY: National Institute of Food and 

Agriculture, USDA. 

ACTION: Notice and request for 

comments. 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) regulations, that implement the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this 

notice announces the National Institute 

of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) 

intention to request approval to 

establish a new information collection 

for the Small Business Innovation 

Research (SBIR) Program. 

DATES: Written comments on this notice 

must be received by June 4, 2015, to be 

assured of consideration. Comments 

received after that date will be 

considered to the extent practicable. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments may be 

submitted by any of the following 

methods: Email: rmartin@nifa.usda.gov; 

Fax: 202–720–0857; Mail: Office of 

Information Technology (OIT), NIFA, 

USDA, STOP 2216, 1400 Independence 

Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20250– 

2216. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Robert Martin, Records Officer; Email: 

rmartin@nifa.usda.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: Small Business Innovation 

Research (SBIR) Program. 

OMB Number: 0524—New. 

Type of Request: Intent to request 

approval to establish a new information 

collection for three years. 

Abstract: The Small Business 

Innovation Research (SBIR) program at 

United States Department of Agriculture 

(USDA) makes competitively awarded 

grants to qualified small businesses to 

support high quality, advanced concepts 

research related to important scientific 

problems and opportunities in 

agriculture that could lead to significant 

public benefit if successful. 

The USDA SBIR Program Office 

proposes to contact Phase II awardees to 

determine their success in achieving 

commercial application of a market 

ready technology that was funded under 

the USDA SBIR Program. The survey 

would collect information from Phase II 

companies that received funding during 

the years of 1994 to 2014. 

Data from the survey will be used to 

provide information that currently does 

not exist. The data will be used 

internally by the USDA SBIR Office to 

identify past and current activities of 

Phase II grantees in the areas of 

technology development, 

commercialization success, product 

development or services, and factors 

that may have prevented the technology 

from entering into the market place. 

Depending on the results of the survey, 

information from the survey will be 

used to highlight commercialization 

successes within the small business 

community; improve and refine 

program interactions with, and 

responsiveness to, the small business 

community; potentially refocus the 

strategies that are used to accomplish 

SBIR objectives for commercialization; 

and identify areas in need of 

improvement and enhancement. This 

survey will not be used to formulate or 

change policies. Rather, it will be used 

to enable the USDA SBIR Office to be 

responsive to its constituents and 

document successes within the USDA 

SBIR Program. 

The objectives of the SBIR Program 

are to: Stimulate technological 

innovations in the private sector; 

strengthen the role of small businesses 

in meeting Federal research and 

development needs; increase private 

sector commercialization of innovations 

derived from USDA-supported research 

and development efforts; and foster and 

encourage participation by womenowned and socially and economically 

disadvantaged small business firms in 

technological innovations. 

The USDA SBIR program is carried 

out in three separate phases: 

1. Phase I awards to determine, 

insofar as possible, the scientific and 

technical merit and feasibility of ideas 

that appear to have commercial 

potential. 

2. Phase II awards to further develop 

work from Phase I that meets particular 

program needs and exhibits potential for 

commercial application. 

3. Phase III awards where commercial 

applications of SBIR-funded Research/

Research and Development (R/R&D) are 

funded by non-Federal sources of 

capital; or where products, services or 

further research intended for use by the 

Federal Government are funded by 

follow-on non-SBIR Federal Funding 

Agreements. 

The USDA SBIR Program is 

administered by NIFA of the USDA. 

NIFA exercises overall oversight for the 

policies and procedures governing SBIR 

grants awarded to the U.S. small 

business community, representing 

approximately 2.5% to 2.8% of the 

USDA extramural R/R&D budget. This 

represents approximately $201M in 

Phase II grants awarded to the U.S. 

small business community from 1994 to 

2014. 

Plan 

A total of 499 USDA SBIR Phase II 

grants were awarded to small businesses 

between 1994 and 2014, and the USDA 

SBIR Program plans to contact past 

Phase II awardees to determine their 

success in achieving commercial 

application of a market ready 

technology under Phase III. 

The survey will be administered 

through a USDA led contract where a 

contractor will perform an initial web 

based survey administered through a 

secure Internet link with a telephone 

interview and/or in person interview as 

a follow-up with SBIR Phase II grantees. 

Both the web based survey and 

telephone/in person interviews will 

consist of a series of questions that 

relate to the commercial status of the 

technology developed with USDA SBIR 

Phase II funding as well as general 

questions regarding the USDA SBIR 

Program. The USDA SBIR Program 

office will coordinate the initial contact 

with the Phase II companies in an effort 

to introduce the scope of the survey, 

provide straightforward instructions and 

facilitate the survey work that the 

contractor will initiate and complete. 

Phase II companies that do not respond 

within two weeks to the initial contact 

from the USDA SBIR Program Office 

will be sent a second request by email 


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17026 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 61 / Tuesday, March 31, 2015 / Notices 

or by phone to respond. It is envisioned 

that the contractor would then conduct 

the web based survey and interviews 

thereafter. 

Estimate of Burden: NIFA used 

burden estimates administered through 

contractor led web based survey to 

estimate the burden for SBIR, but 

anticipates the transactions for project 

initiation may be reduced because grant 

application information will be used to 

prepopulate many fields. The total 

annual burden for the SBIR Program 

collection is 2500 hours. 

Types of respondents Number of 

respondents 

Frequency of 

response 

Average time 

per response 

hours 

Annual burden 

hours 

requested 

USDA SBIR Phase II Grantees ....................................................................... 500 1 5 2500 

Comments: Comments are invited on: 

(a) 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; 

(b) the accuracy of the Agency’s 

estimate of the burden of the proposed 

collection of information; (c) ways to 

enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 

of the information to be collected; and 

(d) 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. 

All responses to this notice will be 

summarized and included in the request 

to OMB for approval. All comments will 

become a matter of public record. 

Obtaining a Copy of the Information 

Collection: A copy of the information 

collection and related instructions may 

be obtained free of charge by contacting 

Robert Martin as directed above. 

Done at Washington, DC, this 23rd day of 

March, 2015. 

Catherine E. Woteki, 

Under Secretary, Research, Education, and 

Economics. 

[FR Doc. 2015–07373 Filed 3–30–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–22–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Food and Nutrition Service 

Child Nutrition Programs—Income 

Eligibility Guidelines 

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces the 

Department’s annual adjustments to the 

Income Eligibility Guidelines to be used 

in determining eligibility for free and 

reduced price meals and free milk for 

the period from July 1, 2015 through 

June 30, 2016. These guidelines are used 

by schools, institutions, and facilities 

participating in the National School 

Lunch Program (and Commodity School 

Program), School Breakfast Program, 

Special Milk Program for Children, 

Child and Adult Care Food Program, 

and Summer Food Service Program. The 

annual adjustments are required by 

section 9 of the Richard B. Russell 

National School Lunch Act. The 

guidelines are intended to direct 

benefits to those children most in need 

and are revised annually to account for 

changes in the Consumer Price Index. 

DATES: Effective Date: July 1, 2015. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Vivian Lees, Branch Chief, Operational 

Support Branch, Child Nutrition 

Programs, Food and Nutrition Service 

(FNS), USDA, Alexandria, Virginia 

22302, or by phone at (703) 305–2322. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

action is not a rule as defined by the 

Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 

601–612) and thus is exempt from the 

provisions of that Act. 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3507), 

no recordkeeping or reporting 

requirements have been included that 

are subject to approval from the Office 

of Management and Budget. 

This notice has been determined to be 

not significant and was reviewed by the 

Office of Management and Budget in 

conformance with Executive Order 

12866. 

The affected programs are listed in the 

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

under No. 10.553, No. 10.555, No. 

10.556, No. 10.558 and No. 10.559 and 

are subject to the provisions of 

Executive Order 12372, which requires 

intergovernmental consultation with 

State and local officials. (See 2 CFR 

415.3–415.6). 

Background 

Pursuant to sections 9(b)(1) and 

17(c)(4) of the Richard B. Russell 

National School Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 

1758(b)(1) and 42 U.S.C. 1766(c)(4)), 

and sections 3(a)(6) and 4(e)(1)(A) of the 

Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C. 

1772(a)(6) and 1773(e)(1)(A)), the 

Department annually issues the Income 

Eligibility Guidelines for free and 

reduced price meals for the National 

School Lunch Program (7 CFR part 210), 

the Commodity School Program (7 CFR 

part 210), School Breakfast Program (7 

CFR part 220), Summer Food Service 

Program (7 CFR part 225) and Child and 

Adult Care Food Program (7 CFR part 

226) and the guidelines for free milk in 

the Special Milk Program for Children 

(7 CFR part 215). These eligibility 

guidelines are based on the Federal 

income poverty guidelines and are 

stated by household size. The guidelines 

are used to determine eligibility for free 

and reduced price meals and free milk 

in accordance with applicable program 

rules. 

Definition of Income 

In accordance with the Department’s 

policy as provided in the Food and 

Nutrition Service publication Eligibility 

Manual for School Meals, ‘‘income,’’ as 

the term is used in this notice, means 

income before any deductions such as 

income taxes, Social Security taxes, 

insurance premiums, charitable 

contributions and bonds. It includes the 

following: (1) Monetary compensation 

for services, including wages, salary, 

commissions or fees; (2) net income 

from nonfarm self-employment; (3) net 

income from farm self-employment; (4) 

Social Security; (5) dividends or interest 

on savings or bonds or income from 

estates or trusts; (6) net rental income; 

(7) public assistance or welfare 

payments; (8) unemployment 

compensation; (9) government civilian 

employee or military retirement, or 

pensions or veterans payments; (10) 

private pensions or annuities; (11) 

alimony or child support payments; (12) 

regular contributions from persons not 

living in the household; (13) net 

royalties; and (14) other cash income. 

Other cash income would include cash 

amounts received or withdrawn from 

any source including savings, 

investments, trust accounts and other 

resources that would be available to pay 

the price of a child’s meal. 

‘‘Income,’’ as the term is used in this 

notice, does not include any income or 

benefits received under any Federal 

programs that are excluded from 

consideration as income by any 

statutory prohibition. Furthermore, the 


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