18248 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 64 / Friday, April 3, 2015 / Notices 

(Joint use with GA Power Co.) 

Kings Bay GA 31547 

Landholding Agency: Navy 

Property Number: 77201510015 

Status: Unutilized 

Comments: property located in floodway— 

not corrected or contained; public access 

denied and no alternative method to gain 

access without compromising national 

security. 

Reasons: Floodway; Secured Area 

Massachusetts 

2 Buildings 

4700 Greenway Rd. 

Forestdale MA 02542 

Landholding Agency: Coast Guard 

Property Number: 88201510007 

Status: Excess 

Directions: 15084; 15085 

Comments: public access denied and no 

alternative method to gain access without 

compromising national security. 

Reasons: Secured Area 

Nevada 

14 Buildings 

Mercury Hwy. on the Nevada National 

Security Site 

Mercury NV 89093 

Landholding Agency: Energy 

Property Number: 41201510003 

Status: Excess 

Directions: ID #997008; 997007; 993291; 

993292; 993293; 997003; 997006; 997009; 

997010; 997011; 997012; 997013; 997014; 

997015; 

Comments: highly classified secured area; 

Public access denied & no alternative 

method to gain access w/out compromising 

national security. 

Reasons: Secured Area 

Tennessee 

3 Buildings 

Y–12 National Security Complex 

Oak Ridge TN 37831 

Landholding Agency: Energy 

Property Number: 41201510004 

Status: Unutilized 

Directions: Building 9949.BC; 9949.BG; 

9949.69 

Comments: public access denied & no 

alternative method to gain access w/out 

compromising national security. 

Reasons: Secured Area 

Virginia 

3 Buildings 

NASA Langley Research Ctr. 

Hampton VA 23681–0001 

Landholding Agency: NASA 

Property Number: 71201510020 

Status: Excess 

Directions: #1222; 1275; 1283 

Comments: public access denied & no 

alternative method to gain access w/out 

compromising national security. 

Reasons: Secured Area 

2 Buildings 

7323 Telegraph Rd. 

Alexandria VA 20598 

Landholding Agency: Coast Guard 

Property Number: 88201510005 

Status: Excess 

Directions: Tower Hut (T03) 49478; Mars 

Building (L08) 25743 

Comments: public access denied and no 

alternative to gain access without 

compromising national security. 

Reasons: Secured Area 

Washington 

B–6409 General Warehouse 

Naval Base Kitsap Bangor (BA) 

Kitsap WA 98337 

Landholding Agency: Navy 

Property Number: 77201510014 

Status: Unutilized 

Comments: public access denied and no 

alternative method to gain access without 

compromising national security. 

Reasons: Secured Area 

Land 

Colorado 

1.5 Acres 

Navajo Unit of the Colorado 

River Project 

Archuleta Co. CO 

Landholding Agency: Interior 

Property Number: 61201510005 

Status: Excess 

Comments: located between private property; 

no established right of entry to access. 

Reasons: Not accessible by road 

[FR Doc. 2015–07327 Filed 4–2–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4210–67–P 

DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND 

URBAN DEVELOPMENT 

[Docket No. FR–5859–N–01] 

Advance Notice of Digital Opportunity 

Demonstration 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HUD. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: Through this notice, HUD 

solicits advance comment on a 

demonstration designed to test the 

effectiveness of collaborative efforts by 

government, industry, and nonprofit 

organizations to accelerate broadband 

adoption and use in HUD-assisted 

homes. Approximately 20 HUD-assisted 

communities, selected from across the 

country, are anticipated to participate in 

the demonstration. The purpose of the 

demonstration is to provide students— 

and their families—the ability to benefit 

from life-changing opportunities that 

technology affords. Specifically, the 

demonstration will focus on providing 

students housed with HUD assistance 

the opportunity to improve their 

educational and economic outcomes 

through a range of efforts to narrow the 

digital divide. 

DATES: Comment Due Date: May 1, 

2015. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit comments responsive 

to this notice to the Office of General 

Counsel, Regulations Division, 

Department of Housing and Urban 

Development, 451 7th Street SW., Room 

10276, Washington, DC 20410–0001. All 

submissions should refer to the above 

docket number and title. Submission of 

public comments may be carried out by 

hard copy or electronic submission. 

Submission of Hard Copy Comments. 

Comments may be submitted by mail or 

hand delivery. Each commenter 

submitting hard copy comments, by 

mail or hand delivery, should submit 

comments to the address above, 

addressed to the attention of the 

Regulations Division. Due to security 

measures at all federal agencies, 

submission of comments by mail often 

results in delayed delivery. To ensure 

timely receipt of comments, HUD 

recommends that any comments 

submitted by mail be submitted at least 

2 weeks in advance of the public 

comment deadline. All hard copy 

comments received by mail or hand 

delivery are a part of the public record 

and will be posted to http://

www.regulations.gov without change. 

Electronic Submission of Comments. 

Interested persons may submit 

comments electronically through the 

Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://

www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly 

encourages commenters to submit 

comments electronically. Electronic 

submission of comments allows the 

commenter maximum time to prepare 

and submit a comment, ensures timely 

receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to 

make comments immediately available 

to the public. Comments submitted 

electronically through the http://

www.regulations.gov Web site can be 

viewed by other commenters and 

interested members of the public. 

Commenters should follow instructions 

provided on that site to submit 

comments electronically. 

No Facsimile Comments. Facsimile 

(fax) comments are not acceptable. 

Public Inspection of Comments. All 

comments submitted to HUD regarding 

this notice will be available, without 

charge, for public inspection and 

copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., 

Eastern Time, weekdays at the above 

address. Due to security measures at the 

HUD Headquarters building, an advance 

appointment to review the public 

comments must be scheduled by calling 

the Regulations Division at 202–708– 

3055 (this is not a toll-free number). 

Individuals with speech or hearing 

impairments may access this number 

through TTY by calling the Federal 

Relay Service at 800–877–8339 (this is 

a toll-free number). Copies of all 

comments submitted are available for 

inspection and downloading at http://

www.regulations.gov. 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 64 / Friday, April 3, 2015 / Notices 18249 

1https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/

k-12/connected. 

2http://www.connectednation.org/sites/default/

files/mn_digital_literacy_final.pdf. 

3http://www.fcc.gov/blog/fcc-chairmanannounces-jobs-focused-digital-literacypartnership-between-connect2compete-and-28. 

4http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/

broadband-technology-fact-sheet/. 

5Using data extracted from HUD’s Inventory 

Management System (IMS)/Public and Indian 

Housing Information Center (PIC) and Tenant 

Rental Assistance Certification System (TRACS), 

HUD computed estimates of residents’ race/

ethnicity and household income. 

6http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/

esa_ntia_us_broadband_adoption_report_

11082010_1.pdf. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Camille E. Acevedo, Associate General 

Counsel for Legislation and Regulations, 

Office of General Counsel, Department 

of Housing and Urban Development, 

451 Seventh Street SW., Room 10282, 

Washington, DC 20410–7000, telephone 

number 202–402–5132 (this is not a tollfree number). Persons with hearing or 

speech impairments may access this 

number through TTY by calling the 

Federal Relay Service at 800–877–8339 

(this is a toll-free number). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

Knowledge is a pillar to achieving the 

American Dream—a catalyst for upward 

mobility as well as an investment that 

ensures each generation is as successful 

as the last. Nations and local 

communities that cultivate access to 

global knowledge will thrive in an 

increasingly complex and 

technologically oriented world, while 

those that do not will struggle to keep 

pace. The adoption, associated 

programming, and use of broadband 

technology are powerful tools to 

increase access to knowledge. In the 

summer of 2013, President Barack 

Obama unveiled ‘‘ConnectED,’’ a bold 

plan to transform teaching and learning 

in American public schools through 

technology—built atop a challenge to 

ensure that 99 percent of students have 

access to high-speed broadband in their 

classrooms by 2018.1 Many low-income 

Americans do not have broadband 

Internet at home, contributing to the 

estimated 66 million Americans who are 

without the most basic digital literacy 

skills.2 Without broadband and the 

skills to use technology at home, 

children will miss out on the high-value 

educational, economic, and social 

impact that high-speed Internet 

provides. 

Making this issue even more acute is 

the fact that the jobs of tomorrow will 

require robust technology skills. For 

example, over 80 percent of Fortune 500 

companies require job seekers to 

respond to online postings with a 

working email address.3 The digital 

divide in broadband access and use 

disproportionately affects certain 

Americans: Those who earn less than 

$25,000 annually; individuals who did 

not finish high school; and African 

Americans and Hispanics.4 HUD serves 

these populations. Eighty-four percent 

of households with HUD assistance 

make less than $20,000 per year, and 63 

percent are African American or 

Hispanic (46 percent and 17 percent, 

respectively).5

Research conducted by the National 

Telecommunications and Information 

Administration of the Department of 

Commerce has highlighted several 

significant barriers that deter the 

adoption of broadband technology by 

the communities HUD serves.6 These 

barriers include: 

• Cost: The high cost of broadband 

installation and the on-going provision 

of service. 

• Perception: Unease about the 

Internet due to safety and privacy 

concerns. 

• Relevance: The inability to see how 

the Internet relates to home or work life. 

• Skills: The absence of digital 

literacy skills needed to use online tools 

and services effectively. 

II. Demonstration 

Every student living in public or 

assisted housing should have access to 

the opportunities broadband Internet 

connectivity can provide. This 

demonstration is designed to encourage 

and create the platform for communities 

to collaborate with their Internet service 

providers, other businesses, 

foundations, nonprofit organizations, 

educational leaders, digital literacy 

organizations, and others to narrow the 

digital divide in their communities and 

to test the effectiveness of a 

collaborative set of actions that address 

the barriers described above. 

1. Making Broadband More Adoptable 

Through the demonstration, HUD will 

build upon existing work with private 

industry, public housing agencies 

(PHAs), local governments, 

philanthropic foundations, and 

nonprofit service providers. The 

demonstration will continue this 

collaborative work to improve the lives 

of students housed with HUD assistance 

by providing the forum by which crosssector organizations can come together 

to design and implement local 

interventions to narrow the digital 

divide. 

2. Criteria for Participation 

The number of communities served at 

the outset of this demonstration will 

depend on the number of communities 

that commit to narrowing the digital 

divide and that meet the criteria 

described below. 

HUD’s goal is to identify a sample of 

communities from urban and rural 

locations that possess both small and 

large populations and have the capacity 

to effectively and expediently 

implement the demonstration for 

students housed with HUD assistance. 

HUD seeks participation by 

communities where local leadership has 

already taken steps to support the goals 

of the demonstration, as measured by 

both the community’s participation in 

other complementary Federal initiatives 

enhancing Internet access in 

communities, as well as local broadband 

plans and strategies for implementation. 

Participation in the demonstration by 

these communities will build upon 

existing efforts already underway to 

expand Internet access, thereby building 

the comprehensive community-schoolhome synergy that is a primary goal of 

the demonstration. 

HUD will use the following criteria to 

assess communities that have expressed 

an interest in participating in the 

demonstration: 

• The mayor or equivalent executive 

elected official of the community, and 

the PHA executive leader, must formally 

announce a commitment to narrow the 

broadband digital divide and in so 

doing demonstrate the connectivity gap 

that exists in their community among 

distinct neighborhoods and 

demographics. 

• Communities should develop a plan 

to promote and expand broadband 

access, adoption, and use. 

• To ensure presence of local support 

and leverageable HUD infrastructure for 

implementation of this demonstration, 

communities should be currently 

participating in two or more Federal 

place-based initiatives, such as: The 

Choice Neighborhoods program; the 

Promise Zones program; the Promise 

Neighborhoods program; the Byrne 

Criminal Justice Innovation program; 

the Strong Cities, Strong Communities 

program; the STEM, Energy and 

Economic Development program; or the 

Building Neighborhood Capacity 

program. 

• Communities should be broadly 

committed to realizing the ‘‘ConnectED’’ 

vision in their public schools, including 

having clear plans to reach school 

connectivity goals by 2018—with 

substantial progress already underway. 

• Communities should have more 

than one Internet service provider, in 


asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
18250 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 64 / Friday, April 3, 2015 / Notices 

order to ensure a competitive 

marketplace in the provision of Internet 

services that leads to more affordable 

and higher quality services for 

households. 

The criteria are meant to create 

optimal conditions to accelerate the 

adoption and use of broadband 

technology. However, the criteria may 

be applied with reasonable flexibility to 

ensure that a diverse set of communities 

are considered for participation in this 

demonstration. As the demonstration 

proceeds, HUD will assess expressions 

of interest from communities and the 

availability of HUD staffing resources to 

support participation by more than the 

communities identified at the start of 

the demonstration. Additionally, as the 

demonstration proceeds, HUD will 

assess the effectiveness of the selection 

criteria on an ongoing basis. As a result 

of these assessments, HUD may expand 

the number of participating 

communities, revise the selection 

criteria, or both to reflect HUD’s 

experience in implementing the 

demonstration. 

3. Stakeholder Meetings 

In advance of commencement of the 

demonstration, HUD will sponsor or cosponsor one or more meetings of 

communities, cross-sector entities, and 

other stakeholders to facilitate the 

sharing of information and identifying 

communities interested in participation 

in the demonstration. HUD will reach 

out to communities that have formally 

declared a commitment to close the 

digital divide and otherwise meet the 

criteria described above to participate in 

those meetings. HUD therefore 

encourages interested communities to 

take the necessary steps to meet the 

criteria as quickly as possible in order 

to be best positioned to realize the 

benefits of these discussions. 

HUD may partner with an existing 

entity that has a national organizational 

presence sufficient to provide a strong 

coordinating function across 

communities, government, and the 

private and nonprofit sectors. The entity 

should have significant expertise in 

next-generation wireline and wireless 

networks. It should possess strong 

existing relationships with industry, 

foundations, universities, and nonprofit 

and non-governmental agencies. And, 

finally, it should have community 

project experience, including 

educational and outreach activities in 

underserved populations. 

III. Evaluating the Demonstration 

HUD intends to build on the 

outcomes of the demonstration, with the 

goal of extending the demonstration on 

a nationwide basis. HUD will work with 

entities across the government and the 

broader research community to 

rigorously measure outcomes associated 

with work to narrow the broadband 

digital divide. The participating 

communities and cross-sector entities 

are expected to participate in any efforts 

designed to identify and share best 

practices from the demonstration with 

other HUD-assisted communities. In 

addition, participating communities and 

entities will be required to 

collaboratively develop and 

subsequently measure and report 

outputs and outcomes. 

IV. Solicitation of Public Comment 

In accordance with section 470 of the 

Housing and Urban-Rural Recovery Act 

of 1983 (42 U.S.C. 3542), HUD is 

seeking comment on the demonstration. 

Section 470 provides that HUD may not 

begin a demonstration program not 

expressly authorized by statute until a 

description of the demonstration 

program is published in the Federal 

Register and a 60-day period expires 

following the date of publication, during 

which time HUD solicits public 

comment and considers the comments 

submitted. The public comment period 

provided allows HUD the opportunity to 

consider those comments during the 60- 

day period, and be in a position to 

commence implementation of the 

demonstration following the conclusion 

of the 60-day period. 

Dated: March 30, 2015. 

Julia ́n Castro, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2015–07719 Filed 4–2–15; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Bureau of Land Management 

[14X LLIDI02000.13300000.EO0000 241A; 

4500070627] 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

Notice of Intent To Prepare an 

Environmental Impact Statement for 

the Proposed East Smoky Panel Mine 

Project at Smoky Canyon Mine, 

Caribou County, ID 

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, 

Interior; United States Forest Service, 

USDA. 

ACTION: Notice of intent. 

SUMMARY: In compliance with the 

National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA) of 1969, the Federal Land Policy 

and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, 

the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as 

amended, and the National Forest 

Management Act of 1976, notice is 

hereby given that the Department of the 

Interior, Bureau of Land Management 

(BLM), Pocatello Field Office, Pocatello, 

Idaho, and the U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS), 

Caribou-Targhee National Forest 

(CTNF), Idaho Falls, Idaho, will jointly 

prepare an environmental impact 

statement (EIS). The purpose of this EIS 

is to analyze the potential effects of 

approving a proposed lease 

modification and phosphate mine and 

reclamation plan (M&RP) (the Proposed 

Action) on Federal mineral leases held 

by the J.R. Simplot Company (Simplot), 

in southeastern Idaho; and to amend the 

CTNF Revised Forest Plan (2003) in 

conjunction with the project. In 

connection with its review of the 

Proposed Action, the EIS will also 

consider potential amendments to the 

CTNF Revised Forest Plan (2003). The 

BLM, as the Federal lease administrator, 

will serve as the lead agency and the 

USFS as the co-lead agency. The Idaho 

Department of Environmental Quality 

and the Idaho Department of Lands are 

cooperating agencies. This notice is 

announcing the beginning of the 

scoping process to solicit public 

comments and identify issues for 

analysis. 

DATES: To ensure that comments will be 

considered, the BLM must receive 

written comments on the scope of the 

analysis described in this notice by May 

4, 2015. The BLM will announce 

meetings and any other public 

involvement activities at least 15 days 

in advance through public notices, 

media news releases, and/or mailings. 

All comments must be received prior to 

the close of the 30-day scoping period 

or 15 days after the last public meeting, 

whichever is later, to be considered in 

the draft EIS. We will provide 

additional opportunities for public 

participation upon publication of the 

draft EIS. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit written 

comments to: East Smoky Panel Mine 

EIS, C/O Stantec, formerly JBR 

Environmental Consultants, Inc., 8160 

South Highland Drive, Sandy, Utah 

84093, or via email at: blm_id_espm_

eis@blm.gov. Please reference ‘‘East 

Smoky Panel Mine EIS’’ on all 

correspondence. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Steve Opp, Bureau of Land 

Management, Pocatello Field Office, 

4350 Cliffs Drive, Pocatello, ID 83204, 

phone 208–478–6382. Scoping 


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