102854 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 243 / Wednesday, December 18, 2024 / Notices 

atrevino@usccr.gov at least ten (10) days 

prior to the meeting. 

Members of the public are entitled to 

make comments during the open period 

at the end of the meeting. Members of 

the public may also submit written 

comments; the comments must be 

received in the Regional Programs Unit 

within 30 days following the meeting. 

Written comments may be emailed to 

Brooke Peery (DFO) at bpeery@

usccr.gov. 

Records generated from this meeting 

may be inspected and reproduced at the 

Regional Programs Coordination Unit 

Office, as they become available, both 

before and after the meeting. Records of 

the meetings will be available via 

www.facadatabase.gov under the 

Commission on Civil Rights, New 

Mexico Advisory Committee link. 

Persons interested in the work of this 

Committee are directed to the 

Commission’s website, http://

www.usccr.gov, or may contact the 

Regional Programs Coordination Unit at 

atrevino@usccr.gov. 

Agenda 

I. Welcoming Opening Remarks 

II. Panelist Remarks 

III. Committee Q&A 

IV. Public Comment 

V. Adjournment 

Dated: December 13, 2024. 

David Mussatt, 

Supervisory Chief, Regional Programs Unit. 

[FR Doc. 2024–29987 Filed 12–17–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Census Bureau 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

Review and Approval; Comment 

Request; Business Trends and 

Outlook Survey (BTOS) 

AGENCY: Census Bureau, Commerce. 

ACTION: Notice of information collection, 

request for comment. 

SUMMARY: The Department of 

Commerce, in accordance with the 

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 

1995, invites 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. The purpose of this 

notice is to allow for 60 days of public 

comment on the proposed revisions to 

the BTOS prior to the submission of the 

information collection request (ICR) to 

OMB for approval. 

DATES: To ensure consideration, 

comments regarding this proposed 

information collection must be received 

on or before February 18, 2025. 

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are 

invited to submit written comments by 

email to Thomas.J.Smith@census.gov. 

Please reference BTOS in the subject 

line of your comments. You may also 

submit comments, identified by Docket 

Number USCB–2024–0034, to the 

Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://

www.regulations.gov. All comments 

received are part of the public record. 

No comments will be posted to http:// 

www.regulations.gov for public viewing 

until after the comment period has 

closed. Comments will generally be 

posted without change. All Personally 

Identifiable Information (for example, 

name and address) voluntarily 

submitted by the commenter may be 

publicly accessible. Do not submit 

Confidential Business Information or 

otherwise sensitive or protected 

information. You may submit 

attachments to electronic comments in 

Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF 

file formats. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information or 

specific questions related to collection 

activities should be directed to 

Catherine Buffington, Chief, Economic 

Indicator Division, 301–763–1838, and 

catherine.d.buffington@census.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract 

The U.S. Census Bureau plans to 

request a 3-year extension with 

revisions from the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for the 

Business Trends and Outlook Survey 

(BTOS). The BTOS has produced data 

products on a bi-weekly basis since 

October 2022. This continuous near real 

time data collection and publication 

provides a baseline of the U.S. economy 

and measures change as a result of 

current and future economic shocks. 

BTOS uses ongoing data collection to 

produce high frequency, timely, and 

granular information about current 

economic conditions and trends. BTOS 

is the only biweekly business tendency 

survey produced by the federal 

statistical system, providing unique and 

detailed data during times of economic 

or other emergencies. The BTOS target 

population is all nonfarm employer 

businesses with receipts of $1,000 or 

more in the United States, the District 

of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The 

current sample consists of 

approximately 1.2 million businesses 

divided into six panels. A new sample 

collection is conducted each year. Data 

collection occurs every two weeks, and 

businesses in each panel are asked to 

report once every 12 weeks for one year. 

Data are released every 2 weeks and are 

available by 2017 North American 

Industry Classification System (NAICS) 

sector, state, the 25 most populous 

Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 

employment size. Data are also available 

by subsector (3-digit NAICS) and sector 

by employment size. 

Data from BTOS are currently used to 

provide timely data to understand the 

economic conditions being experienced 

by businesses; BTOS provides near real 

time data on key items such as revenue, 

paid employees, hours worked as well 

as inventories. BTOS also provides high 

level information on the changing share 

of businesses facing difficulties 

stemming from supply chain issues, 

interest rate changes, and/or weatherrelated events. Previously, there had 

been few data sources available to 

policymakers, media outlets, and 

academia that delivered near real time 

insights into economic trends and 

outlooks. BTOS data has consistently 

been used by the Small Business 

Administration to evaluate the impact of 

regulatory changes. 

The BTOS collects the following highlevel topics for the previous two weeks, 

and the items in bold have 6-month 

future projections: 

• Overall performance 

• Revenue 

• Employment 

• Hours worked 

• Artificial Intelligence 

• Operating status 

• Inventories 

• Delivery time 

• Demand 

• Output prices 

• Input prices 

• Interest Rates 

• Loss—Weather Event 

For the first year of BTOS, the content 

remained unchanged at 26 questions. 

For the second sample year, the BTOS 

moved to a set of core questions and 

supplemental content. Supplemental 

content is designed to provide urgently 

needed data on an emerging or current 

issue. For the first collection of 

supplemental content, the topic was on 

business use of artificial intelligence. 

Due to vast demand to continue this 

data series, the Census Bureau plans to 

request a revision to include the 

artificial intelligence supplement again 

for the fourth sample year of BTOS. 

BTOS data is collected in near real 

time and disseminated as experimental 

products. BTOS data is experimental 


khammond on DSK9W7S144PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 243 / Wednesday, December 18, 2024 / Notices 102855 

with the goal of meeting Census Bureau 

quality standards for regularly 

occurring, non-experimental statistics. 

II. Method of Collection 

The first time each biweekly panel is 

in sample, businesses are contacted 

either by email or letter with an 

invitation to respond to the survey. For 

each biweekly survey panel, initial 

letters are sent on the Friday before the 

2-week period while initial emails are 

sent on the first Monday of the 2-week 

period. Starting with the second time 

each biweekly panel is in sample, 

businesses are contacted only by email 

with an invitation to respond to the 

survey. Both letter and email invitations 

describe the purpose of the survey 

collection, include the link to the online 

reporting tool, and contain the access 

code. 

III. Data 

OMB Control Number: 0607–1022. 

Form Number(s): None. 

Type of Review: Regular submission, 

Request for a Revision of a Currently 

Approved Collection. 

Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

795,000 responses collected annually. 

Estimated Time per Response: 10 

minutes. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 132,500. 

Estimated Total Annual Cost to 

Public: $0 (This is not the cost of 

respondents’ time, but the indirect costs 

respondents may incur for such things 

as purchases of specialized software or 

hardware needed to report, or 

expenditures for accounting or records 

maintenance services required 

specifically by the collection.) 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., 

Sections 131 and 182. 

IV. Request for Comments 

We are soliciting public comments to 

permit the Department/Bureau to: (a) 

Evaluate whether the proposed 

information collection is necessary for 

the proper functions of the Department, 

including whether the information will 

have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the 

accuracy of our estimate of the time and 

cost burden for this proposed collection, 

including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions used; (c) 

Evaluate ways to enhance the quality, 

utility, and clarity of the information to 

be collected; and (d) Minimize the 

reporting burden on those who are to 

respond, including the use of automated 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology. 

Comments that you submit in 

response to this notice are a matter of 

public record. We will include, or 

summarize, each comment in our 

request to OMB to approve this ICR. 

Before including your address, phone 

number, email address, or other 

personal identifying information in your 

comment, you should be aware that 

your entire comment—including your 

personal identifying information—may 

be made publicly available at any time. 

While you may ask us in your comment 

to withhold your personal identifying 

information from public review, we 

cannot guarantee that we will be able to 

do so. 

Sheleen Dumas, 

Departmental PRA Clearance Officer, Office 

of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, 

Commerce Department. 

[FR Doc. 2024–29834 Filed 12–17–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Census Bureau 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

Review and Approval; Comment 

Request; 2025 National Household 

Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey 

(FoodAPS) Pilot Test 

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. This 

notice allows for 30 days for public 

comments. 

Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, 

Commerce. 

Title: 2025 National Household Food 

Acquisition and Purchase Survey 

(FoodAPS) Pilot Test. 

Form Number(s): None. All 

information will be collected 

electronically. 

Type of Request: Regular submission. 

Number of Respondents: 5,000. 

Average Hours per Response: 49 

minutes. 

Burden Hours: 4,092. 

Needs and Uses: The National 

Household Food Acquisition and 

Purchase Survey (FoodAPS) fills a 

critical data gap and supports research 

that informs policymaking on key 

national priorities, including health and 

obesity, hunger, and nutrition assistance 

policy. The survey captures unique and 

comprehensive data about household 

food purchases and acquisitions, along 

with factors that influence household 

food choices. 

The Census Bureau plans to request 

Office or Management and Budget 

(OMB) approval to conduct the 2025 

FoodAPS Pilot Test is to examine and 

gain knowledge about all areas of the 

survey life cycle for this study, with the 

goal of fielding a full scale, nationally 

representative FoodAPS survey starting 

in CY2027. Additionally, the 2025 

FoodAPS Pilot Test will test the 

feasibility of using model-based 

estimates to identify populations of 

interests. Previous iterations used a 

mailing-based screener. Another 

purpose is to determine whether 

administering the 2025 FoodAPS Pilot 

Test via self-response only can achieve 

the desired response rate. Previous 

versions of the FoodAPS used field 

representatives to solicit respondent 

participation and collect data. 

The target populations for the 2025 

FoodAPS Pilot Test are Supplemental 

Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) 

participants; Women, Infants, and 

Children (WIC) recipients; and lowincome households. Respondent 

materials and survey instruments for the 

2025 FoodAPS Pilot Test will be 

available in English and Spanish. 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households. 

Frequency: This is a pilot survey in 

preparation for a full survey in CY2027. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Legal Authority: The National 

Household Food Study is authorized 

under Title 7, Section 3171 and 2026 (a) 

(1) of the United States Code. The 

Census Bureau, conducting this study 

for the United States Department of 

Agriculture under 13 U.S.C. 8(b), is 

required by law to keep your 

information confidential and can use 

your responses for statistical purposes 

only (Title 13, U.S. Code, Section 9). 

Responding to the survey is voluntary. 

You may stop participating at any time, 

and there are no penalties for 

nonparticipation. Per the Federal 

Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 

2015, your data are protected from 

cybersecurity risks through screening of 

the systems that transmit your data. For 

more information on the Census 

Bureau’s Data Protection and Privacy 

principles, please see our data 

protection website at https://

www.census.gov/privacy/. 


khammond on DSK9W7S144PROD with NOTICES