[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 180 (Tuesday, September 21, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52441-52443]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-20422]


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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; Generic Clearance for Emergency Economic Information 
Collections

    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 February 8, 2021 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: Generic Clearance for Emergency Economic Information 
Collections.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-XXXX.

[[Page 52442]]

    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, New Information Collection.
    Number of Respondents: We estimate the potential maximum number of 
respondents to all EEIC's in a given year is 300,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 10 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 50,000.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau requests Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval for a 3-year period, for a new 
generic clearance that provides the quick turn-around necessary for 
conducting emergency economic information collections (EEIC) in 
response to unanticipated international, national, or regional declared 
emergencies or events of national interest arising as a direct result 
of declared emergencies having a significant economic impact on U.S. 
businesses and/or state or local governments. The purpose of the 
collections will be to gauge and monitor the economic impact of such 
events on U.S. businesses or organizations and state or local 
governments.
    The Coronavirus pandemic, in addition to having devastating effects 
on the health and wellbeing of the global population, has had a 
profound effect on the world economy. The Census Bureau, in carrying 
out its mission to serve as the nation's leading provider of quality 
data about its people and economy, has sought to measure the effect on 
U.S. businesses through supplemental questions added to several of its 
recurring business surveys and a new special-purpose survey meant to 
measure the effect of the pandemic on small, employer owned 
businesses--the Small Business Pulse Survey (OMB number 0607-1014). Due 
to the need to collect data on a timely basis, the Census Bureau 
submitted these requests to the Office of Management and Budget under 
the emergency processing provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act 
(PRA). Although that process allowed us to implement the collections in 
a timely manner, restrictions on the use of the PRA emergency process 
to revise or extend these collections hampered our ability to remain 
agile and to collect data on an ongoing basis as the Pandemic continued 
throughout 2020 and beyond. We believe that a generic clearance will 
benefit the Census Bureau, the reporting public, and the many 
stakeholders who will have great need for information during times of 
future unanticipated events.
    Emergencies, once declared by the authorized state or federal 
official or entity, that could trigger the need for an EEIC may have 
global, national, or regional impact on U.S. businesses and 
governments, and include the following examples:

--Pandemic or other health emergency
--Natural or manmade disaster
--Acts of war or terrorism
--Civil unrest or insurrection

    Other events of national interest arising as a direct result of 
declared emergencies may also have a significant impact on U.S. 
businesses or governments. An example of a recent such event is the 
computer chip shortage which has resulted from labor and resource 
shortages directly stemming from the effects of the Coronavirus 
pandemic. The computer ship shortage has had a significant effect on 
industries ranging from computer manufacturing to automobile 
production. Another example is the need to monitor and track production 
and exports of personal protective equipment (PPE) and vaccines that 
arose during the Coronavirus pandemic. General categories of national 
interest events arising as a direct result of declared emergencies 
which could trigger the need for an EEIC are:

--Economic crises
--Financial crises
--International geo-political instabilities
--Resource shortages
--Cyberterrorism
--New legislation passed as a direct result of a declared emergency

    A declared emergency or national interest event arising as a direct 
result of a declared emergency would need to have a perceived impact on 
U.S. businesses and/or state or local governments in order for the 
Census Bureau to collect EEIC information in response.
    EEIC questions may be included as supplemental questions on 
existing Census Bureau surveys or conducted as new special-purpose 
surveys. The data will be collected by paper or electronic instruments, 
depending on the survey or program.
    The questions will be chosen from a pretested Question Bank. For 
some subjects, the Question Bank includes specific questionnaire 
content. In other cases, the Question Bank includes topics which will 
then be addressed with questions designed to meet data needs that arise 
during a future unknown event. Some questions have been cognitively 
tested and should be considered final; some may require testing for 
final wording. Questions that may require testing and refinement are 
annotated in the Question Bank. As the Question Bank matures with new 
or revised content, the Census Bureau will resubmit the bank for 
review.
    The Census Bureau will first obtain approval for the generic 
clearance under the regular processing provisions of the PRA (the 
subject of this clearance request). The clearance request defines the 
scope and overall burden of information collections to be conducted 
under the generic clearance. As future emergencies arise, the Census 
Bureau will use the process defined below to obtain approval for 
individual EEIC's.
    Clearance process for an EEIC:
    1. Based on an emergency or national interest event arising as a 
direct result of a declared emergency, the Census Bureau decides to 
conduct an EEIC.
    2. The OMB-OIRA Desk officer is notified of the EEIC immediately 
via email, followed by receipt of the ``Request for Emergency Economic 
Information Collection'' describing the emergency or resulting national 
interest event and the planned information collection. The supplemental 
questions or collection instrument will be attached to the Request for 
EEIC.
    3. The Request for EEIC will include a date by which OMB approval 
is required. The standard review time for requests under this generic 
clearance will be 10 days. However, a review time of as few as 3 days 
may be requested. Special justification for any review time of less 
than 10 days will be included in the Request for EEIC.
    4. The OMB-OIRA desk officer responds with approval or comments on 
the proposed EEIC within the timeframe specified in the Request for 
EEIC. OMB may provide approval and comments orally (followed by email 
for written documentation) or by email directly to the Census Bureau. 
This may occur before the request is submitted and received by OMB 
through the official ICR tracking system. If no response is received 
within the specified timeframe, the information collection is 
considered approved.
    5. The Census Bureau maintains a library of data collection 
instruments that includes all final data collection instruments 
conducted under this generic clearance. This library and the burden 
expended is submitted to OMB quarterly as a non-substantive change to 
the generic clearance.
    6. EEICs will last a maximum of 9 months (this limit was stated as 
6 months in the February 8, 2021 notice and has since been increased to 
9 months).
    7. A new Request for EEIC may be submitted under the generic 
clearance if the Census Bureau determines the need to revise an 
existing EEIC or to extend the collection past the initial 9 months.
    As data collections will be tailored to the emergency, users of the 
data may

[[Page 52443]]

vary, but may include: Federal, state, or local officials charged with 
decision-making during the emergency; business leaders and policymakers 
wishing to develop plans to ameliorate the effects of the emergency; 
academics and members of the press wishing to study and disseminate 
information about the emergency; and the public. The data collected 
will help us understand how and why data we collect in our ongoing 
surveys may be affected by the emergency, as well as allow us to 
disseminate data as part of existing releases, new releases, or 
experimental releases.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations; State, 
Local, or Tribal government; Federal government.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Respondent's Obligation: Determinations about whether EEIC 
questions will be mandatory or voluntary will be made in consultation 
with legal counsel. This information will be included the Request for 
EEIC submitted to OMB in advance of the collection.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Sections 131, 161, 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 the title of the collection.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2021-20422 Filed 9-20-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P