Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 180 / Tuesday, September 21, 2021 / Notices 52441 

think that consumers will assume other 

unlabeled components, such as soy 

sauce or pasta, do not contain allergens. 

Both the outer kit label and the meat or 

poultry component must be fully 

labeled in compliance with FSIS 

labeling regulations. Therefore, the 

outer kit label will bear a complete 

ingredients statement that declares all 

ingredients in each component within 

the kit. These labeling requirements 

were already explained in the previous 

version of the guideline; therefore, FSIS 

did not make any changes in response 

to this comment. 

Comment: One individual asked FSIS 

to explain how the nutrition facts 

declaration should be displayed on a 

kit. 

Response: A kit label bearing 

nutrition facts may present this 

information 1. centrally, based on the 

prepared, assembled product; 2. with 

separate panels for each component as 

packaged; or 3. as one panel with 

multiple columns for each component 

as packaged. The nutrition labeling 

requirements of 9 CFR 317.309 and 

381.409 remain unchanged by this 

guideline. FSIS did not make any 

changes to the guideline based on this 

comment. Based on FSIS 

communications with these facilities, 

they understand nutrition labeling 

requirements. 

Labeling Verification 

Comment: One firm that prepares kits 

stated that the Agency should provide 

clear communication to FSIS inspectors 

to ensure the consistent application of 

kit labeling policies. 

Response: FSIS will issue a directive 

to provide instructions to inspection 

program personal for conducting 

verification activities for kit products to 

ensure compliance with FSIS 

regulations. 

Mandatory and Voluntary FSIS 

Inspection 

Comment: An FSIS employee 

requested that FSIS clarify whether a kit 

may be assembled under voluntary FSIS 

inspection and, therefore, bear a USDA 

inspection legend. 

Response: FSIS clarified in the 

guideline that the assembly of a kit 

product as described in this guideline is 

eligible for voluntary inspection as a 

food inspection service under 9 CFR 

350.3(c). FSIS also announced that, 

going forward, it will no longer conduct 

mandatory inspection services for such 

kits, as the Agency determined that 

providing inspection for these products 

as a voluntary food inspection service is 

the best use of Agency resources. After 

publication of this notice, FSIS will 

provide instructions for firms currently 

receiving mandatory inspection for such 

products regarding the procedures and 

timelines for withdrawing mandatory 

inspection and the option to seek 

voluntary inspection. 

USDA Non-Discrimination Statement 

In accordance with Federal civil 

rights law and U.S. Department of 

Agriculture (USDA) civil rights 

regulations and policies, the USDA, its 

Agencies, offices, and employees, and 

institutions participating in or 

administering USDA programs are 

prohibited from discriminating based on 

race, color, national origin, religion, sex, 

gender identity (including gender 

expression), sexual orientation, 

disability, age, marital status, family/ 

parental status, income derived from a 

public assistance program, political 

beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior 

civil rights activity, in any program or 

activity conducted or funded by USDA 

(not all bases apply to all programs). 

Remedies and complaint filing 

deadlines vary by program or incident. 

Persons with disabilities who require 

alternative means of communication for 

program information (e.g., Braille, large 

print, audiotape, American Sign 

Language, etc.) should contact the 

responsible Agency or USDA’s TARGET 

Center at (202) 720–2600 (voice and 

TTY) or contact USDA through the 

Federal Relay Service at (800) 877–8339. 

Additionally, program information may 

be made available in languages other 

than English. 

To file a program discrimination 

complaint, complete the USDA Program 

Discrimination Complaint Form, AD– 

3027, found online at https://

www.usda.gov/oascr/how-to-file-aprogram-discrimination-complaint and 

at any USDA office or write a letter 

addressed to USDA and provide in the 

letter all of the information requested in 

the form. To request a copy of the 

complaint form, call (866) 632–9992. 

Submit your completed form or letter to 

USDA by: (1) Mail: U.S. Department of 

Agriculture, Office of the Assistant 

Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 

Independence Avenue SW, Washington, 

DC 20250–9410; (2) fax: (202) 690–7442; 

or (3) email: program.intake@usda.gov. 

USDA is an equal opportunity 

provider, employer, and lender. 

Additional Public Notification 

Public awareness of all segments of 

rulemaking and policy development is 

important. Consequently, FSIS will 

announce this Federal Register 

publication online through the FSIS 

web page located at: https://

www.fsis.usda.gov/federal-register. FSIS 

also will make copies of this publication 

available through the FSIS Constituent 

Update, which is used to provide 

information regarding FSIS policies, 

procedures, regulations, Federal 

Register notices, FSIS public meetings, 

and other types of information that 

could affect or would be of interest to 

our constituents and stakeholders. The 

Constituent Update is available on the 

FSIS web page. Through the web page, 

FSIS is able to provide information to a 

much broader, more diverse audience. 

In addition, FSIS offers an email 

subscription service which provides 

automatic and customized access to 

selected food safety news and 

information. This service is available at: 

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/subscribe. 

Options range from recalls to export 

information, regulations, directives, and 

notices. Customers can add or delete 

subscriptions themselves and have the 

option to password protect their 

accounts. 

Paul Kiecker, 

Administrator. 

[FR Doc. 2021–20403 Filed 9–20–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–DM–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; 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. 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1
52442 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 180 / Tuesday, September 21, 2021 / Notices 

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 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 180 / Tuesday, September 21, 2021 / Notices 52443 

vary, but may include: Federal, state, or 

local officials charged with decisionmaking 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 forprofit 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 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

Census Bureau 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Submission to the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) for 

Review and Approval; Comment 

Request; Small Business Pulse Survey 

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 May 19, 

2020 during a 60-day comment period. 

This notice allows for an additional 30 

days for public comments. 

Agency: Census Bureau, Department 

of Commerce. 

Title: Small Business Pulse Survey. 

OMB Control Number: 0607–1014. 

Form Number(s): None. 

Type of Request: Regular Submission, 

Request for a Revision of a Currently 

Approved Collection. 

Number of Respondents: 810,000 

(22,500 responses per week for up to a 

maximum of 36 weeks of collection). 

Average Hours per Response: 6 

minutes. 

Burden Hours: 81,000 + 3 hours for 

cognitive testing = 81,003. 

Needs and Uses: Phase 1 of the Small 

Business Pulse Survey was launched on 

April 26, 2020 as an effort to produce 

and disseminate high-frequency, 

geographic- and industry-detailed 

experimental data about the economic 

conditions of small businesses as they 

experience the coronavirus pandemic. It 

is a rapid response endeavor that 

leverages the resources of the federal 

statistical system to address emergent 

data needs. Given the rapidly changing 

dynamics of this situation for American 

small businesses, the Small Business 

Pulse Survey has been successful in 

meeting an acute need for information 

on changes in revenues, business 

closings, employment and hours 

worked, disruptions to supply chains, 

and expectations for future operations. 

In addition, the Small Business Pulse 

Survey provided important estimates of 

federal program uptake to key survey 

stakeholders. 

Due to the ongoing nature of the 

pandemic, the Census Bureau 

subsequently conducted Phases 2 

through 6 of the Small Business Pulse 

Survey. The Office of Management and 

Budget authorized clearance of Phase 6 

of the Small Business Pulse Survey on 

August 6, 2021. The Census Bureau now 

seeks approval to conduct Phase 7 of the 

Small Business Pulse Survey which will 

occur over 9 weeks starting November 

15, 2021. 

The continuation of the Small 

Business Pulse Survey is responsive to 

stakeholder requests for high frequency 

data that measure the effect of changing 

business conditions during the 

Coronavirus pandemic on small 

businesses. While the ongoing monthly 

and quarterly economic indicator 

programs provide estimates of dollar 

volume outputs for employer businesses 

of all size, the Small Business Pulse 

Survey captures the effects of the 

pandemic on operations and finances of 

small, single location employer 

businesses. As the pandemic continues, 

the Census Bureau is best poised to 

collect this information from a large and 

diverse sample of small businesses. 

It is hard to predict when a shock will 

result in economic activity changing at 

a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly 

frequency. Early in the pandemic, 

federal, state, and local policies were 

moving quickly so it made sense to have 

a weekly collection. The problem is that 

while we are in the moment, we cannot 

accurately forecast the likelihood of 

policy action. In addition, we are not 

able to forecast a change in the 

underlying cause of policy actions: The 

effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on 

the economy. We cannot predict 

changes in the severity of the pandemic 

(e.g., will it worsen in flu season?) nor 

future developments that will alleviate 

the pandemic (e.g., vaccines or 

treatments). In a period of such high 

uncertainty, the impossibility of 

forecasting these inflection points 

underscores the benefits of having a 

weekly survey. For these reasons, the 

Census Bureau will proceed with a 

weekly collection. 

SBPS Phase 7 content includes the 

core concepts seen throughout the SBPS 

previous phases, such as overall impact, 

business closures/openings, revenue 

and employment changes, workplace 

vaccine and testing requirements, and 

business outlook. New business norms 

questions 14–16 were introduced for 

phase 6 and will continue to Phase 7. 

Based on feedback from the Department 

of Commerce’s chief economist, another 

new business norm question was 

developed. Question 17 was developed 

to capture business changes not 

included in question 14–16. The 

responses to the new question are 

captured through a select all that apply. 

This question was cognitively tested 

with six businesses. Additionally, in 

anticipation of potential pandemic 

reoccurrence with economic impact on 

small businesses, we have included the 

previous cash on hand question. To 

balance out the questionnaire with these 

new additions, we removed the question 

inquiring about revenues from exports 

and the open-ended question with 1000 

characters. The remarks field at the end 

of the survey will still be present. 


lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1