22564 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 87 / Friday, May 4, 2001 / Notices

that no more than 25 percent of this

time constitutes ‘‘burden’’ imposed

solely by the Rule (as opposed to the

normal business practices of most

affected entities apart from the Rule’s

requirements), the burden subtotal

attributable to these basic disclosures is

1,937,500 hours.

The TSR also requires further

disclosures before the customer pays for

goods or services. Specifically,

telemarketers must disclose the total

cost of the offered goods or services; all

material restrictions; and all material

terms and conditions of the seller’s

refund, cancellation, exchange, or

repurchase policies (if a representation

about such a policy is a part of the sales

offer). If a prize promotion is involved

in connection with the sale of goods or

services, the telemarketer must also

disclose information about the nonpurchase entry method for the prize

promotion. Staff estimates that these

disclosures consume approximately 10

seconds. However, the Rule requires

these disclosures only when a call

results in a sale. Staff estimates that

sales occur in approximately 6 percent

to telemarketing calls. Accordingly, the

estimated amount of time for these

disclosures is 37.5 hours per firm

(13,500 calls resulting in a sale (.06 ×

225,000 × 10 seconds) or 1.163 million

hours for the 31,000 firms choosing

marketing methods that require oral

disclosures. When it initially published

this estimate, the Commission received

no comments on this estimate nor had

it received related comments in the

ensuing Rule review and PRA clearance

processes. Again, staff believes the

estimate remains reasonable. Based on

the assumption that no more than 25

percent of this time constitutes

‘‘burden’’ imposed solely by the Rule,

the burden subtotal attributable to these

additional disclosures is 290,750 hours.

As noted above, staff estimates that

approximately 9,000 telemarketing firms

will choose the written disclosure

option. Firms electing this option are

likely to be those using written

advertising materials. Thus, the burden

of adding the required disclosures

should be minimal. Staff previously

estimated that a typical firm will spend

approximately 10 hours per year

engaged in activities ensuring

compliance with this provision of the

Rule, for an estimated total burden of

90,000 hours for all 9,000 firms using

written disclosure. As was the case

regarding the other estimates stated

above, when the Commission initially

published this estimate, it received no

comments on it nor had the Commission

received any such comments in the

ensuring Rule review and PRA

clearance processes. Staff believes this

estimate also remains reasonable. Based

on the assumption that no more than 25

percent of this time constitutes

‘‘burden’’ imposed solely by the Rule,

residual burden attributable to these

written disclosures is 22,500 hours.

Estimated Annual Labor Cost Burden:

$34,361,000

The estimated labor cost for

recordkeeping is $600,000. Assuming a

cumulative burden of 10,000 hours/year

to set up compliant recordkeeping

systems, and applying to that a skilled

labor rate of $20/hour, start-up costs

would approximate $200,000 yearly for

all new telemarketing entities. Staff also

estimates that existing industry

members require 40,000 hours,

cumulatively, to maintain compliance

with the TSR’s recordkeeping

provisions. Applying a clerical cost rate

of $10/hour, cumulative recordkeeping

maintenance would cost approximately

$400,000 annually. The estimated labor

cost for disclosure is $33,765,000, based

on an estimate of 2,251,000 disclosure

burden hours and a wage rate of $15/

hour. Thus total labor cost, rounded to

the nearest thousand, is $34,361,000.

Estimated Annual Non-Labor Cost

Burden: $10,022,000

Total capital and start-up cost: Staff

estimates that the capital and start-up

costs associated with the TSR’s

information collection requirements are

de minimis. The Rule’s recordkeeping

requirements mandate that companies

maintain records but not in any

particular form. While those

requirements necessitate that affected

entities have a means of storage,

industry members should have that

already regardless of the Rule. Even if

an entity finds it necessary to purchase

a storage device, the cost is likely to be

minimal, especially when annualized

over the item’s useful life. The Rule’s

disclosure requirements require no

capital expenditures.

Other non-labor cost: Affecters

entities need some storage media such

as file folders, computer diskettes, or

paper in order to comply with the Rule’s

recordkeeping requirements. Although

staff believes that most affected entities

would maintain the required records in

the ordinary course of business, staff

estimated that the approximately 40,000

industry members affected by the Rule

spend a annual amount of $50 each on

office supplies as a result of the Rule’s

recordkeeping requirements, for a total

recordkeeping cost burden of

$2,000,000.

To comply with the Rule’s disclosure

requirements, telemarketing firms likely

incur additional cost for telephone

service, assuming that the firms spend

more time on the telephone with

customers due to the required

disclosures. As further detailed above,

staff believes that the burden relating to

the required oral disclosures amounts to

8,913.000 hours (7.75 million initial

disclosure hours + 1.163 million hours

regarding sales). Assuming all calls to

customers are long distance, at a

commercial calling rate of 6 cents per

minute ($3.60 per hour), affected

entities as a whole may incur up to

$32,086,800 in telecommunications cost

as a result of the Rule’s disclosure

requirements. However, as also noted

above, staff estimates that only 25

percent of such disclosures constitute

‘‘burden.’’ Accordingly, the oral

disclosure cost burden, adjusted for this

apportionment, is $8,022,000, rounded

to the nearest thousand.

Staff believes that the estimated 9,000

entities choosing to comply with the

Rule through written disclosures incur

no additional capital or operating

expenses as a result of the Rule’s

requirements because they are likely to

provide written information to

prospective customers in the ordinary

course of business. Adding the required

disclosures to that written information

likely requires no supplemental

expenditures.

Thus, total estimated non-labor cost

burden associated with the Rule is

$10,022,000 ($2,000,000 for

recordkeeping + $8,022,000 for oral

disclosures).

Christian S. White,

Acting General Counsel.

[FR Doc. 01–11238 Filed 5–2–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6750–01–M

GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE

[Document No. JFMIP–SR–01–01]

Joint Financial Management

Improvement Program (JFMIP)—

Federal Financial Management System

Requirements (FFMSR)

AGENCY: Joint Financial Management

Improvement Program (JFMIP)

ACTION: Notice of document availability.

SUMMARY: The JFMIP is seeking public

comment on an exposure draft entitled

‘‘Benefit System Requirements,’’ dated

May 2001. The draft is the first Federal

Financial Management System

Requirements (FFMSR) document to

address standard requirements for

Federal agency benefit systems. The

document is intended to assist agencies

when developing, improving or

Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 87 / Friday, May 4, 2001 / Notices 22565

evaluating benefit systems. It provides

the baseline functionality that benefit

systems must have to support agency

missions and comply with laws and

regulations. When issued in final, the

JFMIP Benefit System Requirements

document will augment the existing

body of FFMSR that define financial

system functional requirements which

are used in evaluating compliance with

the Federal Financial Management

Improvement Act (FFMIA) of 1996.

DATES: Comments are due by July 1,

2001.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the exposure draft

have been mailed to agency senior

financial officials, together with a cover

memo listing the questions on which

JFMIP is soliciting feedback. The

exposure draft and cover memo are

available on the JFMIP website:

WWW.JFMIP.GOV

Comments should be addressed to

JFMIP, 1990 K Street, NW., Suite 430,

Washington, DC 20006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Steven

Fisher, (202) 219–0530 or via Internet:

fishers@jfmip.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The

FFMIA of 1996 mandated that agencies

implement and maintain systems that

comply substantially with FFMSR,

applicable Federal accounting

standards, and the U.S. Government

Standard General Ledger at the

transaction level. The FFMIA statute

codified the JFMIP financial system

requirements documents as a key

benchmark that agency systems must

meet to substantially comply with

systems requirements provisions under

FFMIA. To support the provisions

outlined in the FFMIA, the JFMIP is

updating obsolete requirements

documents and publishing additional

requirements documents.

Comments received will be reviewed

and the exposure draft will be revised

as necessary. Publication of the final

requirements will be mailed to agency

senior financial officials and will be

available on the JFMIP website.

Dated: May 1, 2001.

Steven A. Fisher,

Senior Management Analyst, Joint Financial

Management Improvement Program.

[FR Doc. 01–11323 Filed 5–3–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 1610–02–U

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary, Assistant

Secretary for Planning and Evaluation;

Notice Inviting Applications for New

Award for Fiscal Year 2001

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant

Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

(ASPE), HHS.

ACTION: Announcement of the

availability of funds and request for

applications from states and large

counties for cooperative agreements to

study the characteristics of persons

receiving cash assistance from the

Temporary Assistance to Needy

Families (TANF) program.

SUMMARY: The Office of the Assistant

Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

(ASPE) announces the availability of

funds and invites applications for

cooperative agreements to conduct

research into the characteristics of

individuals who receive cash assistance

from the Temporary Assistance to

Needy Families (TANF) program.

Approximately four to five states or

large counties will receive funding

under a cooperative agreement that will

enable them to monitor and conduct

research into the characteristics of

current TANF recipients and their

families. Topics relevant to these

studies fall into several interrelated

categories: (1) Demographic

characteristics of the caseload; (2)

employment and economic outcomes of

the caseload; and (3) barriers to

employment. ASPE is particularly

interested in assisting state and local

efforts to study their TANF recipients’

potential barriers and opportunities for

obtaining employment and achieving

self-sufficiency using survey data

analysis enriched with administrative

data. Given the nature of the research

involved, competition is open only to

state agencies that administer TANF

programs and to counties with total

populations greater than 500,000 that

administer TANF programs.

Cooperative Agreements are

assistance mechanisms and subject to

the same administrative requirements as

grants; however, they are different from

either a grant or a contract. Cooperative

Agreements allow more involvement

and collaboration by the government in

the affairs of the project compared to a

grant, but provide less direction of

project activities than a contract. The

Terms of Award are in addition to not

in lieu of otherwise applicable

guidelines and procedures.

CLOSING DATE: The deadline for

submission of applications under this

announcement is June 18, 2001.

ADDRESSES: Application instructions

and forms should be requested from and

submitted to: Adrienne Little, Grants

Officer, Office of the Assistant Secretary

for Planning and Evaluation,

Department of Health and Human

Services, Room 405F, Hubert H.

Humphrey Building, 200 Independence

Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20201.

Telephone: (202) 690–8794. Requests for

forms and administrative questions will

be accepted and responded to up to ten

(10) working days prior to the closing

date.

Copies of this program announcement

and many of the required forms may

also be obtained electronically at the

ASPE World Wide Web Page: http://

aspe.hhs.gov. You may fax your request

to the attention of the Grants Officer at

(202) 690–6518. Applications may not

be faxed or submitted electronically.

The printed Federal Register notice is

the only official program

announcement. Although reasonable

efforts are taken to assure that the files

on the ASPE World Wide Web Page

containing electronic copies of this

program announcement are accurate

and complete, they are provided for

information only. The applicant bears

sole responsibility to assure that the

copy downloaded and/or printed from

any other source is accurate and

complete.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Administrative questions should be

directed to the Grants Officer at the

address or phone number listed above.

Programmatic/technical questions

should be directed to Susan Hauan,

Office of the Assistant Secretary for

Planning and Evaluation, Department of

Health and Human Services, Room

404E, Hubert H. Humphrey Building,

200 Independence Avenue, SW,

Washington, DC 20201. Telephone:

(202) 690–8698. Questions may be faxed

to (202) 690–6562 or e-mailed to

shauan@osaspe.dhhs.gov.

Part I. Supplemental Information

Legislative Authority

This cooperative agreement is

authorized by section 1110 of the Social

Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1310) and

awards will be made from funds

appropriated under the Departments of

Labor, Health and Human Services, and

Education, and Related Agencies

Appropriations Act, 2001, as enacted by

section 1000(a)(4) of the Consolidated

Appropriations Act, 2001 (Pub. L. 106–

554).