This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains documents other than rules or

proposed rules that are applicable to the

public. Notices of hearings and investigations,

committee meetings, agency decisions and

rulings, delegations of authority, filing of

petitions and applications and agency

statements of organization and functions are

examples of documents appearing in this

section.

Notices Federal Register

61017 

Vol. 73, No. 200 

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Forest Service 

McKelvie Geographic Area Rangeland 

Allotment Management Plans on 

National Forest System Lands on the 

Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest, 

Bessey Ranger District in Nebraska 

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Second revised notice of intent 

to prepare an environmental impact 

statement. 

SUMMARY: This project would revise 

Rangeland Allotment Management 

Plans (RAMP) for all allotments within 

the McKelvie Geographic Area on the 

McKelvie National Forest and analyze 

continuation of grazing within the 

constraints of the Revised Nebraska 

Land and Resource Management Plan 

(NLRMP). A Notice of Intent (NOI) for 

this project was published May 15, 2006 

(71 No. 93 FR 27986). More than six 

months have elapsed since the projected 

draft environmental impact statement 

(DEIS) date in that original NOI. This 

revised NOI is being issued to update 

the project schedule. 

DATES: Comments will be accepted 

concerning the scope of the analysis and 

must be received within 30 days after 

publication of this NOI in the Federal 

Register. The Notice of Availability of 

the DEIS is expected to be published in 

the Federal Register approximately 

March 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to: 

Michael E. Croxen, Interdisciplinary 

Team Leader, USDA Forest Service, P.O. 

Box 39, Halsey, Nebraska 69142. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Michael E. Croxen, Interdisciplinary 

Team Leader, USDA Forest Service, P.O. 

Box 39, Halsey, Nebraska 69142. Phone 

(308) 533–2257. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose and Need for Action: The 

purpose of the environmental impact 

statement is to determine current 

conditions, analyze environmental 

consequences of actions to those 

conditions, and assist the decision 

maker in selecting management/ 

monitoring strategies consistent with 

meeting desired conditions in the 

NLRMP. The need for the action is to 

ensure that authorized uses and 

associated management activities move 

towards or maintaining desired NLRMP 

conditions. 

Proposed Action: The Bessey Ranger 

District proposes to implement best 

management practices and activities 

with adaptive management and 

monitoring strategies to ensure 

compliance between current conditions 

and NLRMP desired conditions on the 

McKelvie Geographic Area. 

Other Possible Alternatives: Other 

possible alternatives that would be 

considered for analysis include a NoAction Alternative (to not change 

current permitted uses) and a NoGrazing Alternative (to eliminate any 

grazing on the project area). 

Issues: What grazing strategies will 

maintain or move desired conditions 

toward NLRMP goals and objectives, 

and how will these grazing strategies 

impact permitted livestock grazers 

(permittees)? 

Responsible Official: Patricia D. 

Barney, District Ranger, Bessey Ranger 

District, P.O. Box 39, Halsey, Nebraska 

69142. 

Nature of Decision To Be Made: The 

decision to be made is whether or not 

to continue permitted uses within the 

McKelvie Geographic Area. If uses are 

permitted, then adaptive management 

strategies and monitoring will be 

identified to ensure compliance with 

desired NLRMP conditions. 

Public Scoping Process: Comments 

and input regarding this proposal were 

requested from the public, other groups 

and agencies via direct mailing on May 

19, 2006. Additional comments were 

solicited during a public open house 

June 6, 2006 held in Valentine, 

Nebraska. With this revised NOI, 

comments will be accepted again 30 

days from the publication date of this 

notice in the Federal Register. 

Early Notice of Importance of Public 

Participation in Subsequent 

Environmental Review: The DEIS is 

expected to be filed with the 

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

and the EPA will publish a notice of 

availability for the DEIS in the Federal 

Register. The DEIS is scheduled to be 

available for public review and 

comment by approximately March 2009. 

The comment period on the DEIS will 

be 45 days from the date the EPA 

publishes the notice of availability in 

the Federal Register. The Forest Service 

believes, at this early stage, it is 

important to give reviewers notice of 

several court rulings related to public 

participation in the environmental 

review process. First, the reviewers of 

the draft EIS must structure their 

participation in the environmental 

review of the proposal so that it is 

meaningful and alerts an agency to the 

reviewer’s position and contentions. 

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. 

NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 553 (1978). Also, 

environmental objections that could be 

raised at the draft EIS stage but that are 

not raised until after completion of the 

final EIS may be waived or dismissed by 

the courts. City of Angoon v. Hodel, 803 

F.2d 1016, 1022 (9th Cir. 1986) and 

Wisconsin Heritages, Inc. v. Harris, 490 

F. Supp. 1334, 1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980). 

Because of these court rulings, it is very 

important that those interested in this 

proposed action participate by the close 

of the comment period so that 

substantive comments and objections 

are made available to the Forest Service 

at a time when it can meaningfully 

consider them and respond to them in 

the final environmental impact 

statement. 

To assist the Forest Service in 

identifying and considering issues and 

concerns on the proposed action, 

comments on the draft EIS should be as 

specific as possible. It is also helpful if 

comments refer to specific pages or 

chapters of the draft EIS. Reviewers may 

wish to refer to the Council on 

Environmental Quality Regulations for 

implementing the procedural provisions 

of the National Environmental Policy 

Act at 40 CFR 1503.3 regarding the 

specificity of comments. 

Comments received, including the 

names and addresses of those who 

comment, will be considered part of the 

public record on this proposal and will 

be available for public inspection. 

(Authority: 40 CFR 1501.7 and 1508.22; 

Forest Service Handbook 1909.15, Section 

21) 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
61018 Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 200 / Wednesday, October 15, 2008 / Notices 

Dated: September 30, 2008. 

Patti Barney, 

District Ranger, Bessey Ranger District, 

Nebraska National Forest. 

[FR Doc. E8–24408 Filed 10–14–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–11–P 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 

U.S. Census Bureau 

Proposed Information Collection; 

Comment Request; Survey of Income 

and Program Participation (SIPP) Wave 

3 of the 2008 Panel 

AGENCY: U.S. Census Bureau. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Department of 

Commerce, as part of its continuing 

effort to reduce paperwork and 

respondent burden, invites the general 

public and other Federal agencies to 

take this opportunity to comment on 

proposed and/or continuing information 

collections, as required by the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 

Public Law 104–13 (44 U.S.C. 

3506(c)(2)(A)). 

DATES: To ensure consideration, written 

comments must be submitted on or 

before December 15, 2008. 

ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments 

to Diana Hynek, Departmental 

Paperwork Clearance Officer, 

Department of Commerce, Room 6625, 

14th and Constitution Avenue, NW., 

Washington, DC 20230 (or via the 

Internet at dHynek@doc.gov). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information or 

copies of the information collection 

instrument(s) and instructions should 

be directed to Patrick J. Benton, Census 

Bureau, Room HQ–6H045, Washington, 

DC 20233–8400, (301) 763–4618. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Abstract 

The Census Bureau conducts the 

SIPP, which is a household-based 

survey designed as a continuous series 

of national panels. New panels are 

introduced every few years with each 

panel usually having durations of one to 

four years. Respondents are interviewed 

at 4-month intervals or ‘‘waves’’ over 

the life of the panel. The survey is 

molded around a central ‘‘core’’ of labor 

force and income questions that remain 

fixed throughout the life of the panel. 

The core is supplemented with 

questions designed to address specific 

needs, such as obtaining information on 

household members’ participation in 

government programs as well as prior 

labor force patterns of household 

members. These supplemental questions 

are included with the core and are 

referred to as ‘‘topical modules.’’ 

The SIPP represents a source of 

information for a wide variety of topics 

and allows information for separate 

topics to be integrated to form a single, 

unified database so that the interaction 

between tax, transfer, and other 

government and private policies can be 

examined. Government domestic-policy 

formulators depend heavily upon the 

SIPP information concerning the 

distribution of income received directly 

as money or indirectly as in-kind 

benefits and the effect of tax and 

transfer programs on this distribution. 

They also need improved and expanded 

data on the income and general 

economic and financial situation of the 

U.S. population. The SIPP has provided 

this data on a continuing basis since 

1983 permitting levels of economic 

well-being and changes in these levels 

to be measured over time. 

The 2008 panel is currently scheduled 

for 4 years and will include 13 waves 

of interviewing beginning September 

2008. Approximately 65,300 households 

were selected for the 2008 panel, of 

which, 45,000 households are expected 

to be interviewed. We estimate that each 

household contains 2.1 people, yielding 

94,500 person-level interviews in Wave 

1 and subsequent waves. The interviews 

take 30 minutes on average. Three 

waves will occur in the 2008 SIPP Panel 

during FY 2009. The total annual 

burden for 2008 Panel SIPP interviews 

would be 141,750 hours in FY 2009. 

The topical modules for the 2008 

Panel Wave 3 collect information about: 

• Welfare Reform 

• Retirement and Pension Plan 

Coverage 

Wave 3 interviews will be conducted 

from May 2009 through August 2009. 

A 10-minute reinterview of 3,100 

people is conducted at each wave to 

ensure accuracy of responses. The 

reinterviews would require an 

additional 1,553 burden hours in FY 

2009. 

II. Method of Collection 

The SIPP is designed as a continuing 

series of national panels of interviewed 

households that are introduced every 

few years with each panel having 

durations of 1 to 4 years. All household 

members 15 years old or over are 

interviewed using regular proxyrespondent rules. During the 2008 

panel, respondents are interviewed a 

total of 13 times (13 waves) at 4-month 

intervals making the SIPP a longitudinal 

survey. Sample people (all household 

members present at the time of the first 

interview) who move within the country 

and reasonably close to a SIPP primary 

sampling unit will be followed and 

interviewed at their new address. 

Individuals 15 years old or over who 

enter the household after Wave 1 will be 

interviewed; however, if these 

individuals move, they are not followed 

unless they happen to move along with 

a Wave 1 sample individual. 

III. Data 

OMB Control Number: 0607–0944. 

Form Number: SIPP/CAPI Automated 

Instrument. 

Type of Review: Regular submission. 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households. 

Estimated Number of Respondents: 

94,500 people per wave. 

Estimated Time Per Response: 30 

minutes per person. 

Estimated Total Annual Burden 

Hours: 143,303. 

Estimated Total Annual Cost: $0. 

Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary. 

Legal Authority: Title 13, United 

States Code, Section 182. 

IV. Request for Comments 

Comments are invited on: (a) Whether 

the proposed collection of information 

is necessary for the proper performance 

of the functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden 

(including hours and cost) of the 

proposed collection of information; (c) 

ways to enhance the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. 

Comments submitted in response to 

this notice will be summarized and/or 

included in the request for OMB 

approval of this information collection; 

they also will become a matter of public 

record. 

Dated: October 8, 2008. 

Gwellnar Banks, 

Management Analyst, Office of the Chief 

Information Officer. 

[FR Doc. E8–24351 Filed 10–14–08; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3510–07–P 


jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES