Document ID: EPA-HQ-OARM-2018-0028-0009
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2018-06-29T04:00Z

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

1.  IDENTIFICATION OF THE INFORMATION COLLECTION

       Title of the Information Collection. 
Contractor Conflicts of Interest (Renewal)
EPA ICR 1550.11, OMB Control No. 2030-0023  

       Short Characterization/Abstract. 
The collection of this information is required to ensure that the Agency can effectively identify, evaluate, and take appropriate action concerning contractor conflicts of interest (COI). Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contractors are required to disclose any actual or potential COI with regard to their employees, corporate affiliations, and business relationships. Contractors will be required to maintain a database of business relationships and report information to EPA on either an annual basis or when work is ordered under an Agency contract. Additionally, under some contracts, the contractor must request written approval from the contracting officer to enter into a proposed contract subject to the restrictions of EPA's Limitation of Future Contracting Clause that can found at CFR 48 1552.209-74.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the previous ICR with no terms of clearance.

2.  NEED FOR AND USE OF THE COLLECTION

Need/Authority for the Collection
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 9.5, requires contracting officers to analyze acquisitions to identify and evaluate potential COI, and to avoid, neutralize, or mitigate significant COI before contract award.  EPA's information collection is required to fulfill the requirements of the FAR, protect the Government's interests at contract award, and ensure this protection extends throughout the performance of Agency contracts.  

FAR Subpart 2.1 states organizational conflict of interest means "that because of other activities or relationships with other persons, a person is unable or potentially unable to render impartial assistance or advice to the Government, or the person's objectivity in performing the contract work is or might be otherwise impaired, or a person has an unfair competitive advantage." Depending on the contract terms, EPA requires the contractor to either certify annually or certify each time work is ordered under the contract that to the best of the Contractor's knowledge and belief, all actual or potential organizational COI have been reported to EPA. If the contractor cannot so certify, the firm must provide a disclosure statement describing all relevant information concerning any past, present, or planned interests bearing on whether it may have a COI. The contracting officer and advisers will use this information to evaluate potential conflicts and to determine the appropriate action necessary to avoid, mitigate, or neutralize the disclosed conflict.

 Practical Utility/Users of the Data
EPA staff will use the COI plan and certifications as a means to ensure contractors are complying with EPA's requirements for detecting and avoiding conflicts of interest. If contractors submit a certification stating they have no conflicts of interest, the contracting officer reviews the certificate and retains the information in the official contract file.  If contractors disclose information showing they have an actual or potential COI the contracting officers and advisers (subject matter or technical experts, legal advisors, and procurement analysts) carefully review and analyze the disclosure to determine the appropriate course of action.

Contracting officers document their determinations in the official contract file where they also retain the original information collected. 

In general, the information collected and the determinations made will be used by the Agency to ensure that contractors and the EPA are adequately addressing COI concerns, and that the Agency is making determinations consistent with the exercise of common sense, good judgment, and sound discretion to protect its programs.

3.  NONDUPLICATION, CONSULTATIONS & OTHER COLLECTION CRITERIA

 Non-Duplication
The collection of information is not duplicative of information otherwise accessible to the Agency. The data is unique to each firm's contract or order for work under a contract and is not available from any other source. EPA provisions have the same general objectives of identifying, mitigating and avoiding COI as FAR Subpart 9.5. However, unlike the FAR, the EPA provisions include reporting and certification requirements to ensure that actual and potential conflicts of interest are reviewed not only prior to contract award, but also during the period of contract performance and after contract performance to ensure enforcement actions are not prejudiced. This is the only way that EPA can evaluate whether a contractor's work efforts, which may be initiated during the EPA contract performance period or in some cases, after contract completion, may present an unacceptable risk to the Agency.

 Public Notice Required Prior to ICR submission to OMB
A notice to renew this information collection was posted to the Federal Register on March 2, 2018. Five comments were received; none were relevant to subject matter of the ICR.

 Consultations
For this ICR, consultations were conducted with the following EPA contractors who provide information under EPA's COI disclosure requirements. In order to obtain the most accurate data, the sample included both a small and a large firm.  
      
The firms contacted are:
      
Name
Phone
Affiliation
Dalton Stupack
509-578-3150
Leidos Innovation Corp., Lrg Bus
Vijay Mallepalli
409-983-4575
Chemtex, Small Business
      
      The process each firm used for tracking contract work, reviewing the scope of work, and certifying there are no conflicts or disclosing the nature of an actual or potential conflict were virtually identical.  The amount of effort involved varied on the size of the business, the number of affiliates, and the amount of contracting they do.  

 Effects of Less Frequent Collection
EPA is unable to further reduce this requirement without handicapping its ability to ensure that contractors do not work in areas where their objectivity may be impaired, or where their actions may adversely affect enforcement actions or cost recovery from polluters.

 General Guidelines
This ICR does not exceed any of the OMB guidelines found 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).  
      
 Confidentiality 
Some of the information submitted in response to our information request is confidential business information (CBI).  The Agency will protect CBI from release, and will disclose it only to the extent consistent with 40 CFR part 2, subpart B, Agency regulations, and the contract terms.

This information collection complies with the Privacy Act of 1978 and OMB Circular A-108, as revised and incorporated into OMB Circular A-130.  

 Sensitive Questions 
We have identified no sensitive questions in this collection.
 
4.   THE RESPONDENTS AND THE INFORMATION REQUESTED

 Respondents/SIC Codes
The respondents represent a variety of industries such as: remediation services (NAICS #562910); environmental consulting services (NAICS #541620); engineering services (NAICS #541330); research and development (NAICS #541712); administrative management and general management consulting services (NAICS #541611); and computer related services (NAICS #541519).

 Information Requested
         Data items, including recordkeeping requirements
Data to be collected includes: (1) certification on either an annual basis or when work is ordered that conflicts have been disclosed or that none exist; (2) disclosure of actual and potential conflicts of interest under the contract; and (3) requests for authorization to enter into a certain future contract work, cited in the "Limitation of Future Contracting Clause" in the applicable contract.

The recordkeeping requirements associated with this request include corporate recordkeeping consistent with a contractor's system for identifying, mitigating, and preventing conflicts of interest as described in its COI plan submitted to EPA. This COI recordkeeping includes maintaining a database of corporate clients and contracts in order to identify potential conflicts and maintain records of disclosures of conflicts to demonstrate compliance with a contractor's COI plan. NOTE: The term "database" as used in this section includes any system which permits a contractor to search its records for COI and may be manual or automated. The critical function of any database is that it gives the respondent the capability to identify any past, present, and future work which may be in conflict.

         Respondent Activities
Properly responding to EPA's COI disclosure requests requires the contractor to first maintain a list of all current contracts they are working under and the nature of the work they are performing under the contract. Then, the contractor must analyze interrelations between the work the firm will be performing under the current contract and any work performed under other contracts to understand whether the new work would cause the contractor to be unable to render impartial assistance or advice to EPA, impair the firm's objectivity, or give the firm an unfair competitive advantage.  If the firm discovers no conflicts of interest, then it certifies this fact to the contracting officer. If the firm discovers an actual or potential problem, then the facts of the situation will be reported to the contracting officer for his or her response.  The steps involved in this process would include:

 Create information; ("Customary and usual Business Practices" (CBP* = 50%)  
 prepare COI plan 
 Gather information; (CBP = 80%) 
 create a database
 Process, compile, and review information; (CBP = 80%)
 search database and records and
 maintain records
 Identify a potential COI; (CBP = 10%)
 make decision and notify EPA contracting officer 
 Complete written forms or other paperwork; (CBP = 10%)
 prepare annual certification, or
 prepare certification when work is ordered
 Request approval to enter a future contract that may have a COI. (CBP = 0%)
         
         * "Customary and usual business practice" (CBP) means efforts that are part of a company's day to day work efforts and are not unique to their contracts with EPA. The percentages identified above were based on analysis of interviews with Agency contractors, Agency contracting staff, and historical data on handling COI.

5.   THE INFORMATION COLLECTED -- AGENCY ACTIVITIES, COLLECTION METHODOLOGY AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

 Agency Activities
The Agency anticipates performing the information collection activities listed below, in conjunction with COI requirements. (See 6(b) for calculations of the Agency's cost estimates.)

 Analyzing the contract scope and inserting appropriate COI clauses in contracts;
 Collecting COI certifications or disclosures, or requests to review future contracts from the contractor;
 When a conflict is disclosed or a request for a future contract is made, analyzing the information provided and determining the appropriate measures to avoid, neutralize or mitigate the conflict; and 
 Filing certifications of no conflict or documenting action on potential COI disclosures in the contract file.  
                        
 Collection Methodology and Management
After conducting extensive market research, the Contracting Officer (CO) makes the determination whether a COI plan and clauses will be required from the responding contractors.  The CO has responsibility for collecting, reviewing, and making COI determinations. Information is collected through specific COI related provisions and clauses for Superfund Programs and other requirements that provide contractors with directions on what they need to submit to the Agency depending on the work to be performed. Not all contracts will have the same COI clauses. The information and determinations will be filed in the specific contract files as the official record of the Agency decision. Most respondents will prepare their submissions electronically. Submissions are accepted in any format so long as the required information is provided.
   
 Small Entity Flexibility
Based on fiscal year 2015, 2016, and 2017 figures, approximately 40% of the Agency's contracts are awarded to small businesses. Only the minimum information necessary to ensure that conflicts of interest do not exist is requested. Because the information requested is vital to monitoring contractor performance under Agency contracts, separate or simplified procedures cannot be developed for small businesses.

EPA considered alternatives to the information collection, such as establishing different compliance or reporting requirements or simplifying the requirements for small entities. EPA also considered exempting small entities from all or part of the rule. However, separate or further simplified requirements are not practical, because the stated objectives cannot be met under such alternatives. An undisclosed COI poses the same risk to EPA whether it is a conflict involving a large or small business contractor. EPA believes the information collection, along with other established internal controls within the Agency, will prevent conflicts of interest that may jeopardize future actions.

 Collection Schedule
Depending on the type of contract, this information collection requires contractors to certify, either annually or for individual work orders, that they have no COI. If the contractor detects an actual or potential conflict, then the firm must disclose the nature of the conflict. The annual certification requirement is possible where the nature of the work the contractor is performing is sufficiently known in advance to allow certifying for an entire year.  More frequently, EPA requires its contractors to certify or disclose with each order for work under the contract. This requirement, for reporting when specific work is ordered, is essential under contracts with a wide scope where it is not possible to know in advance the exact type of work needed or the exact location the work will be performed. For example, most Superfund contracts are performed at multiple sites and there is little or no advance notice of where such work will be assigned because of changing cleanup priorities.  Therefore, a contractor is in a better position to identify its conflicts or potential conflicts when work is ordered, as compared to when the basic contract is awarded. 

There is also no set schedule for submission of requests for authorization to enter into a contract for non-EPA work cited in the "Limitation of Future Contracting Clause." This clause identifies outside work that could pose a significant COI with work performed for EPA and may impair EPA contractor performance or harm enforcement actions. These requests are required to be submitted to the contracting officer if and when a contractor wants to request authorization to enter into such high-risk contracts.  Such requests are essential in order to provide EPA with the opportunity to protect its enforcement actions from an unacceptable risk of prejudice before it occurs.  This is essential to protecting the Government interests.

6.  ESTIMATING THE BURDEN AND COST OF THE COLLECTION
	
 Estimating Respondent Burden
Respondent burden in complying with the COI information collection is broken down into the following tasks.  Each task will be separately summarized and addressed in subsequent section of Part 6. 

 Prepare COI Plan (one-time burden)
 Create a Database (one-time burden)
 Storage and Maintenance of Records (recurring burden)  	 
 Search Data Base Records for Possible COI (recurring burden)
 Identify Potential COI, Record Decision, and Notify EPA (recurring burden)
 Request Approval for Future Contract (recurring) 

      Onetime costs, such as COI plan development and creation of a database will only be incurred by contractors and subcontractors who have never contracted with EPA. 

       Although the information collection requirements for small and large business are the same, EPA's consultations with small businesses confirmed that the workload is generally less for small businesses because they have less complex organizational structures, fewer contracts, and less data to maintain and search than large businesses. 
      
      While the overall makeup of EPA contracts is 40% small business and 60% large business; it is difficult to accurately predict how that split will apply to respondents for this ICR.  As mentioned, the COI process is more cumbersome for large businesses because they have more contracts and more business relationships. Therefore, they are also more likely to have a COI than a small business. Given the uncertainty involved, we determined it would be most prudent to use the estimated response times for large businesses in this ICR's burden calculation. 
      
      It is anticipated that some of the work associated with COIs would be done by contractors in the normal course of business as a customary and usual business practice (CBP), such as maintaining records of who they do business with. The CBP in this ICR are based on knowledge of the business practices of anticipated respondents and from a review of information received from EPA contractors who provided data in response to our consultations.  In our burden calculations, the burden attributable to CBPs is subtracted from the overall total burden to show the new estimated burden anticipated for this requirement.  The calculations for CBP are described below for each category of effort.
      
 Estimating Respondent Costs
 Estimating Labor Costs
For all tasks, based on historical data, it is calculated that 25% of the effort would be managerial, 50% would be technical, and 25% would be administrative. The mean hourly labor rates are from the May 2016 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates published by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. For business/financial management the rate was $67.17; for a conservation scientist (technical) the rate was $31.31; and for administrative staff the rate was $17.91. To calculate a fully loaded rate, an overhead of 100% was added to the hourly rate. 

 Estimating Capital and O&M Costs 
Because it will not be necessary for respondents to acquire any capital goods to provide the requested information, EPA has estimated no incurred capital/start-up costs. Operating and maintenance costs, which include such items as file storage, photo copying, and postage, are negligible.
         
 Estimating Agency Burden and Costs
The Agency based its burden estimates on actual experience in collecting, reviewing, and approving contractors' COI submissions. Due to the complexity of the task, as well as the experience and skill required in reviewing contractors' COI submissions, this effort is performed by a Grade 14 contracting officer. The contracting personnel who review the submissions also document their findings in the contracting file. No administrative support is used in this effort. The second task, reviewing the contractor's COI plan is done before the contract is awarded on a one-time basis. The third task, reviewing certifications and disclosures, includes annual and by work order certifications and disclosures as well as requests. The fourth task is reviewing requests for approval of future contract. 

The hourly rate for a step five, GS-14 is $47.86 per Office of Personnel Management Salary Table 2017-GS. A rate of 65%, or $31.10, was added to cover overhead costs. The loaded rate equals $78.96 per hour.  
  
Annual Agency Burden/Cost Estimates
                              Collection Activity
                                 Burden Hours 
                                  (per year)
                                     Cost 
                           (based on rate of $78.96)
1.  Answer Respondent Questions
                                                                            250
                                                                    $ 19,740.00
2.  Reviewing the contractor's conflict of interest plan
                                                                            240
                                                                    $ 18,950.40
3a. Reviewing annual certifications or disclosures and documenting the file.
                                                              (11 x 2=22 hours)
                                                                             22
                                                                     $ 1,737.12
3b. Reviewing work order certifications or disclosures and documenting the file.
                            (52 x 45 =2,340 responses. 2,340 x 2 = 4,680 hours)
                                                                          4,680
                                                                   $ 369,532.80
4. Reviewing requests for approval for future contracting and documenting the contract file			
		

                                                                            100
                                                                    $  7,896.00
                                                                        Total: 
                                                                          5,292
                                                                   $ 416,119.20
	
	
 Estimating the Respondent Universe and Total Burden Costs
Respondents to this information collection activity are Agency contractors performing work for the Agency which requires protection from conflicts of interest. The number of EPA contractors who will be required to provide information under this collection is approximately 45, and is derived from the number of COI Plans submitted for review in 2015, 2016 and 2017. 

Analysis of Annual Respondent Hourly Burden Per-Activity:
          Prepare COI (COI) Plan. (Non-recurring one-time effort) In its initial request, EPA estimated 1,170 hours per plan as a non-recurring one-time cost, because once contractors have prepared a COI Plan, it will only be necessary to update and/or modify it. We continue to utilize the estimate of 1,170 hours per plan for any firms who have never previously done business with EPA or been a prime or subcontractor on a Federal Government contract involving COI provisions. For new respondents, we retain the original CBP of 50%.  This results in an estimate of 585 hours for each of the estimated 15 new respondents.  In order to allocate the 585 hours across the seven-year period of performance we have divided the 585 by 7 to arrive at an average 84 hours per respondent per year to prepare the initial COI plan. Total burden per year for the 15 new respondents is 1,260.  	
      
                                        ANNUAL BURDEN:	84 hours per respondent 
      
          Create Data Base. (Non-recurring one-time effort) Our estimate of 700 hours reflects EPA's best estimate based on information received from respondents.  The CPB for this line item is 80%, resulting in total hours of 140. This line item is also a non-recurring one-time burden. Also, as described in task 1 above, these hours are allocated over a seven-year period of performance and only for new respondents, which is anticipated to be 15 per year. Therefore, our estimate includes 140 hours per response for new respondents, divided by 7 years which equals 20 hours per year, times 15 respondents or 300 total burden hours per year for all new respondents.
      
                                        ANNUAL BURDEN:	20 hours per respondent 
      
          Storage and Maintenance of Records. The estimate for storing and maintaining records is 484 hours per respondent, per year.  Therefore, a total of 154 hours of storage and maintenance of records activity is associated with this collection request.  
      
                                         ANNUAL BURDEN:154 hours per respondent
      
          Search Data Base Records for Possible COI.  The number of times work is ordered under an EPA contract varies greatly; however, for purposes of this ICR we retain the estimate, based on historical data that 75 work orders will be issued in a given year. Of this number, approximately 16% will be for the same Superfund site for which a previous work order has been issued. Since contractors are not required to submit more than one certification or disclosure per Superfund site, then it is expected that contractors will only do certifications or disclosures for 63 work orders per year.  

The average time required to perform each search is estimated to be 8 hours. In our interviews with contractors, we found firms typically perform a key word search (key words such as type of work, location, names of affiliates) in an automated database.  The database search would take less than an hour; however, an employee with the appropriate expertise must review the search findings for accuracy.  Eight hours includes the database search time, ensuring the findings are appropriate, and possibly querying contractor project staff as well as records.  Based on interviews with contractors, the CBP for this line item is 10%.  Therefore, the hours associated with this collection request for data base searches is 7 hours.
      
                              ANNUAL BURDEN:	7 x 63 = 441 hours per respondent	
      
          Identify Potential COI, Record Decision. Execute Work Order or the Annual Certification, and Notify the EPA of the Decision. This category reflects the management and technical activity in the search and certification effort that a contractor must perform. In accordance with the contract terms, the contractor is required to submit either a onetime certification or individual certifications when work is ordered under the contract. Of the 63 worker orders requiring certification or disclosure, approximately 17% of cases (11 work orders per year) will qualify as needing only an annual certification.  The remaining 52 orders will require individual certification or disclosure.
         
Our estimate is 28 hours to complete an annual certification (in 11 cases) and 4 hours to complete a per work order review (in 52 cases). The CBP factor for this task is very low because most of this effort is associated solely with EPA requirements. The estimate of 10% for CBP is associated with an identification of a COI on a private contract which requires management attention but may not require the documentation and certification process required by EPA. 
      
                            ANNUAL BURDEN:	11 x 28 = 308 (annual certification)
                                       52 x 4 = 208 (work order certifications)
                                                Total: 516 hours per respondent
      
          Request Approval to Contract. The estimate utilized is identical to that provided in the ICR for the proposed rule and for previous renewals. It is based upon an average estimate of five requests per respondent per year with an associated effort of 20 hours per request, or 100 hours per respondent. This review and approval time has remained fairly constant over the years and is not expected to change during the three-year period covered by this renewal. This is exclusively a requirement for the Federal Government and therefore no CBP is assigned.
      
                                        ANNUAL BURDEN:	100 hours per respondent

Analysis of Annual Respondent Cost Per-Activity:
Task & Labor Type Breakdown
                                     Rate
                                     Hours
                                     Cost

New Respondents Only
      Task 1 Prepare COI Plan

Management
                                                                       $ 134.34
                                                                             21
                                                                       $2821.14

Technical 
                                                                         $62.62
                                                                             42
                                                                       $2630.04

Administrative
                                                                         $35.82
                                                                             21
                                                                        $752.22

                                                                               
                                                                             84
                                                                       $6203.40

      Task 2 	Create Database

Management
                                                                       $ 134.34
                                                                              5
                                                                        $671.17

Technical 
                                                                         $62.62
                                                                             10
                                                                        $626.20

Administrative
                                                                         $35.82
                                                                              5
                                                                        $179.10

                                                                               
                                                                             20
                                                                       $1476.47

All Respondents
      Task 3	Storage & Maintenance

Management
                                                                       $ 134.34
                                                                           38.5
                                                                       $5172.09

Technical 
                                                                         $62.62
                                                                             77
                                                                       $4821.74

Administrative
                                                                         $35.82
                                                                           38.5
                                                                       $1379.07

                                                                               
                                                                            154
                                                                      $11372.90

      Task 4 	Search Database

Management
                                                                       $ 134.34
                                                                         110.25
                                                                      $14810.99

Technical 
                                                                         $62.62
                                                                         220.50
                                                                      $13807.71

Administrative
                                                                         $35.82
                                                                         110.25
                                                                       $3949.16

                                                                               
                                                                            441
                                                                      $32567.86

      Task 5	Certify/Disclose

Management
                                                                       $ 134.34
                                                                            129
                                                                      $17329.86

Technical 
                                                                         $62.62
                                                                            258
                                                                      $16155.96

Administrative
                                                                         $35.82
                                                                            129
                                                                       $4620.78

                                                                               
                                                                            516
                                                                      $38106.60

      Task 6 	Request Approval to Contract	

Management
                                                                       $ 134.34
                                                                             25
                                                                       $3358.50

Technical 
                                                                         $62.62
                                                                             50
                                                                       $3131.00

Administrative
                                                                         $35.82
                                                                             25
                                                                        $895.50

                                                                            100
                                                                       $7385.00

 Bottom Line Burden Hours and Cost Tables
          Respondent Tally
         Total annual respondent burden for new respondents (which includes all tasks) is 1,315 hours times 15 new respondents for a total of 19,725 hours.
         
         Total annual respondent burden for respondents which are not new (performing only tasks 3 through 6) is 1,211 hours times 30 respondents for a total of 36,330 hours.
   
         Annual time burden for all respondents, all tasks, is 56,055 hours. Estimated burden per respondent is (total hours divided by all 45 respondents) is 1,245.67.

         For the 15 new respondents required to undertake tasks 1 and 2, annual costs for these activities are estimated to be $7,679.87 per respondent and $115,198.05 for the group. 

All 45 respondents are expected to undertake tasks 3 through 6.  Their anticipated annual costs for these activities are $89,432.36 per respondent and $4,024,456.20 for the group.  

The total annual cost for all respondents is $4,139,654.25.  The average annual cost per respondent is estimated to be $91,992.32
         
Analysis of Total Annual Labor Costs

 
Task 1
$6,203.40
 
Task 2
$1,476.47
 
                                                                         Total:
$7,679.87
 
                                   Task 1&2 Total (for 15 New Respondents):
$115,198.05
 
 
Task 3
$11,372.90
 
Task 4
$32,567.86
 
Task 5
$38,106.60
 
Task 6
$7,385.00
 
                                                                         Total:
$89,432.36

                                           Task 3-6 Total (for 45 Respondents):
$4,024,456.20

                                                         Total All Respondents:
$4,139,654.25
                                                                Per Respondent:
$91,992.32
   
          Agency Tally
Annual agency burden is estimated to be 5,292 hours and $416,199.20.
            
 Reason for Changes in Burden
There is a significant reduction in expected respondents (135 to 45), burden hours (164,525 to 50,055), and costs associated with this proposed renewal package compared to the ICR currently approved by OMB. These reductions are solely a result of corrections to the ICR's burden calculations; they are not a product of modifications to the collection methodology or the actual respondent universe.  

 Burden Statement
The annual public reporting and recordkeeping burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1,218.70 hours per response.  Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.  An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.  The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR chapter 15.     

To comment on the Agency's need for this information, the accuracy of the provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods for minimizing respondent burden, including the use of automated collection techniques, EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OARM-2018-0028, which is available for online viewing at www.regulations.gov, or in person viewing at the Office of Environmental Information in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.  The EPA Docket Center Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays.  The telephone number for the Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Office of Environmental Information is (202) 566-1752.  An electronic version of the public docket is available at www.regulations.gov.  This site can be used to submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically.  When in the system, select "search," then key in the Docket ID Number identified above.  Also, you can send comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 725 17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20503, Attention: Desk Officer for EPA.  Please include the EPA Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OARM-2018-0028 and OMB Control Number 2030-0023 in any correspondence.