information contained in an existing rule, the Director
shall—
‘‘(A) publish an explanation thereof in the Fed-
eral Register; and
‘‘(B) instruct the agency to undertake a rule-
making within a reasonable time limited to consider-
ation of changes to the collection of information con-
tained in the rule and thereafter to submit the col-
lection of information for approval or disapproval
under this chapter.
‘‘(3) An agency may not make a substantive or mate-
rial modification to a collection of information after such
collection has been approved by the Director, unless the
modification has been submitted to the Director for review
and approval under this chapter.
‘‘(i)(1) If the Director finds that a senior official of
an agency designated under section 3506(a) is sufficiently
independent of program responsibility to evaluate fairly
whether proposed collections of information should be ap-
proved and has sufficient resources to carry out this re-
sponsibility effectively, the Director may, by rule in ac-
cordance with the notice and comment provisions of chap-
ter 5 of title 5, United States Code, delegate to such offi-
cial the authority to approve proposed collections of infor-
mation in specific program areas, for specific purposes,
or for all agency purposes.
‘‘(2) A delegation by the Director under this section
shall not preclude the Director from reviewing individual
collections of information if the Director determines that
circumstances warrant such a review. The Director shall
retain authority to revoke such delegations, both in gen-
eral and with regard to any specific matter. In acting for
the Director, any official to whom approval authority has
been delegated under this section shall comply fully with
the rules and regulations promulgated by the Director.
‘‘(j)(1) The agency head may request the Director to
authorize collection of information prior to expiration of
time periods established under this chapter, if an agency
head determines that—
‘‘(A) a collection of information—
‘‘(i) is needed prior to the expiration of
such time periods; and
‘‘(ii) is essential to the mission of the agen-
cy; and
‘‘(B) the agency cannot reasonably comply with
the provisions of this chapter within such time peri-
ods because—
‘‘(i) public harm is reasonably likely to re-
sult if normal clearance procedures are fol-
lowed; or
‘‘(ii) an unanticipated event has occurred
and the use of normal clearance procedures is
reasonably likely to prevent or disrupt the col-
lection of information related to the event or is
reasonably likely to cause a statutory or court-
ordered deadline to be missed.
‘‘(2) The Director shall approve or disapprove any
such authorization request within the time requested by
the agency head and, if approved, shall assign the collec-
tion of information a control number. Any collection of
information conducted under this subsection may be con-
ducted without compliance with the provisions of this
chapter for a maximum of 90 days after the date on which
the Director received the request to authorize such collec-
tion.
‘‘§ 3508. Determination of necessity for information;
hearing
‘‘Before approving a proposed collection of informa-
tion, the Director shall determine whether the collection
of information by the agency is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the agency, including
whether the information shall have practical utility. Before