[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 27 (Friday, February 8, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6059-6060]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-3042]


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NATIONAL FOUNDATION ON THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES


National Endowment for the Arts; Notice of Submission of OMB 
Review; Comment Request

SUMMARY: The National Endowment for the Arts (``Endowment'') has 
requested that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve 
reinstatement of an expired clearance for a series of collections of 
information under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The purpose of the 
information collections, which will be conducted through focus groups 
and short questionnaires administered

[[Page 6060]]

to small, targeted audiences over a three year-period, is to help the 
Endowment assess the efficiency and effectiveness with which it serves 
its customers, and to design actions to address areas identified for 
improvement.

DATES: All comments must be submitted to OMB by March 11, 2002.

ADDRESSES: All written comments should be addressed to: Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs of OMB, Attention: Desk Officer for 
the National Endowment for the Arts, 725 17th Street, NW., Room 10235, 
Washington, DC 20503. The request for approval will be available for 
public inspection at the National Endowment for the Arts, room 628, 
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20506-0001, between the 
hours of 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laurence M. Baden, Deputy Chairman for 
Management & Budget, or Martha Jones, Management Analyst, National 
Endowment for the Arts, room 628, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC 20506-0001, 202/682-5496 for TTY and TDD). (These are 
not toll-free numbers.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
establishes policies and procedures for controlling the paperwork 
burdens imposed by Federal agencies on the public. The Act vests OMB 
with regulatory responsibility over these burdens, and OMB has 
promulgated rules on the clearance of collections of information by the 
Federal agencies.
    Executive Order 12862, ``Setting Customer Service Standards,'' 
directs all executive departments and agencies that provide significant 
services directly to the public to render those services in a manner 
that seeks to meet the quality standard established in the executive 
order, i.e, to match or exceed the best practices in the private 
sector. E.O. 12862 agencies to consult with their customers as part of 
carrying out the specified customer service activities to achieve the 
goal.
    The Endowment intends to establish mechanisms to explore issues of 
mutual concern (i.e., the kind and quality of desired services) with 
its primary external customers, including nonprofit arts organizations; 
artists; State, local, and special jurisdictional arts agencies; arts 
educators and arts service organizations.
    Areas of concern to the Endowment and its customers will change 
over time, and it is important the Endowment be able to evaluate 
customer concerns quickly. Accordingly, the Endowment requests OMB to 
grant generic approval, for a three-year period, of focus groups and 
brief questionnaires targeting the Endowment's outside customer groups. 
Customer participation in these endeavors will be strictly voluntary.
    The Endowment published a notice of intention to request OMB 
approval of these collections in the Federal Register August 29, 2001. 
No comments were received in response to the notice.
    This voluntary collection of information will put a slight burden 
on an extremely small percentage of the public. The Endowment expects 
to convene three to six focus groups involving a total of about 120 
persons during the three-year period, with a total annual burden of 
about 540 hours, including travel time. The Endowment also expects to 
administer brief questionnaires to approximately 180 persons during the 
three-year period, representing a total annual burden of about 10 hours 
if done apart from focus group meetings. If done in conjunction with a 
focus group, a small fraction of the 540 hours would be allotted to 
participants' completion of a short written questionnaire.)

    Issued in Washington, DC, February 4, 2002, by,
Murray Welsh,
Director of Administrative Services, National Endowment for the Arts.
[FR Doc. 02-3042 Filed 2-7-02; 8:45 am]
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