[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 1, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Page 21684]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-10690]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, 
Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the Federal Trade 
Commission

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

ACTION: Notice of availability of draft guidelines; request for public 
comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The FTC is making available its draft guidelines to implement 
section 515 of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act 
for Fiscal Year 2001 and government-wide guidance issued by the Office 
of Management and Budget for ensuring and maximizing the quality, 
objectivity, utility, and integrity of information disseminated by 
Federal agencies.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before June 1, 2002.

ADDRESSES: For comments in paper form: Secretary, Federal Trade 
Commission, Room H-159, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 
20580. For comments in electronic form: [email protected]. Provide electronic 
attachments, if any, in ASCII, WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word format. 
Please caption all comments: ``Comment--Draft 515 Guidelines.'' 
Pursuant to Commission Rule 4.2(d), 16 CFR 4.2(d), if your comment 
includes confidential materials or other private or sensitive 
information, please submit your comment in paper form, label the first 
page ``confidential,'' and also identify the information you consider 
to be confidential, private, or otherwise sensitive. Except for 
portions legally exempt from disclosure, comments may be made part of 
the public record or otherwise disclosed in accordance with applicable 
law, rules, and Commission policy. See 16 CFR 4.9(b); www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm. As discussed below, the FTC's draft section 515 guidelines 
are being posted on the Commission's Web site www.ftc.gov. Requests for 
paper copies of the guidelines should be addressed to the Public 
Reference Branch, FTC, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington, DC, 
20580, (202) 326-2222.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alex Tang, (202) 326-2447, or Gary 
Greenfield, (202) 326-2753, Attorneys, Office of the General Counsel, 
FTC; Daniel Danckaert, (202) 326-2222, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, FTC.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 515 of the Treasury and General 
Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Public Law 106-554, 
and implementing guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) require agencies to develop and issue guidelines for ensuring and 
maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of 
information that they disseminate to the public. See 67 FR 8452 (Feb. 
22, 2002) (OMB Guidelines republished in their entirety).
    Each agency is required to prepare and make available to the public 
a draft report, providing the agency's information quality guidelines 
and explaining how the guidelines will achieve information quality, 
utility, objectivity, and integrity. (In a notice published on March 4, 
2002, OMB extended the original deadline for this draft report of April 
1, 2002, to May 1, 2002. See 67 FR 9797.) The report must also detail 
the administrative mechanisms developed by the agency to allow affected 
persons to seek and obtain appropriate correction of information 
maintained and disseminated by the agency that does not comply with the 
OMB or the agency guidelines. The agency is required to publish a 
notice of availability of its draft report in the Federal Register and 
to post the report on the Web site to provide an opportunity for public 
comment. After consideration of such comment and appropriate revision, 
if any, the agency must submit the report to OMB no later than July 1, 
2002. After comments, if any, are received from OMB, the agency must 
publish a notice of the availability of the report in its final form in 
the Federal Register and post the report on its Web site no later than 
October 1, 2002, which is the date the agency's guidelines are to 
become effective. The agency is required to submit further reports, on 
an annual fiscal-year basis, to OMB, by January 1 of each following 
year, regarding the number and nature of complaints received regarding 
agency compliance with the OMB guidelines and how such complaints were 
resolved. The first annual report is due January 1, 2004.
    In accordance with the above requirements, the FTC is publishing 
this notice of the availability of its draft report pursuant to section 
515 and the OMB Guidelines. The FTC's report, which includes the draft 
information quality guidelines and draft administrative mechanism for 
resolving section 515 requests for correction of information 
dissemination products, is being posed on the FTC's Web site, 
www.ftc.gov. The FTC seeks public comment on the guidelines and 
administrative mechanism until June 1, 2002. The FTC will review the 
comments and make appropriate revisions, if any, before submitting the 
report to OMB by July 1, 2002, as required by section 515 and the OMB 
Guidelines.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    The administrative mechanism for affected persons seeking 
correction of FTC information dissemination products is not an agency 
information collection activity that requires OMB review and approval 
under the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501-3520. See 5 CFR 
1320.3(h)(1).

    By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 02-10690 Filed 4-30-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M