[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 116 (Tuesday, June 17, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35896-35897]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-15216]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30 DAY-48-03]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a 
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call 
the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at (404) 498-1210. Send written 
comments to CDC, Desk Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, New 
Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax 
to (202) 395-6974. Written comments should be received within 30 days 
of this notice.

Proposed Project

    The National Tobacco Control Program (NTCP) Chronicle Progress 
Reporting System--New--National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention 
and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC). Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of 
death and disease in the United States. Most people begin using tobacco 
in early adolescence. Tobacco use causes more than 430,000 deaths 
annually in the nation and costs approximately $50-70 billion in 
medical expenses alone. The Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention's (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) provides funding 
to health departments of states and territories to develop, implement 
and evaluate comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs (TCPs) based on CDC 
guidelines provided in Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control 
Programs-August 1999 (Atlanta, GA, HHS). TCPs are population-based, 
public health programs that design, implement and evaluate public 
health prevention and control strategies to reduce disease, disability 
and death related to tobacco use and to reach those communities most 
impacted by the burden of tobacco use (e.g., racial/ethnic populations, 
rural dwellers, and the economically disadvantaged). Support for these 
programs is a cornerstone of the OSH's strategy for reducing the burden 
of tobacco use throughout the nation. CDC, Office on Smoking and Health 
is authorized under sections 301 and 317(k) of the Public Health 
Service Act (42 U.S.C. section 241 and 247b(k)).
    As outlined in 45 CFR subtitle A, Sec.  92.40, funding recipients 
are required to submit twice yearly progress reports to CDC. These 
reports are used by both the Procurement and Grants Office (PGO) to 
monitor program compliance, and by OSH managers and Project Officers 
(POs) to identify training and technical assistance needs; monitor 
compliance with cooperative agreement requirements; evaluate the 
progress made in achieving national and program-specific goals; and 
respond to inquiries regarding program activities and effectiveness. 
Funding recipients currently have a wide latitude in the content of the 
information they report with some recipients providing extensive and 
detailed programmatic information and others providing minimal detail 
regarding TCP operations. Historically, information has been collected 
and transmitted via hard-copy paper document. The manual reporting 
system significantly impacts the OSH's staff ability to accomplish its 
responsibilities resulting from providing TCP funds, particularly with 
respect to compiling, summarizing and reporting aggregate TCP program 
information.
    In responding to the federal government's E-Government initiative, 
the proposed change in progress report collection methodology is driven 
by OSH's development of an electronic progress reporting system to 
collect state TCP information. The proposed reporting system will 
utilize a more formal, systematic method of collecting information that 
has historically been requested from individual TCPs and will 
standardize the content of this information. This will facilitate OSH 
staff's ability to fulfill its obligations under the cooperative 
agreements; to monitor, evaluate and compare individual programs; and 
to assess and report aggregate information regarding the overall 
effectiveness of OSH's National Tobacco Control Program (NTCP). It will 
also support OSH's broader mission of reducing the burden of tobacco 
use by enabling OSH staff to more effectively identify the strengths 
and weaknesses of individual TCPs; to identify the strength of national 
movement toward reaching the goals specified in Healthy People 2010; 
and to disseminate information related to successful public health 
interventions implemented by these organizations to prevent and control 
the burden of tobacco use. The OSH anticipates that the state burden of 
providing hard-copy reports will be reduced with the introduction of 
the web-based progress reporting system. It is assumed that states will 
experience a learning curve in using this application, and the reported 
burden will be reduced once they have familiarized themselves with this 
system. The annual burden for this data collection is 612 hours.

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                                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                           Respondents                               Number of     responses per  per respondent
                                                                    respondents     respondent       (in hours)
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States and DC...................................................             51               2               6
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[[Page 35897]]

    Dated: June 11, 2003.
Thomas A. Bartenfeld,
Acting Associate Director for Policy, Planning and Evaluation, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-15216 Filed 6-16-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P