[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 38 (Thursday, February 26, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8972-8974]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-4233]


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

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-03-04]


Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

    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: EEOICPA Special Exposure Cohort Petition Forms 
(42 CFR part 83)--NEW--National Institute for Occupational Safety and 
Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background

    On October 30, 2000, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness 
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. 7384-7385 [1994, 
supp. 2001] was enacted. It established a compensation program to 
provide a lump sum payment of $150,000 and medical benefits as 
compensation to

[[Page 8973]]

covered employees suffering from designated illnesses incurred as a 
result of their exposure to radiation, beryllium, or silica while in 
the performance of duty for the Department of Energy and certain of its 
vendors, contractors and subcontractors. This legislation also provided 
for payment of compensation for certain survivors of these covered 
employees.
    EEOICPA instructed the President to designate one or more Federal 
Agencies to carry out the compensation program. Accordingly, the 
President issued Executive Order 13179 (``Providing Compensation to 
America's Nuclear Weapons Workers'') on December 7, 2000 (65 FR 77487), 
assigning primary responsibility for administration of the compensation 
program to the Department of Labor (DOL). The executive order directed 
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to perform several 
technical and policymaking roles in support of the DOL program.
    Among other duties, the executive order directed HHS to establish 
and implement procedures for considering petitions by classes of 
nuclear weapons workers to be added to the ``Special Exposure Cohort'' 
(the ``Cohort''), various groups of workers selected by Congress whose 
claims for cancer under EEOICPA can be adjudicated without 
demonstrating that their cancer was ``at least as likely as not'' 
caused by radiation doses they incurred in the performance of duty. In 
brief, EEOICPA authorizes HHS to designate such classes of employees 
for addition to the Cohort when NIOSH lacks sufficient information to 
estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation doses of the employees, 
if HHS also finds that the health of members of the class may have been 
endangered by the radiation dose the class potentially incurred. HHS 
must also obtain the advice of the Advisory Board on Radiation and 
Worker Health (the ``Board'') in establishing such findings. On March 
7, 2003, HHS proposed procedures for adding such classes to the Cohort 
in a notice of proposed rulemaking at 42 CFR part 83.
    The proposed HHS procedures would authorize a variety of 
individuals and entities to submit petitions, as specified under Sec.  
83.7. Petitioners would be required to provide the information 
specified in Sec.  83.9 to qualify their petitions for a complete 
evaluation by HHS and the Board. HHS has developed two petition forms 
to assist the petitioners in providing this required information 
efficiently and completely. Petition Form A is a one-page form to be 
used by EEOICPA cancer claimants for whom NIOSH will have attempted to 
conduct dose reconstructions and will have determined that available 
information is not sufficient to complete the dose reconstruction on 
the majority of petitioners. The form addresses the informational 
requirements specified under Sec.  83.9(a) and (b). NIOSH expects these 
claimant-petitions will comprise the majority of petitions. Petition 
Form B, accompanied by separate instructions, is intended for all other 
petitioners. The form addresses the informational requirements 
specified under Sec.  83.9(a) and (c). Forms A and B can be submitted 
electronically as well as in hard copy. Petitioners should be aware 
that HHS is not requiring petitioners to use the forms. Petitioners can 
choose to submit petitions as letters or in other formats, but 
petitions must meet the informational requirements referenced above. 
NIOSH expects, however, that all petitioners for whom Form A would be 
appropriate will actually make use of the form, since NIOSH will 
provide it to them upon determining that their dose reconstruction 
cannot be completed and encourage them to submit the petition. NIOSH 
expects the large majority of petitioners for whom Form B would be 
appropriate will also use the form, since it provides a simple, 
organized format for addressing the informational requirements of a 
petition.
    NIOSH will use the information obtained through the petition for 
the following purposes; to: (a) Identify the petitioner(s), obtain 
their contact information, and establish that the petitioner(s) is 
qualified and intends to petition HHS; (b) establish an initial 
definition of the class of employees being proposed to be considered 
for addition to the Cohort; (c) determine whether there is 
justification to require HHS to evaluate whether or not to designate 
the proposed class as an addition to the Cohort (such an evaluation 
involves potentially extensive data collection, analysis, and related 
deliberations by NIOSH, the Board, and HHS); and, (d) target an 
evaluation by HHS to examine relevant potential limitations of 
radiation monitoring and/or dosimetry-relevant records and to examine 
the potential for related radiation exposures that might have 
endangered the health of members of the class. Finally, under Sec.  
83.16, petitioners may contest the proposed decision of the Secretary 
to add or deny adding classes of employees to the cohort by submitting 
evidence that the proposed decision relies on a record of either 
factual or procedural errors in the implementation of these procedures. 
NIOSH estimates that the time to prepare and submit such a challenge is 
45 minutes. Because of the uniqueness of this submission, NIOSH is not 
providing a form. The submission should be in a letter format. The 
total annual burden for this data collection is 54 hours.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                  Average burden
                                                                     Number of       Number of          per
            CFR reference                     Respondents           respondents    responses per    respondent
                                                                                    respondent      (in hours)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
83.9................................  Form A....................              80               1            3/60
83.9................................  Form B....................              10               1               5
83.9................................  Authorization.............               4               1            3/60
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



[[Page 8974]]

    Dated: February 18, 2004.
Alvin Hall,
Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 04-4233 Filed 2-25-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P