[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 164 (Wednesday, August 25, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52328-52329]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-19454]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration

[Docket No. FHWA-2004-18781]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Request for Comments; 
Emergency Clearance of a New Information Collection; NHI Web Portal

AGENCY: National Highway Institute, Federal Highway Administration 
(FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FHWA invites public comments about our intention to 
request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new 
information collection, which is summarized below under Supplementary 
Information. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal 
Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Please submit comments by September 24, 2004.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT DMS Docket Number 
FHWA-2004-18781 by any of the following methods:
     Web site: http://dms.dot.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments on the DOT electronic docket site.
     Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
     Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building, Room PL-401, 
Washington, DC 20590.
     Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on the plaza level of the 
Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time, or to Room PL-
401 on the plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., 
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nancy Stout, (703) 235-1260, National 
Highway Institute, Federal Highway Administration, Department of 
Transportation, 4600 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 800, Arlington, VA 22203. 
Office hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: National Highway Institute Web Portal.
    Background: The National Highway Institute (NHI) is required by 
Congress to provide surface transportation training to the State 
Departments of Transportation, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, the 
private sector, and universities. Further, the E-Gov initiative 
requires the NHI to use technology to more efficiently serve our 
customers who work and live throughout the United States.
    NHI's customers are composed of several different groups with 
varied needs. In an effort to better serve each group's needs, the NHI 
Web Portal will provide the following capabilities for its users:

 Register for courses
 Pay for courses and course materials
 Request to host an NHI course
 View training history
 Register for a web conference
 Schedule a web conference

    In order to provide the above capabilities to our users, some 
personal information will be necessary for the NHI Web Portal. Common 
information that will be collected includes name (first and last), 
telephone number, and e-mail address, to be used for identification and 
correspondence purposes. In addition, the mailing address will be used 
to ship course materials to students and/or hosts (those hosting an NHI 
training course). Billing information will be collected to allow 
customers to easily pay for their courses and course materials. Billing 
information shall not be stored within the NHI Web Portal, and will 
only be used to verify payment information.
    As required by the International Association for Continuing 
Education and Training, students must be able to obtain their training 
history. To make this possible, a student must be uniquely identified, 
which requires the collection of personal information including name 
and the last four digits of their social security number. This 
information will be used to identify the specific training participant 
and to generate accurate training history in the form of a transcript. 
The transcript is accepted by professional associations and State 
Licensure Boards as proof that the individual has completed training 
and received professional development hours or continuing education 
units required, all or in part, to meet criteria

[[Page 52329]]

for continued licensure or certification. NHI is a source of that 
professional education.
    In summary, the purpose of the new information collection is to 
improve the quality of NHI's customer service. Allowing customers to 
enter personal information provides them with an increasingly automated 
service that leads to more timely information.
    Respondents: NHI training customers throughout the U.S. NHI trains 
approximately 13,000 students per year in more than 500 training 
sessions and provides training products and/or services to another 
1,000 (approximate) customers. These products include training 
materials distributed to university faculty and programs, private 
sector providers and hosts, and participants.
    Frequency: Persons requesting training or materials will submit 
their requests as needed. Our experience indicates that only one 
request per individual per year will be received.
    Estimated Average Burden per Response: 5 minutes.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: We anticipate approximately, 
14,000 users x 5 minutes per request = 1,167 hours.
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of 
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed 
collection is necessary for the FHWA's performance; (2) the accuracy of 
the estimated burdens; (3) ways for the FHWA to enhance the quality, 
usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and (4) ways that 
the burdens could be minimized, including use of electronic technology, 
without reducing the quality of the collected information. The agency 
will summarize and/or include your comments in the request for OMB's 
clearance of this information collection.
    Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 70; Pages 19477-78) or you may visit 
http://dms.dot.gov.

    Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. 
Chapter 35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.48.

    Issued on: August 19, 2004.
James R. Kabel,
Chief, Management Programs and Analysis Division.
[FR Doc. 04-19454 Filed 8-24-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-22-P