[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 188 (Wednesday, September 29, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58122-58123]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-21752]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE


Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service 
Notice of Intent To Establish an Information Collection

AGENCY: Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, 
USDA.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
regulations (5 CFR 1320) that implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), this notice announces the Cooperative 
State Research, Education, and Extension Service's (CSREES) intention 
to request approval to establish an information collection for the 
Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).

DATES: Written comments on this notice must be received by December 3, 
2004 to be assured of consideration. Comments received after that date 
will be considered to the extent practicable.

ADDRESSES: Written comments concerning this notice may be mailed to 
Jason Hitchcock, E-Government Program Leader, Information Systems and 
Technology Management, CSREES, USDA, STOP 2216, 1400 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250-2216 or sent electronically to: 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request a copy of the information 
collection, contact Jason Hitchcock at (202) 720-4343; facsimile at 
(202) 720-0857; or electronically at: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).
    OMB Number: 0524-NEW.
    Expiration Date of Current Approval: Not applicable.
    Type of Request: Intent to seek approval to establish an 
information collection for three years.
    Abstract: The USDA's CSREES EFNEP is a unique program that began in 
1969, designed to reach limited resource audiences, especially youth 
and families with young children. EFNEP operates in 50 States of the 
United States, American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, the Commonwealth of 
the Northern Marianas, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the Virgin 
Islands of the United States. Extension professionals train and 
supervise paraprofessionals and volunteers who teach food and nutrition 
information and skills to limited resource families and youth.
    The objectives of EFNEP are to assist limited resource families and 
youth in acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and changed 
behaviors necessary for making diet decisions that are nutritionally 
sound, and to contribute to their personal development and the 
improvement of the total family diet and nutritional well-being.

[[Page 58123]]

    The evaluation processes of EFNEP are consistent with the 
requirements of Congressional legislation and OMB. The Government 
Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) (Pub. L. 103-62), the 
Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act of 1998 (FAIR Act) (Pub. L. 
105-270), and the Agricultural, Research, Extension and Education 
Reform Act of 1998 (AREERA)(Pub. L. 105-185), together with OMB 
requirements, support the reporting requirements requested in this 
information collection. One of the five Presidential Management Agenda 
initiatives, Budget and Performance Integration, builds on GPRA and 
earlier efforts to identify program goals and performance measures, and 
link them to the budget process. The FAIR Act requires the development 
and implementation of a system to monitor and evaluate agricultural 
research and extension activities in order to measure the impact and 
effectiveness of research, extension, and education programs. AREERA 
requires a performance evaluation to be conducted to determine whether 
Federally funded agricultural research, extension, and education 
programs result in public goods that have national or multi-state 
significance.
    Since 1969, states have annually reported demographic and dietary 
behavior change of their EFNEP audience to the Federal Cooperative 
Extension Service (CES) EFNEP National Program Leader, at CSREES, or 
its preceding agencies, in USDA. Through 1992, the reports were 
submitted on OMB approved forms, Forms ES-255 and ES-256. The data 
gathered using these forms was of limited usefulness at the State and 
local level, and data quality was questionable.
    The Evaluation/Reporting System (E/RS) is a database that was 
developed to capture the impacts of EFNEP. The system provides a 
variety of reports that are useful for management purposes, provides 
diagnostic assessments of participant needs, and exports summary data 
for State and National assessment of the program's impact. The 
specifications for this system were developed by a committee made up of 
representatives from across the United States.
    E/RS stores information in the form of records about the program 
participants, their family structure and their dietary practices. The 
system is structured to collect data about adult participants, youth 
and youth group members, and staff assignments, and hours worked. The 
E/RS consists of separate software sub-systems for the county, state, 
and Federal levels. Each county-level system accumulates data about 
individuals. This data is exported electronically to the state-level 
system. At the state level, university staff imports the data and 
create state reports that are exported electronically to the Federal-
level system. By the time the data gets to the Federal level, it is 
state compiled data excluding any personal identifying information of 
participants. National reports are then created at the Federal level.
    Estimate of Burden: Each year, the county offices aggregate local 
electronic data into the state report, and transmit it electronically 
to CSREES. This requirement constitutes the Federal burden CSREES 
imposes on the States and is the only burden measured and accounted for 
in this estimate. CSREES estimates that it takes one State or Territory 
1,234.5 hours to aggregate the local level information and transmit the 
summary information to CSREES. There are a total of 56 responses 
annually, thus constituting a total annual estimated burden of 69,132 
hours for this information collection.
    Comments: Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the automated, electronic, 
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms 
of information technology.

    Done in Washington, DC, this 1st day of September, 2004.
Joseph J. Jen,
Under Secretary, Research, Education, and Economics.
[FR Doc. 04-21752 Filed 9-28-04; 8:45 am]
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