[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 195 (Wednesday, October 10, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57629-57630]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-19876]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION


Agency Information Collection Activities: Comment Request

    The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes a list of 
information collection packages that require clearance by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with Pub. L. 104-13, the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, effective October 1, 1995. The 
information collection packages included in this notice are for new 
information collections.
    SSA is soliciting comments on the accuracy of the agency's burden 
estimate; the need for the information; its practical utility; ways to 
enhance its quality, utility, and clarity; and on ways to minimize 
burden on respondents, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology. Written comments 
and recommendations regarding the information collection(s) should be 
submitted to the OMB Desk Officer and the SSA Reports Clearance 
Officer. The information can be mailed, faxed or emailed to the 
individuals at the addresses and fax numbers listed below:

(OMB), Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk Officer for SSA, 
Fax: 202-395-6974, E-mail address: [email protected].
(SSA), Social Security Administration, DCBFM, Attn: Reports Clearance 
Officer, 1333 Annex Building, 6401 Security Blvd., Baltimore, MD 21235, 
Fax: 410-965-6400, E-mail address: [email protected].
    The information collections listed below have been submitted to OMB 
for clearance. Your comments on the information collections would be 
most useful if received by OMB and SSA within 30 days from the date of 
this publication. You can obtain a copy of the OMB clearance packages 
by e-mailing [email protected].
    1. Authorization for SSA to Disclose Tax Information for Your 
Appeal of Your Medicare Part B Income-Related Monthly Adjustment 
Premium Amount--20 CFR 418.1350-NEW. Medicare Part B beneficiaries who 
wish to appeal SSA's reconsideration of their Income-Related Monthly 
Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) must ensure that the relevant Internal 
Revenue Service (IRS) income tax data is made available to the Health 
and Human Services Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who will consider 
their appeal. Currently, SSA is using IRS Form-8821 to obtain 
beneficiary authorization to disclose the IRS beneficiary tax data to 
the ALJ. With IRS's concurrence, SSA has developed its own form for 
this purpose, the SSA-54. The respondents are Medicare Part B 
recipients who want to appeal SSA's reconsideration of their IRMAA 
amount.
    Type of Request: Revision to an existing OMB-approved information 
collection.
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Number of Respondents: 6,000.
    Frequency of Response: 1.
    Average Burden Per Response: 15 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 1,500 hours.
    2. Race & Ethnicity Qualitative Research--0960-NEW. Collection

[[Page 57630]]

Background. Currently, SSA has no reliable, statistically valid means 
of capturing race/ethnicity data in our core business process. While 
some Race/Ethnicity data is collected by Form SS-5, the Application for 
Social Security Card, it is not provided to SSA through other means of 
enumerating individuals; e.g., the Enumeration at Birth and Enumeration 
at Entry processes. Additionally, it is not collected during the 
disability application process. We believe that adding race/ethnicity 
as questions to SSA's applications for benefits will enable SSA to 
improve its administrative data. Consequently, we intend to collect 
this information in other SSA application processes. OMB mandated that 
Federal agencies collecting race and ethnicity information must use 
consistent standards established by OMB. We will follow the OMB 
standards when collecting our Race/Ethnicity data.

Race & Ethnicity Qualitative Research

    Before SSA collects Race/Ethnicity data, we plan to conduct several 
voluntary focus groups with members of the public to assess their 
opinions, reactions and recommendations on a proposed form that will be 
used to collect the information. The questions and race and ethnicity 
categories will follow the standards developed by OMB. The information 
from this research will be used to develop a comprehensive collection 
form. The respondents are members of the public who volunteer to 
participate in the Race/Ethnicity questions focus groups.

    Note: Please note that this Federal Register Notice is only for 
the Race and Ethnicity Quality Research focus groups. We will post a 
separate Federal Register Notice in the future for the actual Race 
and Ethnicity information collection.

    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Number of Respondents: 96 (8 focus groups, 12 participants).
    Frequency of Response: 1.
    Average Burden per Response: 90 minutes.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 144 hours.

    Dated: October 3, 2007.
Elizabeth A. Davidson,
Reports Clearance Officer, Social Security Administration.
[FR Doc. E7-19876 Filed 10-9-07; 8:45 am]
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