[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 39 (Monday, March 1, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9221-9222]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-4117]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

    In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 concerning opportunity for public comment on proposed 
collections of information, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration (SAMHSA) will publish periodic summaries of 
proposed projects. To request more information on the proposed projects 
or to obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the 
SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer at (240) 276-1243.
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collections of 
information are necessary for the proper performance of the functions 
of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, 
including through the use of automated collection techniques or other 
forms of information technology.

Proposed Project: Survey of State Underage Drinking Prevention Policies 
and Practices--New

    The Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (the ``STOP 
Act'') \1\ states that the ``Secretary [of Health and Human Services] 
shall * * * annually issue a report on each State's performance in 
enacting, enforcing, and creating laws, regulations, and programs to 
prevent or reduce underage drinking.'' The Secretary has delegated 
responsibility for this report to SAMHSA. Therefore, SAMHSA is 
developing a Survey of State Underage Drinking Prevention Policies and 
Practices (the ``State Survey'') to provide input for an Annual Report 
on State Underage Drinking Prevention and Enforcement Activities (the 
``State Report'').
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    \1\ Public Law 109-422. It is assumed Congress intended to 
include the District of Columbia as part of the State Report.
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    The STOP Act also requires the Secretary to develop ``a set of 
measures to be used in preparing the report on best practices'' and to 
consider categories including but not limited to the following:
    Category #1: Sixteen specific underage drinking laws/regulations 
enacted at the State level (e.g., laws prohibiting sales to minors; 
laws related to minors in possession of alcohol);
    Category #2: Enforcement and educational programs to promote 
compliance with these laws/regulations;
    Category #3: Programs targeted to youths, parents, and caregivers 
to deter underage drinking and the number of individuals served by 
these programs;
    Category #4: The amount that each State invests, per youth capita, 
on the prevention of underage drinking broken into five categories: (a) 
Compliance check programs in retail outlets; (b) Checkpoints and 
saturation patrols that include the goal of reducing and deterring 
underage drinking; (c) Community-based, school-based, and higher-
education-based programs to prevent underage drinking; (d) Underage 
drinking prevention programs that target youth within the juvenile 
justice and child welfare systems; and (e) Any other State efforts or 
programs that target underage drinking.
    Congress' purpose in mandating the collection of data on State 
policies and programs through the State Survey is to provide 
policymakers and the public with currently unavailable but much needed 
information regarding State underage drinking prevention policies and 
programs. SAMHSA and other Federal agencies that have underage drinking 
prevention as part of their mandate will use the results of the State 
Survey to inform Federal programmatic priorities. The information 
gathered by the State Survey will also establish a resource for State 
agencies and the general public for assessing policies and programs in 
their own State and for becoming familiar with the programs, policies, 
and funding priorities of other States.
    Because of the broad scope of data required by the STOP Act, SAMHSA 
will rely on existing data sources where possible to minimize the 
survey burden on the States. SAMHSA will employ data on State underage 
drinking policies from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and 
Alcoholism's Alcohol Policy

[[Page 9222]]

Information System (APIS), an authoritative compendium of State 
alcohol-related laws. The APIS data will be augmented by SAMHSA with 
original legal research on State laws and policies addressing underage 
drinking to include all of the STOP Act's requested laws and 
regulations (Category 1 of the four categories included in the 
STOP Act, as described above, page 2).
    The STOP Act mandates that the State Survey assess ``best 
practices'' and emphasize the importance of building collaborations 
with Federally Recognized Tribal Governments (``Tribal Governments''). 
It also emphasizes the importance at the Federal level of promoting 
interagency collaboration and to that end established the Interagency 
Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). 
SAMHSA has determined that to fulfill the Congressional intent, it is 
critical that the State Survey gather information from the States 
regarding the best practices standards that they apply to their 
underage drinking programs, collaborations between States and Tribal 
Governments, and the development of State-level interagency 
collaborations similar to ICCPUD.
    SAMHSA has determined that data on Categories 2, 
3, and 4 mandated in the STOP Act (as listed on page 
2) (enforcement and educational programs; programs targeting youth, 
parents, and caregivers; and State expenditures) as well as States' 
best practices standards, collaborations with Tribal Governments, and 
State-level interagency collaborations are not available from secondary 
sources and therefore must be collected from the States themselves. The 
State Survey will therefore be necessary to fulfill the Congressional 
mandate found in the STOP Act.
    The State Survey is a single document that is divided into four 
sections, as follows:
    (1) Enforcement of underage drinking prevention laws;
    (2) Underage drinking prevention programs, including data on State 
best practices standards and collaborations with Tribal Governments;
    (3) State interagency collaborations used to implement the above 
programs; and
    (4) Estimates of the State funds invested in the categories 
specified in the STOP Act (see description of Category 4, 
above, page 2) and descriptions of any dedicated fees, taxes or fines 
used to raise these funds.
    The number of questions in each Section is as follows:

Section 1: 29 questions
Section 2A: 18 questions \2\
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    \2\ Note that the number of questions in Sections 2A is an 
estimate. This Section asks States to identify their programs that 
are specific to underage drinking prevention. For each program 
identified there are six follow-up questions. Based on feedback from 
stakeholders and pilot testers, it is anticipated that States will 
report an average of three programs for a total of 18 questions.
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Section 2B: 6 questions \3\
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    \3\ Note that the number of questions in Section 2B is an 
estimate. This Section asks States to identify their programs that 
are related to underage drinking prevention. For each program 
identified there are two follow-up questions. Based on feedback from 
stakeholders and pilot testers, it is anticipated that States will 
report an average of three such programs for a total of six 
questions.
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Section 2C: 6 questions
Section 3: 12 questions
Section 4: 19 questions
TOTAL: 90 Questions

    It is anticipated that respondents will actually respond to only a 
subset of this total. This is because the survey is designed with 
``skip logic,'' which means that many questions will only be directed 
to a subset of respondents who report the existence of particular 
programs or activities.
    To ensure that the State Survey obtains the necessary data while 
minimizing the burden on the States, SAMHSA has conducted a lengthy and 
comprehensive planning process. It has sought advice from key 
stakeholders (as mandated by the STOP Act) including hosting an all-day 
stakeholders meeting, conducting two field tests with State officials 
likely to be responsible for completing the State Survey, and 
investigating and testing various State Survey formats, online delivery 
systems, and data collection methodologies.
    Based on these investigations, SAMHSA has decided to collect the 
required data using an online survey instrument over an 8-week period. 
The State Survey will be sent to each State Governor's office and the 
Office of the Mayor of the District of Columbia, for a total of 51 
survey respondents. Based on the feedback received from stakeholders 
and field pilot testers, it is anticipated that the State Governors 
will designate staff from State agencies that have access to the 
requested data (typically State Alcohol Beverage Control [ABC] agencies 
and State Substance Abuse Program agencies). SAMHSA will provide both 
telephone and online technical support to State agency staff and will 
emphasize that the States are only expected to provide data that is 
readily available and are not required to provide data that has not 
already been collected. The burden estimate below takes into account 
these assumptions.
    The estimated annual response burden to collect this information is 
as follows:

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                                                 Number of        Responses/        Burden/       Annual burden
                 Instrument                     respondents       respondent    response  (hrs)       (hrs)
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State Questionnaire.........................              51                1             17.7            902.7
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    Send comments to Summer King, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer, 
Room 7-1044, One Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20857 and e-mail a 
copy to [email protected]. Written comments should be received 
within 60 days of this notice.

    Dated: February 19, 2010.
Elaine Parry,
Director, Office of Program Services.
[FR Doc. 2010-4117 Filed 2-26-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P