[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 245 (Wednesday, December 22, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 80542-80543]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-32084]


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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative 
Feedback on Agency Service Delivery

AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: As part of a Federal Government-wide effort to streamline the 
process to seek feedback from the public on service delivery, OMB is 
coordinating the development of the following proposed Generic 
Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): ``Generic Clearance for 
the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on Agency Service Delivery'' for 
approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et. 
seq.). This notice announces that agencies intend to submit this 
collection to OMB for approval and solicits comments on specific 
aspects for the proposed information collection,
    A copy of the draft supporting statement is available at http://www.regulations.gov, (see Docket ID OMB-2010-0021). Following review 
and disposition of public comments on this joint 60-day notice, each 
Agency will submit its own Generic ICR to OMB for review and will issue 
its own 30-day notice to solicit additional public comments.

DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by February 
22, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments by one of the following methods:
     Web site: www.regulations.gov. Direct comments to Docket 
ID OMB-2010-0021.
     E-mail: [email protected].
     Fax: (202) 395-7245.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available 
to the public through relevant Web sites. For this reason, please do 
not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such 
as sensitive personal information or proprietary information. If you 
send an e-mail comment, your e-mail address will be automatically 
captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the 
public docket and made available on the Internet. Please note that 
responses to this public comment request containing any routine notice 
about the confidentiality of the communication will be treated as 
public comments that may be made available to the public 
notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback 
on Agency Service Delivery.
    Abstract: The proposed information collection activity provides a 
means to garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an 
efficient, timely manner, in accordance with the Administration's 
commitment to improving service delivery. The following agencies are 
planning to submit this collection to OMB for approval: Department of 
Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department 
of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human 
Services, Department of Homeland Security Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, Department of the Interior, Department of Justice, 
Department of Labor Department of State, Department of Transportation, 
Department of the Treasury Department of Veterans Affairs, 
Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration, Social Security Administration, Administrative 
Conference of the United States, Consumer Product Safety Commission, 
Corporation for National and Community Service, Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission, Export-Import Bank of the United States, 
Federal Communications Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance 
Corporation, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Federal Trade 
Commission, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Merit Systems 
Protection Board, National Credit Union Administration, National 
Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Office 
of the Comptroller of the Currency, Overseas Private Investment 
Corporation, Peace Corps, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 
Railroad Retirement Board, Securities and Exchange Commission, Surface 
Transportation Board, Tennessee Valley Authority, U.S. Election 
Assistance Commission, U.S. International Trade Commission, and U.S. 
Access Board.
    By qualitative feedback we mean information that provides useful

[[Page 80543]]

insights on perceptions and opinions, but are not statistical surveys 
that yield quantitative results that can be generalized to the 
population of study. This feedback will provide insights into customer 
or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and expectations, provide an 
early warning of issues with service, or focus attention on areas where 
communication, training or changes in operations might improve delivery 
of products or services. These collections will allow for ongoing, 
collaborative and actionable communications between the Agency and its 
customers and stakeholders. It will also allow feedback to contribute 
directly to the improvement of program management.
    The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: timeliness, 
appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of 
service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. 
Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or 
maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this 
information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and 
stakeholders on the Agency's services will be unavailable.
    The Agency will only submit a collection for approval under this 
generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:
     The collections are voluntary;
     The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on 
considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or 
burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents 
and the Federal Government;
     The collections are non-controversial and do not raise 
issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
     Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions 
from respondents who have experience with the program or may have 
experience with the program in the near future;
     Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected 
only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
     Information gathered is intended to be used only 
internally for general service improvement and program management 
purposes and is not intended for release outside of the agency (if 
released, the agency must indicate the qualitative nature of the 
information);
     Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of 
substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
     Information gathered will yield qualitative information; 
the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically 
reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the 
population of study.
    Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful 
information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the 
overall population. This type of generic clearance for qualitative 
information will not be used for quantitative information collections 
that are designed to yield reliably actionable results, such as 
monitoring trends over time or documenting program performance. Such 
data uses require more rigorous designs that address: the target 
population to which generalizations will be made, the sampling frame, 
the sample design (including stratification and clustering), the 
precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed 
sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing 
potential non-response bias, the protocols for data collection, and any 
testing procedures that were or will be undertaken prior to fielding 
the study. Depending on the degree of influence the results are likely 
to have, such collections may still be eligible for submission for 
other generic mechanisms that are designed to yield quantitative 
results.
    As a general matter, information collections will not result in any 
new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask 
questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, 
religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered 
private.
    Current Actions: New collection of information.
    Type of Review: New Collection.
    Affected Public: Individuals and Households, Businesses and 
Organizations, State, Local or Tribal Government.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: Below is a preliminary estimate of 
the aggregate burden hours for this generic clearance. This estimate 
based on a review of past behavior of the participating agencies and by 
several individual agencies' estimates for this ICR. In recognition 
that individual agencies will differ in how often they use this generic 
clearance, this burden estimate assumes that ten agencies would be the 
heaviest users and account for approximately ten times as great a 
burden as the other agencies combined. Agencies will provide more 
refined individual estimates of burden in their subsequent notices.
    Average Expected Annual Number of activities: 25,000.
    Average number of Respondents per Activity: 200.
    Annual responses: 5,000,000.
    Frequency of Response: Once per request.
    Average minutes per response: 30.
    Burden hours: 2,500,000.
    Request for Comments: Comments submitted in response to this notice 
will be summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval. 
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the collection of information is 
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 collection of 
information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of 
the information to be collected; (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; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of 
operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide 
information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose 
or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the 
time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and 
utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, 
validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining 
information, and disclosing and providing information; to train 
personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to 
search data sources, to complete and review the collection of 
information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.
    All written comments will be available for public inspection 
Regulations.gov.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid Office of Management and Budget control number.

Shelley Metzenbaum,
Associate Director for Performance and Personnel Management.
[FR Doc. 2010-32084 Filed 12-21-10; 8:45 am]
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