[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 39 (Monday, February 28, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10939-10940]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-4331]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Railroad Administration

[Docket No. FRA-2011-0001-N-2]


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

AGENCY: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Department of 
Transportation.

ACTION: 30-Day notice of submission of information collection for 
approval by the Office of Management and Budget 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, FRA has 
submitted a Generic Information Collection Request (Generic ICR): 
``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on 
Agency Service Delivery'' to OMB for approval under the Paperwork 
Reduction Act (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before March 30, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Send comments regarding these information collections to the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and 
Budget, 725 Seventeenth Street, NW., Washington, DC, 20503, Attention: 
FRA Desk Officer. Alternatively, comments may be sent via e-mail to the 
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of 
Management and Budget, at the following address: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information, 
please contact Ms. Kimberly Toone, Office of Information Technology, 
Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey Ave., SE., Mail Stop 
17, Washington, DC 20590 (telephone: (202) 493-6132) or Mr. Robert 
Brogan, Office of Safety Planning and Evaluation Division, RRS-21, 
Federal Railroad Administration, 1200 New Jersey Ave., Mail Stop 17, 
Washington, DC 20590 (telephone: (202) 493-6292). (These telephone 
numbers are not toll-free.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback 
on Agency Service Delivery.
    Abstract: The information collection activity will garner 
qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, timely 
manner, in accordance with the Administration's commitment to improving 
service delivery. By qualitative feedback, FRA means information that 
provides useful 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, content and accuracy of information, usefulness 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.
    FRA will only submit a collection of information 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 respondents and 
the Federal Government;
     The collections of information 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 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 purposes 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 will provide useful 
information, but it will 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.

[[Page 10940]]

    On December 22, 2010, OMB--on behalf of DOT/FRA and other listed 
Executive Agencies--published a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
soliciting comment on ICRs for which the agency was seeking OMB 
approval. 75 FR 80542. DOT/FRA received no comments in response to this 
notice.
    The summary below describes the nature of the information 
collection requirements (ICRs) and the expected projected burden 
estimates over the next three years \1\ for the ICR being submitted for 
clearance by OMB as required by the PRA.
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    \1\ The 60-day notice included the following estimate of the 
aggregate burden hours for this generic clearance Federal-wide:
    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.
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    Current Actions: New collection of information.
    Type of Review: New Collection.
    Affected Public: Individuals and Households, Businesses and 
Organizations, State, Local or Tribal Government.
    Average Expected Annual Number of activities: 6.
    Respondents: 6,300.
    Annual responses: 2,100.
    Frequency of Response: Once per request.
    Average minutes per response: 10 minutes.
    Burden hours: 1,062 hours.
    Comments are invited on the following: Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the Department, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; the accuracy of the Department's estimate of 
the burden of the proposed information collection; ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology.
    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.

    Authority:  44 U.S.C. 3501-3520.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on February 22, 2011.
Kimberly Coronel,
Director, Office of Financial Management, Federal Railroad 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2011-4331 Filed 2-25-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-06-P