[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 150 (Thursday, August 4, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47183-47185]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-19670]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Extension

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``Commission'' or ``FTC'').

ACTION: Notice and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The information collection requirements described below will 
be submitted to the Office of Management

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and Budget (``OMB'') for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (``PRA''). The FTC is seeking public comments on its proposal to 
extend through September 30, 2014 the current Paperwork Reduction Act 
clearance for information collection requirements contained in its 
Funeral Industry Practice Rule (``Funeral Rule'' or ``Rule''). That 
clearance expires on September 30, 2011.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 6, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write ``Funeral Rule Paperwork 
Comment: FTC File No. P084401'' on your comment, and file your comment 
online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/funeralrulepra2 by 
following the instructions on the web-based form. If you prefer to file 
your comment on paper, mail or deliver your comment to the following 
Address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 
(Annex J), 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed information requirements for the Funeral Rule 
should be addressed to Craig Tregillus, Attorney, Division of Marketing 
Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 
Room H-288, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20580, (202) 
326-2970.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Funeral Industry Practices Rule.
    OMB Control Number: 3084-0025.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Abstract: The Funeral Rule, 16 CFR part 312, ensures that consumers 
who are purchasing funeral goods and services have accurate information 
about the terms and conditions (especially itemized prices) for such 
goods and services. It requires that funeral providers disclose this 
information to consumers and maintain records to facilitate enforcement 
of the Rule.
    On May 6, 2011, the FTC sought comment on the information 
collection requirements associated with the Funeral Rule. 76 FR 26297. 
No comments were received. Pursuant to the OMB regulations, 5 CFR part 
1320, that implement the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., the FTC is 
providing this second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB 
approval to renew the pre-existing clearance for the Rule. For more 
details about Funeral Rule requirements and the basis for the 
calculations summarized below, see 76 FR 26297.
    Estimated Annual Burden: 160,782 hours (19,902 hours for 
recordkeeping, 101,076 hours for disclosures, and 39,804 hours for 
training).
    Likely Respondents, Estimated Number of Respondents, Estimated 
Average Burden per Respondent:
    (a) Recordkeeping--Covered funeral providers, 1 hour/provider for 
19,902 providers.
    (b) Disclosures--Covered funeral providers, 5.1 hours/provider, for 
19,902 providers.
    (c) Training--Covered funeral providers, 2 hours/provider, for 
19,902 providers. Frequency of Response: Funeral providers must provide 
price information in response to telephone inquiries and price lists to 
consumers making funeral arrangements. Total Annual Labor Cost: 
$4,363,593.
    Total Annual Capital or Other Non-Labor Cost: $637,106.

Request For Comment

    You can file a comment online or on paper. For the Commission to 
consider your comment, we must receive it on or before September 6, 
2011. Write ``Funeral Rule Paperwork Comment: FTC File No. P084401'' on 
your comment. Your comment--including your name and your state--will be 
placed on the public record of this proceeding, including, to the 
extent practicable, on the public Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a matter of discretion, the 
Commission tries to remove individuals' home contact information from 
comments before placing them on the Commission Web site.
    Because your comment will be made public, you are solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment doesn't include any 
sensitive personal information, like anyone's Social Security number, 
date of birth, driver's license number or other state identification 
number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, financial 
account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment doesn't include any 
sensitive health information, like medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, don't 
include any ``[trade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which is obtained from any person and which is privileged or 
confidential * * * '' as provided in Section 6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 
U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 4.10(a)(2). In 
particular, don't include competitively sensitive information such as 
costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, patterns, devices, 
manufacturing processes, or customer names.
    If you want the Commission to give your comment confidential 
treatment, you must file it in paper form, with a request for 
confidential treatment, and you have to follow the procedure explained 
in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).\1\ Your comment will be kept 
confidential only if the FTC General Counsel, in his or her sole 
discretion, grants your request in accordance with the law and the 
public interest.
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    \1\ In particular, the written request for confidential 
treatment that accompanies the comment must include the factual and 
legal basis for the request, and must identify the specific portions 
of the comment to be withheld from the public record. See FTC Rule 
4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).
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    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online, or to send them to the Commission by courier or 
overnight service. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/funeralrulepra2, by following the instructions on the web-based 
form. If this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, you 
also may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Funeral Rule Paperwork 
Comment: FTC File No. P084401'' on your comment and on the envelope, 
and mail or deliver it to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission, Office of the Secretary, Room H-113 (Annex J), 600 
Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. If possible, submit 
your paper comment to the Commission by courier or overnight service.
    Visit the Commission Web site at http://www.ftc.gov to read this 
Notice and the news release describing it. The FTC Act and other laws 
that the Commission administers permit the collection of public 
comments to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate. The 
Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments that 
it receives on or before October 3, 2011. You can find more 
information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, in 
the Commission's privacy policy, at http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.shtm.
    Comments on the information collection requirements subject to

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review under the PRA should additionally be submitted to OMB. If sent 
by U.S. mail, they should be addressed to Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk 
Officer for the Federal Trade Commission, New Executive Office 
Building, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, 
DC 20503. Comments sent to OMB by U.S. postal mail, however, are 
subject to delays due to heightened security precautions. Thus, 
comments instead should be sent by facsimile to (202) 395-5167.

David C. Shonka,
Acting General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2011-19670 Filed 8-3-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M