[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 120 (Thursday, June 21, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37428-37430]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15220]


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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: Revision of Survey of State Underage Drinking 
Prevention Policies and Practices--Revision

    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 has 
developed 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 
relies on existing data sources where possible to minimize the survey 
burden on the States. SAMHSA uses data on State underage drinking 
policies from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's 
Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS), an authoritative compendium 
of State alcohol-related laws. The APIS data is 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 is therefore 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:

[[Page 37429]]

    Section 1: 31 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: 7 questions.
    Section 2C: 6 questions.
    Section 3: 12 questions.
    Section 4: 17 questions.
    Total: 91 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.
    This latest version of the survey has been revised slightly. While 
a few additional questions were added, a similar number of questions 
were deleted, so that the revised survey does not place any additional 
burden on States. All questions continue to ask only for readily 
available data.
    The changes can be summarized as follows:

Part I

    The revised version of the survey adds five sub-questions to Part 
I, which deals with enforcement. The sub-questions seek additional 
details about the information sought in the original questions. The 
data sought in the sub-questions are very similar to the data sought in 
the original questions and will likely be kept or stored in the same 
location by the same personnel, according to our interviews with 
respondents. Accordingly, answering these new sub-questions should 
require very little if any work on the part of respondents.
    The question asking how local and State enforcement agencies 
coordinate their efforts to enforce underage drinking laws has been 
dropped.
    A question has been added seeking an estimate of the number of 
retail licensees in the State, if readily available. This question was 
not asked in the previous version of the Survey, but it was determined 
that reliable data on the number of retail licensees is not available 
from another source.
    Under the existing question regarding number of compliance checks/
decoy operations conducted by the State alcohol law enforcement agency, 
two sub-questions have been added. One sub-question asks whether these 
compliance check/decoy operations are conducted at both on-sale and 
off-sale establishments, and the second sub-question asks whether the 
agency conducts random compliance check/decoy operation. If the answer 
is yes, the question asks for the number of licensees subject to random 
checks, and the number who failed.
    Under the existing question asking for the total amount of fines 
imposed on retail establishments for furnishing alcohol to minors, a 
sub-question has been added requesting the dollar amounts of the 
smallest fine imposed and the largest fine imposed. Similarly, under 
the existing question asking for the total number of suspensions 
imposed on retail establishments for furnishing violations, a sub-
question has been added asking the shortest and longest period of 
suspension, in days. These questions will help to establish the median 
for fines and days of suspension so as to provide a more accurate 
picture of enforcement efforts in the States.

Part II

    In Part II, the question regarding ``specific'' underage drinking 
prevention programs and the question regarding ``related'' underage 
drinking prevention programs have been combined, and the references to 
``specific'' and ``related'' have been eliminated. States no longer 
need to categorize their programs as one or the other and need only 
list their programs.
    In the section asking for a description of each program, the 
existing survey asked for an estimate of how many youth, parents, and/
or caregivers were served by the program. This section has been revised 
to ask whether the program is aimed at a specific, countable 
population, or the general population. For programs that are aimed at 
the general population, the question of how many youth, parents, and/or 
caregivers were served has been eliminated.
    Also in the section asking for a description of each program, the 
existing survey asked for the time period for each program. This 
question has been eliminated.
    The question on best practices has been clarified. A multiple 
choice answer has been added that asks for the source of the State's 
best practices standards: Federal agency(ies); State agency(ies); Non-
governmental agency(ies), or Other [please describe].
    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 electronic file distributed to States via email. 
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 experience from the last two years of 
administering the State Survey, 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 electronic 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 8-1099, One Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20857 or email a copy 
to [email protected]. Written comments must be received before 
60

[[Page 37430]]

days after the date of the publication in the Federal Register.

Summer King,
Statistician.
[FR Doc. 2012-15220 Filed 6-20-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P