[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 135 (Friday, July 13, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 41452-41453]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-17068]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration


Comment Request for Information Collection on Employment and 
Training (ET) Handbook 361, Unemployment Insurance (UI) Data Validation 
(DV), Extension With Revisions

AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Labor.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Labor (Department), as part of its 
continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a 
preclearance consultation program to provide the public and Federal 
agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing 
collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 [44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)]. This program helps ensure that 
requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden 
(time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are 
clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirements on 
respondents can be properly assessed.
    Currently, ETA is soliciting comments concerning the collection of 
data for the UI DV program. Collection authority for this program 
expires July 31, 2014.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the 
addresses section below on or before September 11, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to Burman Skrable, Room S-4524, 
Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210. Telephone number: 202-
693-3197 (this is not a toll-free number). Individuals with hearing or 
speech impairments may access the telephone number above via TTY by 
calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 1-877-889-
5627 (TTY/TDD). Email: [email protected]. A copy of the proposed 
information collection request (ICR) can be obtained by contacting the 
office listed above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    Section 303(a)(6) of the Social Security Act specifies that the 
Secretary of Labor will not certify State UI programs to receive 
administrative grants unless the State's law includes provisions for--

making of such reports * * * as the Secretary of Labor may from time 
to time require, and compliance with such provisions as the 
Secretary may from time to time find necessary to assure the 
correctness and verification of such reports.

    The Department considers data validation one of those ``provisions 
* * * necessary to assure the correctness and verification'' of the 
reports it requires.
    The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) requires 
Federal agencies to develop annual and strategic performance plans that 
establish performance goals, have concrete indicators of the extent 
that goals are achieved, and set performance targets. Each year, the 
agency is to issue a report that ``evaluate[s] the performance plan for 
the current fiscal year relative to the performance achieved toward the 
performance goals in the fiscal year covered by the report.'' Section 
1116 (d)(2) of OMB Circular A-11, which implements the GPRA process, 
cites the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 to emphasize the need for 
data validation by requiring that the agency's annual performance 
report

[[Page 41453]]

``contain an assessment of the completeness and reliability of the 
performance data included in it [that] * * * describes any material 
inadequacies in the completeness and reliability of the data.'' (OMB 
Circular A-11, Section 230.2 (f)). The Department emphasizes the 
importance of complete and accurate information for program monitoring 
and improving program performance.
    The UI DV program employs a refined and automated approach to 
review 322 elements reported on 13 benefits reports and one tax report. 
The Department uses many of these elements for key performance measures 
as well as for workload items.
    The validation process assesses the validity (accuracy) of the 
counts of transactions or measurements of status as follows. In the 
validation process, guided by a detailed handbook, the state first 
constructs extract files containing all pertinent individual 
transactions for the desired report period to be validated. These 
transactions are grouped into 15 benefits and five tax populations. 
Each transaction record contains the necessary characteristics or 
dimensions that enable it to be summed into an independent recount of 
what the state has already reported. The Department provides state 
agencies with software that edits the extract file (to identify and 
remove duplicate transactions and improperly built records, for 
example), then aggregates the transactions to produce an independent 
reconstruction or ``validation count'' of the reported figure. The 
reported count is considered valid by this ``quantity'' validation test 
if it is within 2% of the validation count (1% 
for a GPRA-related element).
    The software also draws samples of most transaction types from the 
extract files. Guided by a state-specific handbook, the validators 
review these sample records against documentation in the state's 
management information system to determine whether the transactions in 
the extract file are supported by system documentation. This 
qualitative check determines whether the validation count can be 
trusted as accurate. The benefits extract files are considered to pass 
this ``quality'' review if random samples indicate that no more than 5% 
of the records contain errors; tax files are subjected to different but 
related tests. A reported count is considered valid only if it differs 
from a reconstructed (validation) count by no more than the appropriate 
criterion of 2% or 1%, and that validation 
count comes from an extract file that has satisfied all quality tests.
    For Federal fiscal years 2011 and beyond, all states will be 
required to conduct a complete validation every three years. In three 
cases the three-year rule does not apply, and a revalidation must occur 
within one year: (1) Groups of reported counts that are summed for 
purposes of making a Pass/Fail determination and do not pass validation 
by being within 2% of the reconstructed counts or the 
extract file does not pass all quality tests; (2) the validation 
applies to the two benefits populations and one tax population used for 
GPRA measures; and (3) reports are produced by new reporting software. 
Every year states must also certify that Module 3 of the Benefits and 
Tax handbooks are up to date.
    In January 2012 through UIPL 08-12 the Department issued changes 
that added 100 cells to the ETA 227 report; most of these cells will be 
validated through the UI DV program. The ETA 227 report is now 
validated through three of the 15 benefit populations. Accommodating 
the new report cells requires: (1) Adding a sixteenth benefit 
population; (2) making one-time changes to the three populations that 
validate the old 227 report; and (3) adding 13 items (called Steps or 
Substeps) to Module 3 of the Benefits handbook, which relates State 
definitions and data system locations for Federal reporting 
requirements. These changes will impose both one-time and continuing 
burdens on state validators.

II. Review Focus

    The Department is particularly interested in comments which:
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
     Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     Minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submissions of responses.

III. Current Actions

    Type of Review: Extension with revisions.
    Title: Unemployment Insurance Data Validation Benefits and Tax.
    OMB Number: 1205-0431.
    Affected Public: State Workforce Agencies.
    Form(s): ET Handbook 361.
    Total Annual Respondents: 53.
    Annual Frequency: At least five validation items per state (two 
benefits populations and one tax population) plus reviewing and 
certifying that Benefits and Tax Module items are up to date.
    Total Annual Estimated Responses: 265 (53 states x 5 populations).
    Average Time per Response: 573 Hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 30,369 Hours.
    Total Annual Burden Cost for Respondents: $1,244,825.31.
    Comments submitted in response to this comment request will be 
summarized and/or included in the request for OMB approval of the ICR; 
they will also become a matter of public record.

    Dated: Signed on this 5th day of July 2012.
Jane Oates,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2012-17068 Filed 7-12-12; 8:45 am]
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