[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 207 (Thursday, October 25, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 65164-65165]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-26160]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary
49 CFR Part 26
[Docket No. OST-2012-0147]
RIN 2105-AE08
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise: Program Implementation
Modifications
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary (OST), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM); Correction; Extension of
Comment Period.
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[[Page 65165]]
SUMMARY: The Department is correcting a notice of proposed rulemaking
(NPRM) published in the Federal Register. In that document, the
Department proposed, among other modifications, to change the Uniform
Report of DBE Commitments/Awards and Payments form found in our
regulations. As this is an information collection covered by the
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), the Department should have included a
discussion of this collection in the ``Paperwork Reduction Act''
section of the NPRM in order to comply with the PRA's procedural
requirements. Today, the Department is correcting this omission by
including discussion of the Uniform Report collection and providing the
public with 60 days from today to comment both on this collection and
all other aspects of the NPRM. Thus, the original end of the comment
period, November 5, 2012, has been extended until December 24, 2012.
DATES: The comment period will close December 24, 2012.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jo Anne Robinson, Office of General
Law, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE.,
Washington, DC 20590, 202-366-6984, [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On September 6, 2012, the Department published a notice of proposed
rulemaking (NPRM) entitled, ``Disadvantaged Business Enterprise:
Program Implementation Modifications'' in the Federal Register (77 FR
54952).
In that NPRM, the Department proposed various modifications of the
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program, including four
proposed modifications to existing and/or new information collections.
In the Preamble, the Department also proposed various modifications to
the Uniform Report of DBE Commitments/Awards and Payments form found in
Appendix B of 49 CFR part 26. This information collection is associated
with OMB Control Number 2105-0510, which had expired during the
drafting of the NPRM and which the Department was in the process of
reinstating with this rulemaking. However, the Department inadvertently
omitted discussion of this information collection in the ``Paperwork
Reduction Act'' section of the NPRM.
Today, the Department is correcting this omission in order to
comply with the procedural requirements of the PRA and give the public
adequate time to comment on this collection. As part of these
requirements, the Department must give the public 60 days to comment on
this proposed revised information collection. In order to prevent
confusion between comments about this collection and comments to the
NPRM in general, the Department has decided to extend the comment
period for the NPRM as a whole until 60 days after today. Thus, the
comment deadline for all aspects of this NPRM is December 24, 2012,
meaning that the Department has granted a 49-day extension to the
original comment period. This extension is also consistent with
informal requests to extend the comment period that the Department has
recently received.
Correction
The Department is making the following correction in FR document
number OST-2012-0147, appearing at the bottom of the third column on
page 54967 in the Federal Register of Thursday, September 6, 2012 by
adding this additional item under the ``Paperwork Reduction Act''
section:
5. Uniform Report of DBE Commitments/Awards and Payments
As part of this rulemaking, the Department is intending to
reinstate the information collection entitled, ``Uniform Report of DBE
Commitments/Awards and Payments,'' OMB Control No. 2105-0510,
consistent with the changes proposed in this NPRM. This collection
requires that DOT Form 4630 be submitted once or twice per year by each
recipient having an approved DBE program. The report form is collected
from recipients by FHWA, FTA, and FAA, and is used to enable DOT to
conduct program oversight of recipients' DBE programs and to identify
trends or problem areas in the program. This collection is necessary
for the Department to carry out its oversight responsibilities of the
DBE program, since it allows the Department to obtain information from
the recipients about the DBE participation they obtain in their
programs.
In this NPRM, the Department proposes to modify certain aspects of
this collection in response to issues raised by stakeholders: (1)
Creating separate forms for routine DBE reporting and for transit
vehicle manufacturers (TVMs) and mega projects; (2) amending and
clarifying the report's instructions to better explain how to fill out
the forms; and (3) changing the forms to better capture the desired DBE
data on a more continuous basis, which should also assist with
recipients' post-award oversight responsibilities. This NPRM also
discusses criticisms raised by GAO and, while not proposing to directly
change the form based on this input, does request comment on the
advisability of doing so.
Frequency: Once or twice per year.
Estimated Average Burden per Response: 5 hours per response.
Number of Respondents: 1,250. The Department estimates that
approximately 550 of these respondents prepare two reports per year,
while approximately 700 prepare one report per year.
Estimated Burden: 9,000 hours.
Dated: Issued this 17th day of October, 2012 at Washington, DC.
Robert S. Rivkin,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2012-26160 Filed 10-24-12; 8:45 am]
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