[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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