[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 97 (Monday, May 20, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29321-29322]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-11835]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-associated 
Recreation (FHWAR) Pre-screener Test.
    OMB Control Number: None
    Form Number(s): FH-PS(T), FHW-Q1, FHW-W1, FHW-QW1, FHW-Q2, FHW-W2, 
FHW-QW2, FHW-Q3, FHW-W3, FHW-QW3.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Burden Hours: 1,750.
    Number of Respondents: 15,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 7 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the 
U.S. Census Bureau conducted (under separate Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) clearance number 1018-0088) the 2011 National Survey of 
Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR) from April 
2011 through May 2012. The FHWAR is authorized under the Fish and 
Wildlife Act of 1956 and the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration 
Programs Improvement Act of 2000. The Census Bureau is authorized to 
conduct the FHWAR under Title 13, United States Code Section 8(b). The 
FHWAR data, collected approximately every five years, assist Federal 
and State agencies in administering the Sport Fish and Wildlife 
Restoration grant programs and provide up-to-date information on the 
uses and demands for wildlife-related recreation resources, trends in 
uses of those resources, and a basis for developing and evaluating 
programs and projects to meet existing and future needs.
    The FHWAR is an address-based survey conducted in three waves whose 
sample is selected from the Master Address File. In 2011, because of 
limited funding, we had to modify our data collection procedure from 
computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) to mostly computer-
assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) with limited CAPI to stay within 
budget. In an attempt to collect household phone numbers for CATI, we 
had the telephone center conduct a telephone research operation and we 
matched our addresses to a locating vendor. Unfortunately, neither 
operation had a high success rate in obtaining the correct phone 
numbers for our addresses. This caused the Wave 1 CATI response rates 
to plummet. Wave 2 and Wave 3 CATI did better because the majority of 
the telephone numbers were provided by the respondents in Wave 1.
    Because our 2011 methodology for obtaining phone numbers did not 
work as expected, we (Census and FWS) would like to research new 
methodologies to collect household phone numbers for our sample 
addresses through a pre-screener test. The purpose of the test will be 
to determine what percentage of households will return a mail or 
Internet questionnaire with a telephone number that reaches the sample 
address. This proposed research is directly related to the 2011 FHWAR 
and is vital for future iterations of the survey since the majority of 
interviewing will continue in CATI which is less expensive than CAPI.
    The pre-screener test is a two-part test. The first part of the 
test is a mail operation that will ask household respondents to 
complete a pre-screener survey by paper questionnaire or by Internet 
for the purpose of obtaining household telephone numbers, verifying the 
sample address, and obtaining general household-level information on

[[Page 29322]]

hunting, fishing, and wildlife watching activities. The mail operation 
will include three panels. The first panel will receive a letter and a 
self-administered paper pre-screener questionnaire. The letter will ask 
a household member to complete the paper questionnaire and to return it 
by mail to the Census Bureau. The second panel will receive a letter 
with an Internet invitation for a household member to complete the pre-
screener on the Internet. The third panel will receive a letter, paper 
questionnaire, and information on how to complete an interview by 
Internet. In this panel, the household member is given a choice for 
conducting the pre-screener by paper or by Internet. We estimate that 
both the paper and Internet pre-screener will take approximately 5 
minutes to complete. If a household does not complete the pre-screener 
in the requested time frame, we will mail up to two additional packages 
(that include the same materials as the initial mailing) requesting the 
household's participation. The sample size for each of the panels will 
be 5,000 sample households.
    The second part of the test is a telephone follow-up operation in 
which we will verify that the phone numbers collected from the mail and 
Internet pre-screener either reached, or did not reach, the sample 
addresses. This telephone interview will last approximately 2 minutes.
    Since our methodology for reaching our sample addresses by 
telephone for the 2011 FHWAR yielded poor results, we need to research 
and analyze alternative methods to help us obtain household phone 
numbers for the 2016 FHWAR. If we find a methodology that is 
successful, we will use the results internally to determine the 
percentage of pre-screeners needed to obtain the 2016 FHWAR sample 
workload.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Frequency: One-time.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Section 8(b).
    OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained 
by calling or writing Jennifer Jessup, Departmental Paperwork Clearance 
Officer, (202) 482-0336, Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 14th and 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
[email protected]).
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245) 
or email ([email protected]).

    Dated: May 14, 2013.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-11835 Filed 5-17-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P