[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 205 (Friday, October 23, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64450-64451]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-26944]


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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 May 31, 2016.

DATES: Submit written comments to the office listed in the addresses 
section below on or before December 22, 2015.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Rachel Beistel, Room S-4519, 
Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210. Telephone number: 202-
693-2736 (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]. To obtain a copy of the 
proposed information collection request (ICR), please contact the 
person 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 ``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 analysis.
    The validation process assesses the validity (accuracy) of the 
counts of transactions or measurements of status as follows. 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 16 benefits

[[Page 64451]]

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 the 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 August 2015, through Unemployment Insurance Program Letter 08-
12, Change 1, the Department issued changes that increased the high 
dollar overpayment threshold from $5,000 to $25,000 on the ETA 227 
report. The ETA 227 report is validated through four of the 16 benefit 
populations. Only the validation of Benefits Population 12 will be 
affected by the new threshold of $25,000. Accommodating the new 
threshold requires: (1) Changing the threshold amount in the data 
validation database programming; (2) making one-time changes to two 
rows of data that validate the 227 report; and (3) adapting the 
affected Overpayment rules (called Steps or Substeps) to Module 3 of 
the Benefits handbook, which contains State definitions and data system 
locations for Federal reporting requirements. These changes will impose 
little to no additional burden 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 Program.
    OMB Number: 1205-0431.
    Affected Public: State Workforce Agencies.
    Form(s): ET Handbook 361.
    Estimated 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.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses: 265 (53 states x 5 populations).
    Average Time per Response: 446 Hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 23,644 Hours.
    Total Annual Burden Cost for Respondents: $1,115,997.
    We will summarize and/or include in the request for OMB approval of 
the ICR, the comments received in response to this comment request; 
they will also become a matter of public record.

Portia Wu,
Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2015-26944 Filed 10-22-15; 8:45 am]
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