[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 221 (Wednesday, November 16, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 80633-80634]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-27499]


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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: Annual Capital Expenditures Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0782.
    Form Number(s): ACE-1(S), ACE-1(M), ACE-1(L), ACE-1(I), ACE-2, ACE-
2(I).
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 75,035.
    Average Hours per Response: 2.32 hours.
    Burden Hours: 174,355.
    Needs and Uses: A major concern of economic policymakers is the 
adequacy of investment in plant and equipment. Data on the amount of 
business expenditures for new plant and equipment and measures of the 
stock of existing facilities are critical to evaluating productivity 
growth, the ability of U.S. business to compete with foreign business, 
changes in industrial capacity, and overall economic performance. The 
ACES is the sole source of detailed comprehensive statistics on 
investment in buildings and other structures, machinery, and equipment 
by private nonfarm businesses in the United States.
    Data users tell us that they need comprehensive and consistent data 
on investment by all private nonfarm businesses, by industry, by kind 
of investment, i.e., whether in new or used structures or equipment. 
The objectives of the ACES are:
    (a) To provide estimates of capital expenditures for all private 
nonfarm sectors of the economy by 3-digit and selected 4-digit North 
American Industry Classification System (NAICS) levels;
    (b) to base the survey on a probability sample that yields measures 
of the statistical reliability of the survey estimates;
    (c) to develop a base survey to benchmark more frequent surveys on 
capital expenditures that do not have complete industry coverage;
    (d) to produce annual enterprise-level data with the level of 
detail, coverage, and quality which previously was only available as 
part of the quinquennial economic census;
    (e) to provide detail on capital expenditures for estimating the 
national income and product accounts, estimating the productivity of 
U.S. industries, evaluating fiscal and monetary policy, and conducting 
research using capital expenditures data; and
    (f) to provide industry analysts with capital expenditures data for 
market analysis, economic forecasting, identifying business 
opportunities,

[[Page 80634]]

product development, and business planning.
    This request is for a revision to the currently approved collection 
and will cover the 2016 through 2018 ACES (conducted in fiscal years 
2017 through 2019). A change from the previous ACES authorization is 
the addition of detailed capital expenditures by type of structure and 
type of equipment. These data, collected every five years, were last 
collected in the 2012 ACES and will be collected again in the 2017 
ACES. Another change is the collection of survey data from both 
employer and non-employer companies solely through electronic 
reporting. All companies will receive a notification letter containing 
their User ID and password, and will be directed to report online 
through the Census Bureau's Business Help Site. The online reporting 
instruments are an electronic version of the paper data collection 
instruments that will no longer be used. We will no longer have paper 
forms but respondents have the ability to print an ACES worksheet to 
use as a guide and/or a record of their response once they have 
completed the survey.
    In addition to capital expenditures, all employer businesses will 
be asked to provide sales and receipts information to calculate 
industry investment to sales ratios and to assist in verifying that 
consolidated company data are being reported. Asset and depreciation 
information, also collected, assists in measuring changes in the 
nation's capital stock estimates.
    The capital expenditures data collected annually from a sample of 
non-employer businesses are intended to better represent the total 
capital expenditures activity of all firms.
    The Census Bureau will collect and publish ACES data based on the 
2012 NAICS. Industries in the survey will comprise 3-digit and 4-digit 
2012 NAICS codes.
    The ACES is an integral part of the Federal Government's effort to 
improve the quality and usefulness of National economic statistics. 
Federal agencies, including the Census Bureau, use these data to 
improve and supplement ongoing statistical programs.
    The Census Bureau uses the ACES data to improve the quality of 
monthly economic indicators of investment. The Census Bureau's Value of 
New Construction Put in Place survey currently uses the ACES data to 
benchmark its industrial buildings data.
    The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the ACES annual capital 
expenditures data for equipment and computer software to prepare 
estimates of private fixed investment, a major component of gross 
domestic product (GDP). BEA also uses these data to prepare estimates 
of investment by industry in the fixed assets accounts (FAAs). 
Investment in structures from the ACES are used by BEA to prepare the 
gross domestic output of the construction industries in GDP by 
industry. Data collected by ACES every five years on industry capital 
expenditures by type of structure and type of equipment are critical 
inputs for preparing benchmarked estimates of private fixed investment 
in the national income and product accounts (NIPA), the input-output 
accounts, and the FAAs.
    The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) uses the ACES data to improve 
estimates of investment indicators for monetary policy. The Bureau of 
Labor Statistics (BLS) uses the ACES annual data to improve estimates 
of capital stocks for productivity analysis and the detailed types of 
structures and types of equipment data collected every five years to 
improve estimates of manufacturing multifactor productivity measures.
    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services uses the data for 
monitoring and evaluating the healthcare industries.
    The Department of the Treasury uses the data in analysis of 
depreciation.
    In addition, the ACES data provide industry analysts with capital 
expenditure data for market analysts, economic forecasting, identifying 
business opportunities, product development, and business planning.
    The capital expenditures by type of structure and type of equipment 
are critical to ensuring the appropriateness of capital expenditures 
statistics in years detailed data by types of structures and types of 
equipment are not collected.
    Affected Public: Business & other for-profit; Not-for-profit 
institutions.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 United States Code, Sections 131 and 182. 
Sections 224 and 225 of Title 13 make this survey mandatory.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.

Sheleen Dumas,
PRA Departmental Lead, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-27499 Filed 11-15-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P