[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 244 (Tuesday, December 20, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 92958-92963]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-30637]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[U.S. DOT Docket Number NHTSA-2016-0085]


Reports, Forms, and Record Keeping Requirements

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. 
Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Before a Federal agency can collect certain information from 
the public, it must receive approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB). Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995, before seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit 
public comment on proposed collections of information, including 
extensions and reinstatement of previously approved collections.This 
document describes a collection of information for which NHTSA intends 
to seek OMB approval.

DATES: Comments must be submitted to OMB on or before January 19, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, OMB, 725 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention: 
Desk Officer.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Leo Yon, Trends Analysis Division 
(NEF-170), Room W45-215, NHTSA, 1200 New Jersey Ave., Washington, DC 
20590. Telephone: (202) 366-7028.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
before an agency submits a proposed collection of information to OMB 
for approval, it must first publish a document in the Federal Register 
providing a 60-day comment period and otherwise consult with members of 
the public and affected agencies concerning each proposed collection of 
information. The OMB has promulgated regulations describing what must 
be included in

[[Page 92959]]

such a document. Under OMB's regulation, see 5 CFR 1320.8(d), an agency 
must ask for public comment on the following:
    (i) 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;
    (ii) 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;
    (iii) how to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (iv) how to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g. permitting electronic 
submission of responses.
    In compliance with these requirements, NHTSA asks for public 
comments on the following collection of information:
    Title: Reporting of Information and Documents about Potential 
Defects.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved information 
collection.
    OMB Control Number: 2127-0616.
    Affected Public: Businesses or individuals.
    Abstract: This notice requests comment on NHTSA's proposed 
extension to approved collection of information OMB No. 2127-0616. The 
Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation 
(TREAD) Act (Pub. L. 106-414) was enacted on November 1, 2000. These 
TREAD requirements of the Act are found in 49 U.S.C. 30166 and many of 
these requirements are implemented through, and addressed with more 
specificity in, 49 CFR part 579 Reporting of Information and 
Communications about Potential Defects.
    These Early Warning Reporting (EWR) requirements specify that 
manufacturers of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment submit 
information, periodically or upon NHTSA's request, that includes claims 
for deaths and serious injuries, property damage data, communications 
from customers and others, information on incidents resulting in 
fatalities or serious injuries from possible defects in vehicles or 
equipment in the United States or in identical or substantially similar 
vehicles or equipment in a foreign country, and other information that 
assist NHTSA in identifying potential safety-related defects. The 
intent of this information collection is to provide early warning of 
such potential safety-related defects.
    Estimated Burden Hours: This approved information collection was 
last renewed in August 2013, when additional component type codes were 
added to manufacturer EWR submissions. See 78 FR 51412. Due to one-time 
investments and other associated costs, the collection was approved for 
85,193 burden hours and $10.3 million dollars in the first year. We 
estimated subsequent years would require 45,897 burden hours and $5.75 
million dollars. Today we update these estimates by removing the first-
year costs associated with the 2013 rulemaking, as well as revising 
estimates to better align with current EWR volume.
    First, the below estimates are adjusted to better reflect current 
EWR submission volume. Table 1 provides an average annual submission 
count for each claim category submitted per the requirements of 49 CFR 
579:

                                                                     Table 1--Annual Average of Submissions by Manufacturers
                                                                                           [2013-2015]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Light      Heavy, med                             Emergency                                Child      Equipment
                      Category of claims                          vehicles     vehicles     Trailers   Motorcycles    vehicles      Buses        Tires      restraints      mfr.        Totals
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Injury Fatality...............................................        9,082           97           13          135            3           12           74          378            8        9,804
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Property Damage *.............................................        8,554          572           21           16            2           55        2,261          N/A          N/A       11,481
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warranty Claims...............................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consumer Complaints...........................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mfr. Field Reports............................................       66,064        7,221           13        1,276            3          461          N/A        4,259          N/A       79,297
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dealer Field Reports..........................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foreign Death Claims..........................................           59            1            1            2            0            0            2           35            0          101
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals....................................................       83,759        7,891           48        1,429            8          528        2,337        4,672            8      100,683
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Property damage claims are aggregate data but are counted differently because they require more time to manually review.

    The above updated submission totals represent a 17% increase from 
the currently approved information collection. Submission totals for 
each category have risen with an average of 9,804 injury and fatality 
claims (previously 6,041 claims), 11,481 property damage claims 
(previously 11,402 claims), 79,297 manufacturer field reports 
(previously 68,574 field reports), 101 foreign death claims (previously 
41 claims), totaling 100,683 submissions on average (previously 
estimated at 86,058 submissions).
    The agency estimates that an average of 5 minutes is required for a 
manufacturer to process each report, with the exception of foreign 
death claims. We estimate foreign death claims require an average of 15 
minutes to process. Multiplying this average number of minutes by the 
number of submissions NHTSA receives in each reporting category yields 
the burden hour estimates found below in Table 2:

[[Page 92960]]



                                                                             Table 2--Estimated Annual Burden Hours
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                                                                   Light      Heavy, med                             Emergency                                Child      Equipment
                      Category of claims                          vehicles     vehicles     Trailers   Motorcycles    vehicles      Buses        Tires      restraints      mfr.        Totals
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Injury Fatality...............................................          757            8            1           11            0            1            6           32            1          817
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Property Damage *.............................................          713           48            2            1            0            5          188          N/A          N/A          957
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warranty Claims...............................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consumer Complaints...........................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mfr. Field Reports............................................        5,505          602            1          106            0           38          N/A          355          N/A        6,608
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dealer Field Reports..........................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foreign Death Claims..........................................           15            0            0            1            0            0            1            9            0           25
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals....................................................        6,990          658            4          119            1           44          195          395            1        8,407
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* Property damage claims are aggregate data but are counted differently because they require more time to manually review.

    Our previous estimates totaled 7,178 burden hours associated with 
these Early Warning submissions. We now update that total to 8,407 
burden hours, a 17% increase, associated with the above noted claim 
categories.
    The burden hours associated with aggregate data submissions for 
consumer complaints, warranty claims, and dealer field reports are 
included in reporting and computer maintenance hours. The burden hours 
for computer maintenance are calculated by multiplying the hours of 
computer use (for a given category) by the number of manufacturers 
reporting in a category. Similarly, reporting burden hours are 
calculated by multiplying hours used to report for a given category by 
the number of manufacturers for the category. Using these methods and 
the average number of manufacturers who report annually, we estimate 
the burden hours for reporting cost and computer maintenance below in 
Table 3:

                  Table 3--Estimated Annual Burden Hours for Reporting and Computer Maintenance
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                                                                                     Hours for
                                      Average        Quarterly     Annual burden     computer     Annual  burden
   Vehicle/equipment category        number of       hours to        hours for      maintenance     hours  for
                                   manufacturers    report per       reporting          per          computer
                                                   manufacturer                    manufacturer     maintenance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Light Vehicles..................              39               8           1,248             347          13,533
Medium-Heavy Vehicles...........              39               5             780            86.5           3,374
Trailers........................              80               1             320            86.5           6,920
Motorcycles.....................              15               2             120            86.5           1,298
Emergency Vehicles..............               7               5             140            86.5             606
Buses...........................              38               5             760            86.5           3,287
Tires...........................              34               5             680            86.5           2,941
Child Restraints................              34               1             136            86.5           2,941
Vehicle Equipment...............               6               1              24  ..............  ..............
                                 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals......................  ..............  ..............           4,208  ..............          34,899
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Thus, the total burden hours for EWR death and injury data, 
aggregate data and non-dealer field reports is 8,407 (Table 2) + 4,208 
(Table 3) + 34,899 (Table 3) = 47,514 burden hours.
    In order to provide the information required for foreign safety 
campaigns, manufacturers must (1) determine whether vehicles or 
equipment that are covered by a foreign safety recall or other safety 
campaign are identical or substantially similar to vehicles or 
equipment sold in the United States, (2) prepare and submit reports of 
these campaigns to the agency, and (3) where a determination or notice 
has been made in a language other than English, translate the 
determination or notice into English before transmitting it to the 
agency. NHTSA estimates that preparing and submitting each foreign 
defect report (foreign recall campaign) requires 1 hour of clerical 
staff and that translation of determinations into English requires 2 
hours of technical staff (note: This assumes that all foreign campaign 
reports require translation, which is unlikely). Between 2013 and 2015, 
NHTSA received a yearly average of 133 foreign recall reports which 
results in 133 hours for preparation and submission of the reports (133 
defect reports x 1 hour clerical = 133 hours) and 266 hours for 
technical time (133 foreign recall reports x 2 hours technical = 266 
hours.
    With respect to the burden of determining identical or 
substantially similar vehicles or equipment to those sold in the United 
States, manufacturers of motor vehicles are required to submit not 
later than November 1 of each year, a document that identifies foreign 
products and their domestic counterparts. NHTSA continues to estimate 
that the annual list could be developed with 8 attorney hours and 1 
hour for IT work. NHTSA receives these

[[Page 92961]]

lists from 83 manufacturers, on average, resulting in 747 burden hours 
(83 vehicle manufacturers x 8 hours for attorney support = 664 hours) + 
(83 vehicle manufacturers x 1 hour for IT support = 83 hours).

                                  Table 4--Hourly Burden for Foreign Reporting
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                                                                                           Burden hours
                Task                     Quantity             Occupation         -------------------------------
                                                                                     Per unit          Total
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual List.........................              83  Attorney..................               8             664
Annual list--Electronic.............              83  IT........................               1              83
Foreign Defect Report...............             133  Clerical..................               1             133
Foreign Defect report...............             133  Technical.................               2             266
                                     ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total...........................  ..............  ..........................  ..............           1,146
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Therefore, the total annual hour burden on manufacturers for 
reporting foreign safety campaigns and substantially similar vehicles/
equipment is 1,146 hours (774 hours professional time + 133 hours 
clerical time + 266 hours technical time). This is an increase of 154 
burden hours from our previous estimate (1,146 hours for current 
estimate - 992 hours for previous estimate).
    Section 579.5 also requires manufacturers to submit notices, 
bulletins, customer satisfaction campaigns, consumer advisories and 
other communications that are sent to more than one dealer or owner. 
Manufacturers are required to submit this information monthly. Section 
579.5 does not require manufacturer to create these documents; rather, 
only copies of these documents must be submitted to NHTSA. Therefore, 
the burden hours are only those associated with collecting the 
documents and submitting copies to NHTSA. Manufacturers must index 
these communications and email them to NHTSA within 5 working days 
after the end of the month in which they were issued.
    NHTSA continues to estimate that we receive about 7,000 notices a 
year. We estimate that it takes about 5 minutes to collect, index, and 
send each notice to NHTSA. Therefore, we continue to estimate that it 
takes 7,000 documents x 5 minutes = 35,000 minutes or 583 hours for 
manufacturers to submit notices as required under Part 579.5.

             Table 5--Total Burden Hours for This Collection
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                          Annual  burden
                     Reporting type                            hours
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EWR Reporting (Table 3).................................          47,514
Foreign Reporting (Table 4).............................           1,146
Part 579.5..............................................             583
                                                         ---------------
    Total...............................................          49,243
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Cost Burdens--We now estimate the calculated cost burdens 
that this collection imposes on industry. The hourly wage rates shown 
below have been utilized in previous renewals of this collection and 
are now updated through June 2016. These current rate adjustments are 
derived from the Employment Cost Index Historical Listing (Volume III) 
provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to adjust for 
inflation. The non-seasonally adjusted wages and salaries, for private 
industry workers, were referenced to calculate the following updated 
2016 wage rates:

                Table 6--Hourly Wage Rates by Occupation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Wage rate
                     Occupation                      -------------------
                                                        2011      2016
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attorney............................................   $130.39   $144.47
Engineer............................................    130.39    144.47
IT..................................................    145.59    161.31
Technical...........................................     94.09    104.25
Clerical............................................     30.69     34.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016 wage data from U.S. Department of Labor.

    We have also constructed various breakdowns of the average five 
minutes of labor among the various occupations depending on the type of 
document that was reviewed. For example, to combine three minutes of 
technical labor and two minutes of clerical labor produces a combined 
wage rate of $76.15 per hour, using the adjusted 2016 wage rates in 
Table 6. Table 7 shows the time allocations and weighted hourly rate by 
report:

                                               Table 7--Time Allocation and Weighted Hourly Rate by Report
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                                             Weighted
               Claim type                    Attorney        Engineer           IT           Technical       Clerical       Total time      hourly rate
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Claims of Injury/Death..................               3               0               0               0               2               5         $100.29
Property Damage.........................               0               0               0               3               2               5           76.15
Mfr. Field Reports......................               0               0               0               3               2               5           76.15
Foreign Deaths..........................               3              10               0               0               2              15          129.74
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The total cost for 2016 Claims documents were obtained using the 
following formula:

K x T x W = Costs for claim type

Where:

K = Documents submitted by industry
T = Average time spent on a document
W = Wage rate based on U.S. Department of Labor and skill mix.

    For example, the estimated cost to report light vehicle death and 
injury claims is $75,899 (9,082 death and injury claims reported x 5/60 
hours x $100.29 wage rate).
    NHTSA estimates the reporting costs as a function of
     The number of manufacturers reporting;
     The frequency of required reports;
     The number of hours required per report; and
     The cost of personnel to report.
    The number of manufacturers reporting is estimated from EWR 
submission. The frequency of reports is fixed at 4 times per year. The 
number of hours for reporting ranges from 1

[[Page 92962]]

hour for trailer manufacturer to 8 hours for light vehicle 
manufacturers (See Table 3). In addition, we assume that 50 percent of 
the total burden hours are utilized by technical personnel while 
clerical staff consumes the remaining 50 percent. In other words, the 
hourly wage rate for each quarterly report is split evenly between 
technical and clerical personnel and a weighted average of the wage 
hour is developed from this assumption. For 2016 the wage rate is 
$69.13 ([$104.25 x 0.5] + [$34.00 x 0.5]).
    The reporting costs are calculated as follows:

M x Tp x 4 x $69.13 = cost of reporting

Where:

M = Manufacturers reporting data in the category
Tp = Reporting time for the category
4 = Quarterly reports per year
$69.13 = Reporting cost wage rate (rounded).

    Thus, the estimated reporting cost for light vehicles is $86,272 
(39 manufacturers x 8 hours x 4 quarters x $69.13 wage rate).
    The costs for computer maintenance including software, hardware, 
data storage, etc. were calculated using the following formula:

M x Tc x IT = cost of computer maintenance

Where:

M = Manufacturers reporting data in the category
Tc = Annual computer maintenance time per manufacturer 
for the category
IT = IT wage rate

    The computer maintenance costs for light vehicles are $2,183,059 
(39 manufacturers x 347 hours x $161.31 wage rate).
    Table 8 shows the annual cost of reporting EWR information to NHTSA 
using the information outlined in tables 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7:

                                                                         Table 8--Estimate EWR Costs by Submission Type
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                   Light      Heavy, med                             Emergency                                Child      Equipment
                           Category                               vehicles     vehicles     Trailers   Motorcycles    vehicles      Buses        Tires      restraints      mfr.        Totals
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Injury/Fatality).............................................       75,899          811          109        1,128           25          100          618        3,159           67       81,916
Property Damage*..............................................       54,284        3,630          133          102           13          349       14,348            0            0       72,859
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warranty Claims...............................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consumer Complaints...........................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mfr. Field Reports............................................      419,247       45,825           82        8,098           19        2,926            0       27,028            0      503,224
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dealer Field Reports..........................................                                                           Aggregate Data
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Foreign Death Claims..........................................        1,914           32           32           65            0            0           65        1,135            0        3,244
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reporting Cost................................................       86,272       53,920       22,121        8,295        9,678       52,537       47,007        9,401        1,659      290,891
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Maintenance..........................................    2,183,059      544,192    1,116,291      209,305       97,675      530,238      474,424      474,424            0    5,629,607
                                                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals....................................................    2,820,674      648,410    1,138,769      226,992      107,410      586,150      536,463      515,147        1,726    6,581,741
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Totals may not be exact due to rounding.

    Table 9 details the total annual costs for reporting annual list of 
substantially similar vehicles and foreign safety campaigns:

                             Table 9--Estimated Annual Costs for Substantially Similar Vehicles and Foreign Safety Campaigns
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                                   Burden hours
                  Task                          Qty                 Occupation            2016 wage rate --------------------------------      Cost
                                                                                          (from Table 6)     Per unit          Total
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual list.............................              83  Attorney.....................          $144.47               8             664         $95,929
Annual list--Electronic.................              83  IT...........................           161.31               1              83          13,389
Defect report...........................             133  Clerical.....................            34.00               1             133           4,523
Defect report...........................             133  Technical....................           104.25               2             266          27,731
                                         ----------------                               ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Foreign Campaign Totals.............  ..............  .............................  ...............  ..............           1,146         141,572
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The cost associated for manufacturers to submit Part 579.5 notices, 
bulletins, customer satisfaction campaigns, consumer advisories and 
other communications that are sent to more than one dealer or owner can 
be estimated from the number of hours and wage of personal submitting 
the documents. We understand that some manufacturers have clerical 
staff collect and submit the documents and other have technical staff. 
Because we do not know how many documents are sent by a particular 
staff we will assume they are done the higher paid staff. Thus, we 
estimated the cost to collect and submit Part 579.5 documents at 583 
hours x $104.25 for Technical staff = $60,779 for manufacturers to 
submit notices as required under Part 579.5.
    Table 10 shows the estimated cost for manufacturers to report EWR 
data, foreign campaigns, and Part 579.5 documents through this 
collection:

[[Page 92963]]



  Table 10--Total Dollar Estimates for Manufacturers To Comply With EWR
         Reporting, Foreign Reporting, and Part 579.5 Reporting
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                            Annual cost
                     Reporting type                             ($)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
EWR Reporting (Table 8).................................      $6,581,741
Foreign Reporting (Table 9).............................         141,572
Part 579.5 Submissions..................................          60,779
                                                         ---------------
    Total...............................................       6,784,092
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Removed Burdens--Our previous renewal of this collection included 
one-time cost estimates associated with adding a new vehicle type, fuel 
and/or propulsion system type, and four new components (stability 
control, forward collision avoidance, lane departure prevention, and 
backover prevention) to vehicle EWR reporting. These one-time costs 
were estimated for manufacturers to amend their reporting templates and 
revise their software system to support the new reporting requirements. 
See 78 FR 51415. Manufacturers were required to make these changes to 
their vehicle EWR reporting by January 1, 2015. See 79 FR 47591. As 
these one-time costs have already been incurred and manufacturers have 
already made the necessary modifications to their systems, a total of 
39,296 burden hours and $4.57 million dollars will be removed from this 
collection.
    Summary of Burden Estimate--Based on the foregoing, we estimate the 
burden hours for industry to comply with the current EWR requirements, 
foreign campaign requirements and Part 579.5 requirements total 49,243 
burden hours (47,514 for EWR requirements + 1,146 hours for foreign 
campaign requirements + 583 hours for Part 579.5). This is a decrease 
of 35,950 hours from the currently approved collection, mostly due to 
the one-time costs we previously estimated and have now removed from 
this collection. We now estimate the cost burden for current EWR 
requirements, foreign campaign requirements, and Part 579.5 
requirements to total $6,784,092 annually.
    Estimated Number of Respondents--NHTSA receives EWR submissions, 
foreign campaigns, and Part 579.5 submissions from roughly 292 
manufacturers per year.
    In summary, we estimate that there will be a total of 292 
respondents per year associated with OMB No. 2127-0616.

Michael L. Brown,
Acting Director, Office of Defects, Investigation.
[FR Doc. 2016-30637 Filed 12-19-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-59-P