[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 146 (Monday, July 30, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36591-36592]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-16230]


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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY

[No. 2018-N-07]


Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.

ACTION: 30-Day notice of submission of information collection for 
approval from Office of Management and Budget.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or the 
Agency) is seeking public comments concerning an information collection 
known as ``Minority and Women Inclusion,'' which has been assigned 
control number 2590-0014 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 
FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and 
approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due 
to expire on July 31, 2018.

DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before August 29, 
2018.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer 
for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax: 
(202) 395-3047, Email: [email protected]. Please also submit 
comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed Collection; Comment Request: 
`Minority and Women Inclusion, (No. 2018-N-07)' '' by any of the 
following methods:
     Agency Website: www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input.
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your 
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email 
to FHFA at [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by the agency.
     Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Eighth 
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request: ``Minority and Women Inclusion, (No. 2018-
N-07)''.
    We will post all public comments we receive without change, 
including any personal information you provide, such as your name and 
address, email address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at 
http://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will 
be available for examination by the public through the electronic 
comment docket for this PRA Notice also located on the FHFA website.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sylvia Martinez, Principal Policy 
Analyst, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, by email at 
[email protected] or by telephone at (202) 649-3301; or Eric 
Raudenbush, Associate General Counsel, [email protected], (202) 
649-3084 (these are not toll-free numbers); Federal Housing Finance 
Agency, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. The 
Telecommunications Device for the Hearing Impaired is (800) 877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is 
seeking comments on its collection of information regarding the 
minority and gender classification of individuals serving on the boards 
of directors of the Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and of the Office 
of Finance under FHFA's regulations on Minority and Women Inclusion 
(MWI), codified at 12 CFR part 1223, which it will be submitting for 
renewal of the OMB control number under the PRA.

A. Need for and Use of the Information Collection

    The Federal Home Loan Bank System (Bank System) consists of eleven 
regional Banks and the Office of Finance, which issues and services the 
Banks' debt securities. The Banks are wholesale financial institutions, 
organized under authority of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) 
to serve the public interest by enhancing the availability of 
residential housing finance and community lending credit through their 
member institutions and, to a limited extent, through certain eligible 
non-member entities. Each Bank is structured as a regional cooperative 
that is owned and controlled by member financial institutions located 
within its district, which are also its primary customers. The Bank Act 
vests the management of each Bank in a board of directors that consists 
of two types of directors: (1) Member directors, who are drawn from the 
officers and directors of member institutions located in the Bank's 
district and who are elected to represent members in a particular state 
in that district; and (2) independent directors, who are unaffiliated 
with any of the Bank's member institutions, but who reside in the 
Bank's district and are elected on an at-large basis.\1\ The Office of 
Finance is also governed by a board of directors, which consists of the 
presidents of the eleven Banks and five independent directors.\2\
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    \1\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(1), (b), (d).
    \2\ See 12 CFR 1273.7(a).
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    Section 1319A of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety 
and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act) requires that each 
of the Banks establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) 
to be responsible for all matters relating to diversity in its 
management, employment, and business activities, in accordance with 
requirements established by FHFA.\3\ Section 1319A also requires that 
each Bank implement standards and procedures to ensure, to the maximum 
extent possible, the inclusion and utilization of women and minorities 
``at all levels'' of its business and activities, and submit an annual 
report to FHFA detailing actions taken to achieve those goals.\4\
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    \3\ See 12 U.S.C. 4520(a).
    \4\ See 12 U.S.C. 4520(b), (d).
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    FHFA's MWI regulations implement those statutory requirements and 
also extend the requirements to the Office of Finance. The regulations 
require generally that each Bank and the Office of Finance ``develop, 
implement, and maintain policies and procedures to ensure, to the 
maximum extent possible, in balance with financially safe and sound 
business practices, the inclusion and utilization of minorities, women, 
individuals with disabilities, and minority-, women-, and disabled-
owned businesses in all business and activities and at all levels of 
the regulated entity, including in management, employment, procurement, 
insurance, and all types of contracts.'' \5\ In recognition of the fact 
that each Bank is required by statute to promote diversity and 
inclusion ``at all levels'' of its business and activities, the MWI 
regulations further require that the Banks' policies and procedures (as 
well as those of the Office of Finance) ``[e]ncourage the consideration 
of

[[Page 36592]]

diversity in nominating or soliciting nominees for positions on boards 
of directors and engage in recruiting and outreach directed at 
encouraging individuals who are minorities, women, and individuals with 
disabilities to seek or apply for employment with the regulated 
entity.'' \6\
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    \5\ See 12 CFR 1223.21(b).
    \6\ See 12 CFR 1223.21(b)(7).
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    In conformity with the statutory requirements, FHFA's MWI 
regulations require that each Bank and the Office of Finance submit to 
FHFA an annual report describing, among other things, its efforts to 
promote diversity at all levels of management and employment, and the 
results of those efforts.\7\ In order to provide a quantitative basis 
upon which to assess the results of those efforts, FHFA's regulations 
require that each Bank and the Office of Finance set forth in in their 
respective annual reports the demographic data reported on the EEO-1 
form, which they are required to file annually with the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).\8\ The EEO-1 form requires 
that each respondent provide race, ethnicity, and gender information 
for its employees, broken down into various job categories. Because the 
EEO-1 form does not require that a respondent provide information on 
board directors, FHFA cannot use the EEO-1 data to assess the 
effectiveness of the Bank System's efforts to ``encourage the 
consideration of diversity in nominating or soliciting nominees for 
positions on boards of directors.''
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    \7\ See 12 CFR 1223.22(a).
    \8\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(1). As required by 29 CFR 1602.7, each 
Bank and the Office of Finance annually files an EEO-1 form with the 
EEOC.
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    Therefore, in order to enable FHFA to assess those efforts, the MWI 
regulations separately require that the annual reports set forth 
``[d]ata showing for the reporting year by minority and gender 
classification, the number of individuals on the board of directors of 
each Bank and the Office of Finance,'' using the same racial and ethnic 
classifications that are used on the EEO-1 form (which comply with 
OMB's ``Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards 
for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting'').\9\ The 
regulation requires that each Bank and the Office of Finance collect 
that data ``through an information collection requesting each 
director's voluntary self-identification of his or her minority and 
gender classification without personally identifiable information.''
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    \9\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(10)(i).
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    FHFA uses the information collected under this control number to 
assess the effectiveness of the policies and procedures that each Bank 
and the Office of Finance is required to implement to promote diversity 
in all of its business and activities ``at all levels'' and, 
specifically, to encourage diversity in the nomination and solicitation 
of nominees for members of its boards of directors. FHFA also uses the 
information to establish a baseline to analyze future trends related to 
the diversity of the boards of directors of the Banks and the Office of 
Finance and to assess the effectiveness of the strategies developed by 
the Banks and the Office of Finance for promoting, developing, and 
retaining diverse board talent.

B. Burden Estimate

    FHFA estimates the total annual hour burden imposed upon 
respondents by this information collection to be 20 hours. This is 
based on estimates that 200 Bank and Office of Finance Directors will 
respond annually, with each response taking an average of 0.1 hours (6 
minutes) (200 respondents x 0.1 hours = 20 hours).

C. Comments Request

    In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(d), FHFA 
published an initial notice and request for public comments regarding 
this information collection in the Federal Register on May 16, 
2018.\10\ The 60-day comment period closed on July 16, 2018. FHFA 
received no comments.
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    \10\ See 83 FR 22684 (May 16, 2018).
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    FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) Whether the 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the 
collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, 
and clarity of the information collected; and (4) ways to minimize the 
burden of the collection of information on respondents, including 
through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of 
information technology.

    Dated: July 24, 2018.
Kevin Winkler,
Chief Information Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
[FR Doc. 2018-16230 Filed 7-27-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8070-01-P