[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 223 (Monday, November 19, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58272-58274]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-25162]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY


Soft Target Countermeasure Surveys

AGENCY: Office of Infrastructure Protection (IP), National Protection 
and Programs Directorate (NPPD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

ACTION: 30-Day notice and request for comments; new collection, 1670-
NEW.

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SUMMARY: DHS NPPD IP will submit the following Information Collection 
Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review 
and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. 
NPPD IP has contracted a study to analyze a broad set of business 
security measures in terms of their costs and spillover effects, with 
an emphasis on identifying security measures that had a positive 
effect. To do so, the study team will survey the businesses' customers 
to evaluate the public's perceptions of the security measures, and 
evaluate the enhanced security measures on business operations and 
customer responses. DHS previously published this ICR in the Federal 
Register on Tuesday, June 19, 2018 for a 60-day public comment period. 
0 comments were received by DHS. The purpose of this notice is to allow 
an additional 30 days for public comments. To provide greater 
transparency, NPPD is making an adjustment from the 60-day notice to 
show all related costs from the 60-day notice Supporting Statement A 
within the text of the 30-day notice.

DATES: Comments are encouraged and will be accepted until December 19, 
2018.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on 
the proposed information collection to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. Comments should be 
addressed to OMB Desk Officer, Department of Homeland Security and sent 
via electronic mail to [email protected]. All submissions must 
include the words ``Department of

[[Page 58273]]

Homeland Security'' and the OMB Control Number 1670-NEW--Soft Target 
Countermeasure Surveys.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available 
to the public through relevant websites. For this reason, please do not 
include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as 
sensitive personal information or proprietary information. If you send 
an email comment, your email address will be automatically captured and 
included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and 
made available on the internet. Please note that responses to this 
public comment request containing any routine notice about the 
confidentiality of the communication will be treated as public comments 
that may be made available to the public notwithstanding the inclusion 
of the routine notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Bill Schweigart at 703-603-5148 
or at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Title II of the Homeland Security Act of 
2002 (Pub. L. 107-296), as amended (2006), directs the DHS to 
coordinate all Federal homeland security activities, including 
infrastructure protection. On behalf of DHS, NPPD IP manages the 
Department's program to protect and enhance the resilience of the 
Nation's physical and cyber infrastructure within the 16 critical 
infrastructure sectors designated by Presidential Policy Directive 21 
Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (PPD-21) (February 
2013) by implementing the National Infrastructure Protection Plan 
(NIPP) 2013: Partnering for Critical Infrastructure Security and 
Resilience. NPPD IP accomplishes their mission by building sustainable 
partnerships with its public and private sector stakeholders to enable 
more effective sector coordination, information sharing, and program 
development and implementation.
    The Homeland Security Act of 2002, as amended (2006), also grants 
DHS the authority to create university-based Centers of Excellence 
(COEs) using grants, cooperative agreements and contracts. The COEs are 
authorized by Congress and selected by DHS Science and Technology 
Directorate (S&T) through a competitive selection process. Among the 
COEs is The National Center for Risk & Economic Analysis of Terrorism 
Events (CREATE) at The University of Southern California. The Strategic 
Sourcing Program Office for DHS has approved the Basic Ordering 
Agreements (BOAs) for DHS-wide use. Any and all DHS Components 
requiring the research, analysis, and/or services of the COEs described 
in the COE BOAs may issue Task Orders under the BOAs through their 
assigned warranted Contracting Officers.
    NPPD IP has contracted a study through the approved BOA with CREATE 
to analyze a broad set of security measures used in the Commercial 
Facilities critical infrastructure sector in terms of their costs and 
spillover effects, with an emphasis on identifying security measures 
that had a positive effect. This includes examining a broad range of 
measures including increased police/security guard presence and other 
non- or less-invasive options. The study team will work with business 
leaders to identify locations that have implemented various security 
measures already, and develop and administer surveys for statistical 
analysis and modeling. Additionally, the study team will survey the 
businesses' customers to evaluate the public's perceptions of the 
security measures, and evaluate the enhanced security measures on 
business operations and customers' responses.
    CREATE will work with NPPD personnel to identify locations that 
have implemented various security measures already, and develop and 
administer surveys for statistical analysis and modeling. Management 
professionals (Chief Operating Officers, Head of Marketing, and Head of 
Security) from five selected businesses will be asked questions 
tailored to the five specific businesses regarding current and planned 
safety measures, management understanding of customer perceptions of 
security measures, management beliefs about the impacts of security 
measures, management beliefs about how security measures change 
customer behaviors and business volume, and some select demographic 
information. This will be conducted as a structured interview, herein 
referred to as ``Business Structured Interview'', and is needed to 
obtain necessary and relevant data for subsequent economic analyses. 
The purpose of these analyses is to evaluate whether specific 
counterterrorism efforts have a negative or positive impact on the 
company in question.
    CREATE will administer a customer survey, herein referred to as 
``Customer Survey'', regarding awareness of countermeasures in the 
Commercial Facilities sector, attitudes and perceptions toward safety, 
impacts (physical, psychological, and monetary) countermeasures have on 
customers, and select demographic and individual difference questions. 
There will be five variations of this survey targeted to each of the 
five specific businesses with slight variations in the language as a 
result, however the same information is being sought from the groups. 
These surveys are intended to create an understanding of the impacts of 
security countermeasures on customers/visitors' perceptions and 
behaviors at each of the specific target businesses selected.
    Information will be analyzed to determine whether the spillover 
effects are positive and negative and to what extent. Statistical 
analysis of the results will identify the direct impacts. These will be 
fed into an economy-wide modeling approach known as computable general 
equilibrium (CGE) analysis to determine the ``ripple'' effects on the 
entire local economy. The analysis will be performed with an eye toward 
uncertainty analysis, as well in terms of the framing of survey 
questions and, rigorously specifying the confidence intervals for the 
statistical results.
    The DHS and CREATE research team will use the information being 
collected in order to inform the study described above.
    The Business Structured Interview will be conducted as interviews, 
either in-person or via video conferencing that will have a list of 
questions to help structure and guide discussions. The Customer Survey 
will be created and sent utilizing a professional-grade software, 
``Research Core,'' by Qualtrics. The software allows the researchers to 
send customized email invitations to respondents, track their progress, 
and prevent fraud and abuse of the survey.
    This is a new information collection.
    OMB is particularly interested in comments that:
    1. 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;
    2. 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;
    3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    4. 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.

[[Page 58274]]

    Title of Collection: Soft Target Countermeasure Surveys.
    OMB Control Number: 1670-NEW.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Affected Public: Private and Public Sector.
    Number of Respondents: 2020.
    Estimated Time per Respondent: 25 minutes.
    Total Burden Hours: 677 hours.
    Total Respondent Opportunity Costs: $24,129.
    Total Respondent Out-of-Pocket Cost: $0.
    Total Government Cost: $300,000.

Scott Libby,
Deputy Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-25162 Filed 11-16-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9110-9P-P