[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 30 (Wednesday, February 13, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3779-3780]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-01938]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

FEDERAL MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION SERVICE


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), as part 
of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, 
invites the general public to take this opportunity to comment on the 
``Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on 
Agency Service Delivery'' for approval under the Paperwork Reduction 
Act (PRA). This collection was developed as part of a Federal 
Government-wide effort to streamline the process for seeking feedback 
from the public on service delivery. This notice announces our intent 
to submit this collection to OMB for approval and solicits comments on 
specific aspects for the proposed information collection.

DATES: Written comments are due by April 15, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to: Jeannette Walters-Marquez, Federal 
Mediation and Conciliation Service, 250 E Street SW, Washington, DC 
20427, telephone and fax (202) 606-5488, or send via email to 
[email protected]. Comments may also be sent by electronic mail 
message over the internet via the Federal eRulemaking Portal. See 
Federal eRulemaking Portal website (http://www.regulations.gov) for 
instructions on providing comments via the Federal Rulemaking Portal.
    All comments will be available for inspection at 250 E Street SW, 
Washington, DC 20427, Room 7113 (Reading Room) from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 
p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For specific questions related to 
collection activities, please contact Jeannette Walters-Marquez, 202-
606-5488, [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Comments submitted in response to this 
notice may be made available to the public through posting on a 
government website. 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.
    The proposed information collection activity provides a means to 
garner qualitative customer and stakeholder feedback in an efficient, 
timely manner, in accordance with the Administration's commitment to 
improving service delivery. By qualitative feedback we mean information 
that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions, but are not 
statistical surveys that yield quantitative results that can be 
generalized to the population of study. This feedback will provide 
insights into customer or stakeholder perceptions, experiences and 
expectations, provide an early warning of issues with service, or focus 
attention on areas where communication, training or changes in 
operations might improve delivery of products or services. These 
collections will allow for ongoing, collaborative and actionable 
communications between the Agency and its customers and stakeholders. 
It will also allow feedback to contribute directly to the improvement 
of program management.
    The solicitation of feedback will target areas such as: Timeliness, 
appropriateness, accuracy of information, courtesy, efficiency of 
service delivery, and resolution of issues with service delivery. 
Responses will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or 
maintain the quality of service offered to the public. If this 
information is not collected, vital feedback from customers and 
stakeholders on the Agency's services will be unavailable.
    The Agency will only submit a collection for approval under this 
generic clearance if it meets the following conditions:
     The collections are voluntary;
     The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on 
considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or 
burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents 
and the Federal Government;
     The collections are non-controversial and do not raise 
issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
     Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions 
from respondents who have experience with the program or may have 
experience with the program in the near future;
     Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected 
only to the extent necessary and is not retained;
     Information gathered is used only internally for general 
service improvement and program management purposes and is not intended 
for release outside of the agency;
     Information gathered is not used for the purpose of 
substantially informing influential policy decisions; and
     Information gathered yields qualitative information; the 
collections are not designed or expected to yield statistically 
reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the 
population of study.
    Feedback collected under this generic clearance provides useful 
information, but it does not yield data that can be generalized to the 
overall population. This type of generic clearance for qualitative 
information will not be used for quantitative information collections 
that are designed to yield reliably actionable results, such as 
monitoring trends over time or documenting program performance. Such 
data uses require more rigorous designs that address: The target 
population to which generalizations will be made, the sampling frame, 
the sample design (including stratification and clustering), the 
precision requirements or power calculations that justify the proposed 
sample size, the expected response rate, methods for assessing 
potential non-response bias, the protocols for data collection, and any 
testing procedures that were or will be undertaken prior to fielding 
the study. Depending on the degree of influence the results are likely 
to have, such collections may still be eligible for submission for 
other generic mechanisms that are designed to yield quantitative 
results.

[[Page 3780]]

    As a general matter, information collections will not result in any 
new system of records containing privacy information and will not ask 
questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, 
religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered 
private.
    Current Action: New collection of information.
    Type of Review: New collection.
    Affected Public: Individuals and Households, Businesses and 
Organizations, State, Local or Tribal Government.
    Below we provide projected average annual estimates:
    Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 7,000.
    Expected Annual Number of Activities: 1.
    Number of Respondents per Activity: 1.
    Annual Responses: 7,000.
    Frequency of Response: Once per request.
    Average Minutes per Response: 10.
    Average Expected Annual Burden hours: 1,667.

    Dated: February 6, 2019.
Jeannette Walters-Marquez,
Attorney Advisor, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
[FR Doc. 2019-01938 Filed 2-12-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6732-01-P