[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 204 (Tuesday, October 22, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56457-56458]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-23017]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-20-0607; Docket No. CDC-2019-0089]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 
of its continuing effort to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies the opportunity to comment on a proposed and/or 
continuing information collection, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed 
information collection project titled The National Violent Death 
Reporting System (NVDRS). The NVDRS is designed to continue collection 
of detailed and timely state-based surveillance data on violent deaths.

DATES: CDC must receive written comments on or before December 23, 
2019.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2019-
0089 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection Review 
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 
NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. CDC will post, without change, all relevant comments 
to Regulations.gov.
    Please note: Submit all comments through the Federal eRulemaking 
portal (regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact Jeffrey M. Zirger, Information Collection 
Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton 
Road NE, MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to the OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    The OMB is particularly interested in comments that will help:
    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.
    5. Assess information collection costs.

Proposed Project

    The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) (OMB Control 
No. 0920-0607, Exp. 11/30/2020)--Revision--National Center for Injury 
Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    Violence is an important public health problem. In the United 
States, suicide and homicide are the second and third leading causes of 
death, respectively, in the 1-34 year-old age group. Unfortunately, 
public health agencies do not know much more about the problem than the 
numbers and the sex, race, and age of the victims, or information 
obtainable from the standard death certificate. Death certificates, 
however, carry no information about key facts necessary for prevention, 
such as the relationship of the victim and suspect and the 
circumstances of the deaths. Furthermore, death certificates are 
typically available 20 months after the completion of a single calendar 
year. Official publications of national violent death rates, e.g. those 
in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, rarely use data that is less 
than two years old.
    Local and Federal criminal justice agencies such as the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) provide slightly more information about 
homicides, but they do not routinely collect standardized data about 
suicides, which are, in fact, much more common than homicides. The 
FBI's Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) does collect basic information 
about the victim-suspect relationship and circumstances related to the 
homicide. SHRs, do not link violent deaths that are part of one 
incident such as homicide-suicides. However, it is a voluntary system 
in which some 10-20 percent of police departments nationwide do not 
participate. The FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) 
provides slightly more information than SHRs, but it covers less of the 
country. NIBRS also only provides data regarding homicides. The Bureau 
of Justice Statistics Reports do not use data that is less than two 
years old.
    The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), implemented by 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is a state-based 
surveillance system developed to monitor the occurrence of violent 
deaths (i.e., homicide, suicide, undetermined deaths, and unintentional 
firearm deaths) in the United States (U.S.) by collecting 
comprehensive, detailed, useful, and timely data from multiple sources 
(e.g., death certificates, coroner/medical examiner reports, law 
enforcement reports) into a useable, anonymous database. In 2018, the 
NVDRS expanded by adding 10 new states. Now, all 50 states, the 
District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico participate in the system. CDC 
requests OMB approval in order to revise its state-based surveillance 
system for violent deaths that will allow it to collect more detailed 
and timely information. The

[[Page 56458]]

purpose of this revision is three-fold: (1) Implement updates to the 
web-based system to improve performance, functionality, and 
accessibility, (2) add new data elements to the system and minimal 
revisions to the NVDRS coding manual; and (3) modify burden hours to 
account for the increase in violent deaths that have occurred in the 
U.S. since 2003.
    Consequently, these revisions impact the number of responses per 
respondent, increasing it from 1,000 (as written in previous OMB 
requests) to 1,350, resulting in an increase in the total burden hours 
for retrieval of these records from 29,500 to 37,800. NVDRS has always 
had the goal to be a nationally representative surveillance system, 
operating in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. 
territories. In the previous OMB package, we calculated the number of 
respondents to be 56, which included 50 states, the District of 
Columbia, and 5 U.S. territory health departments (Puerto Rico, Guam, 
American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 
(Northern Marianas, U.S. Virgin Islands). Our request is to continue 
with the number of respondents at 56, continuing to exclude large local 
health departments as an independent respondent in NVDRS. CDC requests 
approval for an estimated 37,800 burden hours, annually. There are no 
costs to respondents other than their time.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                      Average
                                                      No. of       No. responses    burden per     Total burden
      Type of  respondent           Form name       respondents         per        response (in        hours
                                                                    respondent        hours)
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Public Agencies...............  Retrieving and                56           1,350           30/60          37,800
                                 refile records
                                 (Att. 6).
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total.....................  ................  ..............  ..............  ..............          37,800
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2019-23017 Filed 10-21-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P