[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 97 (Tuesday, May 19, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29962-29963]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10708]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-HQ-MB-2020-N050; FF09M21200-190-FXMB1231099BPP0; OMB Control 
Number 1018-0167]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget for Review and Approval; Eagle Take 
Permits and Fees

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, we, the U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service, are proposing to reinstate a previously 
approved information collection with revisions.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
June 18, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments on this information collection request 
(ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget's Desk Officer for the 
Department of the Interior by email at [email protected]; or 
via facsimile to (202) 395-5806. Please provide a copy of your comments 
to the Service Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, MS: PRB/PERMA (JAO), 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls 
Church, VA 22041-3803 (mail); or by email to [email protected]. Please 
reference OMB Control Number 1018-0167 in the subject line of your 
comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Madonna L. Baucum, Service Information 
Collection Clearance Officer, by email at [email protected], or by 
telephone at (703) 358-2503. Individuals who are hearing or speech 
impaired may call the Federal Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339 for TTY 
assistance. You may also view the ICR at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), we, the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service (Service, we), are proposing to reinstate a previously 
approved information collection with revisions.
    In accordance with the PRA and its implementing regulations at 5 
CFR 1320.8(d)(1), we provide the general public and other Federal 
agencies with an opportunity to comment on new, proposed, revised, and 
continuing collections of information. This helps us assess the impact 
of our information collection requirements and minimize the public's 
reporting burden. It also helps the public understand our information 
collection requirements and provide the requested data in the desired 
format.
    On November 7, 2019, we published in the Federal Register (84 FR 
60106) a notice of our intent to request that OMB approve this 
information collection. In that notice, we solicited comments for 60 
days, ending on January 6, 2020. We received the following comments in 
response to that notice:
    Comment 1--Comment received via November 20, 2019, email from 
Pimnunihus Cenname: ``If there can be a faster, easier process for 
Indigineous-Native Americans, nation's, tribes, Pueblo's, villages, or 
descendants, families, Indian doctors, medicine (men, & or women). To 
aquire, receive, or obtain, for personal use, spiritual, ceremonial 
purposes, then I feel there should be a way implemented. This is apart 
of the NATIVE American Freedom of Religion act 1978, as well as other 
federal laws, that pertain to such as mentioned above. More over there 
has been issues regarding these matters of possession, use, and 
conflicts that otherwise could have been avoided, through simple 
identification of tribe, family, etc. This is a problem Indigineous 
people should not have.''
    Agency Response to Comment 1: The Service and Department of the 
Interior have taken numerous actions to facilitate indigenous people's 
access to eagle and migratory bird feathers. Most recently, we have 
established a new tribal permit that allows tribes to retain eagles 
found dead on tribal lands with appropriate notification to the Service 
to allow a determination of cause of death for purposes of improving 
eagle conservation. We have provided grants and permits to tribes to 
establish and operate live eagle aviaries, which provide feathers to 
tribal members for spiritual and ceremonial purposes. Under all types 
of eagle possession permits, permittees are required to send molted 
feathers, and eventually eagle remains, to the National Eagle 
Repository for distribution to tribal members. We also issue permits to 
facilities to receive, possess, and distribute feathers and remains of 
other migratory birds to members of federally recognized tribes. 
Additionally, we have an official enforcement policy that allows tribal 
members to possess parts and feathers of migratory birds without a 
permit (as long as the birds were not intentionally killed or obtained 
commercially). We continue to explore additional ways to enable 
indigenous people to obtain and use eagle and migratory birds for 
spiritual and ceremonial purposes in keeping with our responsibility to 
conserve healthy populations of eagles and migratory birds.
    Comment 2--Comment received via December 30, 2019, email from Ellen 
Paul, Executive Director of the Ornithological Council: The scientific 
and exhibition purposes permit issued under 50 CFR 22.21 (Form 3-200-
14) for Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles has been problematic. The form is 
entitled ``Eagle Exhibition'' but the regulation covers both scientific 
research and exhibition. It might be advisable to change the title to 
Eagle Exhibition and Scientific Purposes. The regulation allows 
transport and possession for scientific research or public exhibition 
(or, presumably, both) but the permit seems to be issued only for 
public exhibition. Moreover, at least one region is requiring a museum 
to obtain a Part 21 scientific collecting permit in order to receive a 
bald eagle carcass from the Service, rather than obtaining it under the 
museum's ``Federal Eagle Exhibition'' permit.
    Some regions have issued Eagle Exhibition permits to museums with 
letters stating that the permits are of indefinite duration and 
specifying that no annual report is required. This practice makes sense 
as museums rarely acquire new eagle specimens. Museum holdings will 
rarely change unless a specimen is transferred to another institution. 
Others regions still require regular renewal and annual reports.
    Agency Response to Comment 2: The commenter is correct that there 
is a single section of regulations at 50 CFR 22.21 that covers both 
eagle scientific collecting and eagle exhibition. However, the Service 
issues two different types of permits under those regulations, one for 
each of the two activities, which are actually quite distinct in 
practice. As such, we use two different application forms in order to 
obtain the different types of information appropriate to each activity. 
For museum collections, which are used for scientific study, the 
correct application form is one that is used for both eagle scientific 
collecting and for scientific collecting for other migratory birds, as 
the commenter notes (Form 3-200-7, ``Migratory Bird and Eagle 
Scientific Collecting''). For museum exhibitions, which are public 
exhibits, the correct application form is Form 3-200-14 ``Eagle 
Exhibition.'' Because the Eagle Exhibition application form is not used 
for scientific collections, it does not include questions related to 
scientific

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collections. We appreciate these comments and will work with our 
regional permit offices to resolve the inconsistent approach to setting 
permit durations and requiring annual reports.
    As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent 
burdens, we are again soliciting comments from the public and other 
Federal agencies on the proposed ICR that is described below. We are 
especially interested in public comment addressing the following:
    (1) Whether or not the collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether or not the information will have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of our estimate of the burden for this collection 
of information, including the validity of the methodology and 
assumptions used;
    (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) How might the agency 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 submission of response.
    Comments that you submit in response to this notice are a matter of 
public record. Before including your address, phone number, email 
address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you 
should be aware that your entire comment--including your personal 
identifying information--may be made publicly available at any time. 
While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal 
identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we 
will be able to do so.
    Abstract: Information collection requirements associated with the 
Federal fish and wildlife permit applications and reports for both 
migratory birds and eagles are currently approved under a single OMB 
control number, 1018-0022, ``Federal Fish and Wildlife Permit 
Applications and Reports--Migratory Birds and Eagles; 50 CFR 10, 13, 
21, 22.'' With this submission to OMB, we are proposing to reinstate 
OMB Control Number 1018-0167, ``Eagle Take Permits and Fees, 50 CFR 
22,'' in order to transfer the eagle requirements back in to a separate 
information collection to facilitate easier management of the 
information collection requirements associated with eagles.
    The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (Eagle Act; 16 U.S.C. 668-
668d) prohibits take of bald eagles and golden eagles except pursuant 
to Federal regulations. The Eagle Act regulations at title 50, part 22 
of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) define the ``take'' of an 
eagle to include the following broad range of actions: To ``pursue, 
shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, destroy, 
molest, or disturb.'' The Eagle Act allows the Secretary of the 
Interior to authorize certain otherwise prohibited activities through 
regulations.
    All Service permit applications associated with eagles are in the 
3-200 and 3-202 series of forms, each tailored to a specific activity 
based on the requirements for specific types of permits. For this 
reinstatement, we combined Forms 3-200-10c and 3-200-10d into one form 
(3-200-10c) to reduce the number of application forms and help 
streamline the application process. Since both forms dealt with 
possession for education purposes, and asked virtually the same 
questions of the applicant, there was no need to have separate forms. 
We collect standard identifier information for all permits. The 
information that we collect on applications and reports is the minimum 
necessary for us to determine if the applicant meets/continues to meet 
issuance requirements for the particular activity.
    In addition to reinstating this information collection, the Service 
will request OMB approval to automate certain eagle permit forms. The 
Service's new ``ePermits'' initiative is an automated permit 
application system that will allow the agency to move towards a 
streamlined permitting process to reduce public burden. Public burden 
reduction is a priority for the Service; the Assistant Secretary for 
Fish, Wildlife, and Parks; and senior leadership at the Department of 
the Interior. The intent of the ePermits initiative is to fully 
automate the permitting process to improve the customer experience and 
to reduce time burden on respondents. This new system will enhance the 
user experience by allowing users to enter data from any device that 
has internet access, including personal computers, tablets, and 
smartphones. It will also link the permit applicant to the Pay.gov 
system for payment of the associated permit application fee.
    We anticipate including the following Service forms in the ePermits 
initiative: FWS Forms 3-200-14, 3-200-15a, 3-200-16, 3-200-18, 3-200-
69, 3-200-72, 3-200-77, 3-200-78, 3-200-82, 3-202-11 through 3-202-16, 
3-1552, and 3-1591.
    Title of Collection: Eagle Take Permits and Fees, 50 CFR 22.
    OMB Control Number: 1018-0167.
    Form Numbers: FWS Forms 3-200-14, 3-200-15a, 3-200-16, 3-200-18, 3-
200-71, 3-200-72, 3-200-77, 3-200-78, 3-200-82, 3-202-11 through 3-202-
16, 3-1552, 3-1591, and 3-2480.
    Type of Review: Reinstatement of a previously approved information 
collection with revisions.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals and businesses. We expect 
the majority of applicants seeking long-term permits will be in the 
energy production and electrical distribution business.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 4,068.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Responses: 4,318.
    Estimated Completion Time per Response: Varies from 15 minutes to 
228 hours, depending on activity.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Burden Hours: 25,894.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain a benefit.
    Frequency of Collection: On occasion for applications; annually or 
on occasion for reports.
    Total Estimated Annual Nonhour Burden Cost: $1,369,200 (primarily 
associated with application processing fees).
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor and a person is not required 
to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number.
    The authority for this action is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).

    Dated: May 14, 2020.
Madonna Baucum,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2020-10708 Filed 5-18-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4333-15-P