[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 4 (Thursday, January 7, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1117-1118]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-00027]



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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Federal Emergency Management Agency

[Docket ID: FEMA-2020-0035; OMB No. 1660-0072]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA); Building 
Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC); Pre-Disaster 
Mitigation (PDM)

AGENCY: Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS).

ACTION: 30-Day notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will submit the 
information collection described below to the Office of Management and 
Budget for review and clearance in accordance with the requirements of 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. While this information collection 
continues to include the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) and Pre-
Disaster Mitigation (PDM) programs, it introduces the Building 
Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, and addresses 
the process for using a BRIC fiscal year (FY) 20 National Competition 
Panel Review Expression of Interest Form to solicit panel members to 
review competitive BRIC grant applications. After reviewing all the 
comments submitted, FEMA has decided to use the BRIC FY20 National 
Competition Panel Review Expression of Interest Form to solicit 
interest from potential panelists.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before February 8, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennie Orenstein, Grants Policy Branch 
Chief, Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, FEMA, 
[email protected], (202) 212-4071. You may contact the 
Records Management Division for copies of the proposed collection of 
information at email address: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This collection of information is necessary 
to implement grants for the Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) program, 
Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM), and Building Resilient Infrastructure 
and Communities (BRIC) program.
    The FMA program is authorized pursuant to Section 1366 of the 
National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4104c). FMA 
was created as part of the National Flood Insurance Reform Act (NFIRA) 
of 1994, Public Law 103-325. The Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform 
Act of 2012 (BW-12), Public Law 112-141, consolidated the Repetitive 
Flood Claims (RFC) and Severe Repetitive Loss grant (SRL) programs into 
FMA. Under FMA, cost-share requirements were changed to allow more 
Federal funds for properties with repetitive flood claims. The FMA 
program, under 44 CFR part 79, provides funding for measures taken to 
reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of flood damage to buildings, 
manufactured homes, and other structures insured under the National 
Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
    PDM was authorized under Section 203 of the Robert T. Stafford 
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), Public Law 
93-288, as amended by Section 102 of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 
2000, Public Law 106-390 (42 U.S.C. 5133). As a result of amendments by 
the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA), the PDM program is 
being replaced with the BRIC program. Therefore, PDM is established as 
a legacy program. The PDM program provided grants for cost-effective 
mitigation actions prior to a disaster event to reduce overall risks to 
the population and structures while also reducing reliance on funding 
from actual disaster declarations. While the last cycle of the PDM 
program awards were made in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, information 
collection will continue through FY 2020-2021 for grant monitoring and 
closeout.
    The Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018, Section 1234, National 
Public Infrastructure Pre-Disaster Hazard Mitigation, amended Section 
203 of the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. 5133) to authorize BRIC. The BRIC 
program is designed to promote a national culture of preparedness and 
public safety through encouraging investments to protect our 
communities and infrastructure and through strengthening national 
mitigation capabilities to foster resilience. The BRIC program seeks to 
fund effective and innovative projects that will reduce risk, increase 
resilience, and serve as a catalyst to encourage the whole community to 
invest in and adopt policies related to mitigation.
    The guiding principles of the BRIC program are to (1) support state 
and local governments, tribes, and territories through capability and 
capacity-building to enable them to identify mitigation actions and 
implement projects that reduce risks posed by natural hazards; (2) 
encourage and enable innovation while allowing flexibility, 
consistency, and effectiveness; (3) promote partnerships and enable 
high-impact investments to reduce risk from natural hazards with a 
focus on critical services and facilities, public infrastructure, 
public safety, public health, and communities; (4) provide a 
significant opportunity to reduce future losses and minimize impacts on 
the Disaster Relief Fund; and (5) support the adoption and enforcement 
of building codes, standards, and policies that will protect the 
health, safety, and general welfare of the public, take into account 
future conditions, and have long-lasting impacts on community risk 
reduction, including for critical services and facilities and for 
future disaster costs. The BRIC program will distribute funds annually 
and apply a federal/non-federal cost share.
    In accordance with OMB Circular A-102, FEMA requires that all 
parties interested in receiving FEMA mitigation grants to submit an 
application package for grant assistance. Applications and sub-
applications for the BRIC and FMA programs are submitted via the FEMA 
Grants Outcome (GO) system. Information necessary for the ongoing 
monitoring and closeout of the PDM program for FY 2019 and prior will 
be collected via the e-Grants system. The FEMA GO and e-Grants systems 
have been developed to meet the intent of the e-Government initiative, 
authorized by Public Law 106-107. This initiative requires that all 
government agencies both streamline grant application processes and 
provide for the means to electronically create, review, and submit a 
grant application via the internet.
    To increase transparency in decision-making while building 
capability and partnerships, FEMA will convene a National Review Panel 
to score applications and sub-applications based on qualitative 
evaluation criteria. The qualitative criteria are narrative submissions 
to allow applicants and sub-applicants the flexibility to fully explain 
the strengths of the proposed project. Qualitative evaluation criteria 
have graded scales of point scoring.
    The BRIC program will need to solicit volunteers from State, local, 
Tribal, and territorial governments (SLTTs) and

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Other Federal Agencies (OFAs) to review applications that are routed to 
the qualitative panel reviews. The volunteers will review and score 
applications based on a pre-determined scoring criterion.
    This proposed information collection previously published in the 
Federal Register on October 27, 2020, with a 60-day public comment 
period. The comment period closed on December 28, 2020. FEMA received 
one comment with two parts via www.regulations.gov in response to 
Information Collection 1660-0072. A summary of the comment and FEMA's 
response is provided below.
    The first part of the comment stated that because ``community'' is 
used in program descriptions, applications and sub-applications 
submitted by SLTTs for BRIC and FMA grants should include additional 
information such as evidence of public outreach and education on 
proposed mitigation activities and public comment on the proposed 
mitigation activities. In response, while FEMA appreciates this 
comment, the Federal Register notice for this information collection 
was published to solicit feedback about the expression of interest form 
created to solicit potential panelists for the BRIC application review 
process. Adding additional requirements to BRIC applications and sub-
applications is outside the scope of this matter.
    The second part of the comment seeks additional information about 
the makeup of the qualitative panel, the review process, and whether 
panelists will be compensated for their participation in the review 
process. In response, FEMA provides the following information.
    BRIC applications and sub-applications will be reviewed for 
Eligibility and Completeness (E&C) by FEMA's respective regional 
offices. During the E&C review, projects that are submitted to the 
national competition will also be provided a technical score. Technical 
scores are made up of 100 points, which are binary points. After 
applications have gone through the E&C review, they will be forwarded 
to the National Technical Review (NTR). Projects that are marked as 
standard or decentralized during the E&C review will be reviewed and 
issued an NTR memo. After NTR has concluded, the projects that are 
submitted to the national competition will be sent to the qualitative 
panels. During the qualitative panels, applications will be reviewed by 
representatives from the SLTTs and OFAs that comprise the panel and 
scored based on a gradient scale. Qualitative scoring has a total of 
100 possible points. The scoring is made up of six (6) criteria, all 
ranging in different point value. The panelists will leverage their 
mitigation experience and expertise during the review to assess the 
degree to which subapplications meet the six BRIC qualitative 
evaluation criteria. The subapplication's final qualitative score will 
be calculated by averaging the qualitative scores from each panelist. 
The six criteria include the following: (1) Risk Reduction/Resiliency 
Effectiveness possible 35 points, (2) Future Conditions possible 15 
points, (3) Implementation Measures possible 15 points, (4) Population 
Impacted possible 15 points, (5) Outreach Activities possible 5 points, 
and (6) Leveraging Partners possible 15 points. More information on the 
background, evaluation process and scoring, and criteria can be found 
here: https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-08/fema_bric-qualitative-criteria_support_document_08-2020.pdf . For the qualitative 
panels, each application will be reviewed and scored by three (3) 
volunteer panel members. The panelists will not be compensated for 
their participation.

Collection of Information

    Title: Mitigation Grant Programs.
    Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved 
collection.
    OMB Number: 1660-0072.
    FEMA Forms: Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities 
(BRIC) FY20 National Competition Panel Review Expression of Interest 
Form.
    Abstract: FEMA's FMA and BRIC programs use an automated grant 
application and management system called FEMA GO. The Pre-Disaster 
Mitigation program uses an automated grant application and management 
system called e-Grants. These grant programs provide funding for the 
purpose of reducing or eliminating the risks to life and property from 
hazards. The FEMA GO and e-Grants systems include all the application 
information needed to apply for funding under these grant programs. 
FEMA and SLTTs will use the information submitted via the FY20 National 
Competition Panel Review Expression of Interest Form to solicit 
volunteers from SLTTs and OFAs to review applications that are routed 
to the BRIC qualitative panel reviews. The volunteers will review, and 
score applications based on a pre-determined scoring criterion.
    Affected Public: Federal Government; State, local, Tribal, and 
territorial governments; Individuals or Households.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 436.
    Estimated Number of Responses: 5,364.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 58,248.
    Estimated Total Annual Respondent Cost: $3,324,211.
    Estimated Respondents' Operation and Maintenance Costs: None.
    Estimated Respondents' Capital and Start-Up Costs: None.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost to the Federal Government: $7,586,635.

Comments

    Comments may be submitted as indicated in the ADDRESSES caption 
above. Comments are solicited to (a) evaluate whether the proposed data 
collection is necessary for the proper performance of the agency, 
including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) 
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; (c) enhance the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) 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 responses.

Millicent L Brown,
Acting Records Management Branch Chief, Office of the Chief 
Administrative Officer, Mission Support, Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, Department of Homeland Security.
[FR Doc. 2021-00027 Filed 1-6-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9111-BW-P