[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 22, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9568-9570]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-03724]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Census Bureau


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Annual Business Survey

    The Department of Commerce will submit the following information 
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and clearance in accordance

[[Page 9569]]

with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, on or after the date of 
publication of this notice. We invite the general public and other 
Federal agencies to comment on proposed, and continuing information 
collections, which helps us assess the impact of our information 
collection requirements and minimize the public's reporting burden. 
Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on 
July 6, 2020 during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an 
additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
    Title: Annual Business Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-1004.
    Form Number(s): ABS-1.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for a Revision of a 
Currently Approved Collection.
    Number of Respondents: 308,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 58 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 301,533.
    Needs and Uses: In an effort to improve the measurement of business 
dynamics in the United States, the Census Bureau is conducting the 
Annual Business Survey (ABS). The ABS combines Census Bureau firm-level 
collections to reduce respondent burden, increase data quality, reduce 
operational costs, and operate more efficiently. The ABS replaced the 
five-year Survey of Business Owners (SBO) for employer businesses, the 
Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE), and the Business Research and 
Development (R&D) and Innovation for Microbusinesses (BRDI-M) surveys. 
The ABS provides information on selected economic and demographic 
characteristics for businesses and business owners by sex, ethnicity, 
race, and veteran status. Further, the survey measures research and 
development for microbusinesses, new business topics such as innovation 
and technology, as well as other business characteristics. The ABS is 
sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics 
(NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted by 
the Census Bureau for five years (2018-2022).
    The ABS includes all nonfarm employer businesses filing Internal 
Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms as individual proprietorships, 
partnerships, or any other type of corporation, with receipts of $1,000 
or more. The ABS sampled approximately 850,000 employer businesses for 
survey year 2018 (reference year 2017). Starting with survey year 2019 
(reference year 2018), the sample is reduced to approximately 300,000 
employer businesses annually (survey years 2019-2022) to reduce the 
burden on the respondents. The reduced sample size will yield summary-
level estimates for women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned 
businesses at the 2-digit NAICS, U.S., state and metropolitan 
statistical area (MSA) levels. The Census Bureau uses administrative 
data to estimate the probability that a firm is minority- or women-
owned. Each firm is then placed in one of nine frames for sampling. The 
sampling frames are: American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or 
African American, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 
Non-Hispanic White Men, Other, Publicly Owned, and Women. The sample is 
stratified by state, industry, and frame. The Census Bureau selects 
some companies with certainty based on volume of sales, payroll, and 
number of paid employees or NAICS. All certainty cases are sure to be 
selected and represent only themselves.
    Starting with survey year 2021 (reference year 2020), the ABS 
sample included an additional 8,000 respondents to collect research 
activities from nonprofit organizations. Historically, nonprofit 
organizations were in scope to the ABS, however, they were not mailed 
before the 2021 ABS because the survey does not expect nonprofit 
organizations to be classifiable by sex, ethnicity, race, or veteran 
status. To include the nonprofit organizations, the sample size 
increased to approximately 308,000 (300,000 employer businesses + 8,000 
nonprofit organizations). Of note, nonprofit organizations will only 
see questions relating to research activities and will not be asked any 
questions relating to owner demographics.
    The ABS is designed to allow for incorporating new content each 
survey year based on topics of relevance. Each year new questions will 
be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval.
    Employer businesses will be asked questions about the sex, 
ethnicity, race, and veteran status for up to four persons owning the 
majority of rights, equity, or interest in the business (Section B of 
the questionnaire). Organizations sampled as nonprofits and respondents 
with 1-9 employees will be asked about research and development (R&D) 
activities, R&D costs, and R&D capital expenditures (Sections C and D 
of the questionnaire respectively). Further, employer businesses 
sampled will be asked about the following topics: Goods, Services, and 
Business Processes and Technology (Section E of the questionnaire); 
Design and Intellectual Property (Section F of the questionnaire); 
Domestic and Foreign Transactions (Section G of the questionnaire); and 
Coronavirus Pandemic Impact on Research and Development and Business 
Activities (Section H of the questionnaire). The 2022 ABS includes 
additional questions on capital expenditures for R&D performers. The 
R&D capital expenditures is asked of nonprofits and businesses with 1-9 
employees (sections C and D of the ABS questionnaire).
    The ABS is primarily collected via an electronic or web-based 
instrument. Respondents selected for the survey receive an initial 
letter informing them of their requirement to complete the survey as 
well as instructions on accessing the survey. The 2022 ABS initial 
mailing is scheduled for July 2022. Responses will be due approximately 
30 days from initial mailing. Respondents will also receive a due date 
reminder approximately one week before responses are due. The Census 
Bureau plans to conduct two follow-up mailings and an optional third 
follow-up if deemed necessary based on check-in. Nonrespondents may 
receive a certified mailing for the second and third follow-up 
mailings. The Census Bureau may also plan to conduct an email follow-up 
to select nonrespondents reminding them to submit their report in the 
electronic instrument. The Census Bureau may include a paper 
questionnaire during the follow-up activities to assist with collecting 
data from select nonrespondents. Closeout of mail operations is 
scheduled for January 2023 but may be extended to allow ample time to 
receive returned forms if necessary. Response data will be processed as 
they are received. Upon the close of the collection period, data 
processing will continue, and records will be edited, reviewed, 
tabulated, and disseminated.
    The Census Bureau, in collaboration with the NCSES, has started 
discussing topics for the 2023-2027 ABS 5-year cycle. As a result, a 
draft 5-year content plan has been developed for OMB's review.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 8(b), 131, 
and 182; Title 42, United States Code, Section 1861-76 (National 
Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended); and Section 505 within the 
America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 authorize this collection. 
Sections 224 and 225 of

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Title 13, United States Code, require a response from sampled firms.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view the Department of 
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of 
this notice on the following website 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 and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0607-1004.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2022-03724 Filed 2-18-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P