[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 223 (Monday, November 21, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 70856-70857]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-25273]



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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

[Docket No. CISA-2022-0015]


Revision of a Currently Approved Information Collection for the 
State, Local Tribal and Private Sector (SLTPS) Clearance Program

AGENCY: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

ACTION: 60-Day notice and request for comments; revision of information 
collection request: 1670-0013.

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SUMMARY: CISA is issuing a 60-day notice and request for comments to 
revise Information Collection Request (ICR) 1670-0013. CISA will submit 
the ICR to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Comments are due January 20, 2023.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number CISA-
2022-0015 through the Federal eRulemaking Portal available at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
    Instructions: All comments received via https://www.regulations.gov 
will be posted to the public docket at https://www.regulations.gov, 
including any personal information provided.
    Do not submit comments that include trade secrets, confidential 
commercial or financial information, Protected Critical Infrastructure 
Information (PCII), or Sensitive Security Information (SSI) directly to 
the public regulatory docket. Contact the individual listed in the FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section below with questions about comments 
containing such protected information. CISA will not place comments 
containing such protected information in the public docket and will 
handle them in accordance with applicable safeguards and restrictions 
on access. Additionally, CISA will hold them in a separate file to 
which the public does not have access and place a note in the public 
docket that CISA has received such protected materials from the 
commenter. If CISA receives a request to examine or copy this 
information, CISA will treat it as any other request under the Freedom 
of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, and the Department's FOIA 
regulation found in part 5 of Title 6 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Quintin Whitaker, 202-805-4959 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Partnerships between the U.S. Government and 
the state, local tribal and private sector at times necessitate the 
sharing of classified information. The State, Local, Tribal and Private 
Sector (SLTPS) Clearance Request Form facilitates this sharing by 
sponsoring security clearances for certain members of each sector based 
on either their membership on a Sector Coordinating Council (SCC)/
association or their infrastructure protection job-related duties and 
their need-to-know. The SLTPS is designed to sponsor security 
clearances for state, local, tribal and private sector officials 
involved in the infrastructure protection mission. These partners are 
subject matter experts within specific industries and have specialized 
knowledge not available within the Department of Homeland Security 
(DHS) and other Federal Departments or Agencies. Private citizens do 
not receive monetary compensation for their time. CISA created this 
program to sponsor clearances for these individuals who are not 
employed by or contracted with another Federal agency (the traditional 
means of obtaining a clearance) and must have clearances.
    The Cyber Information Sharing and Collaboration Agreement (CISCA) 
and Classified Critical Infrastructure Protection Program (CCIPP) 
nominees will also use the form in the same manner as the SLTPS. The 
form updates will include adding State and Local, CISCA and CCIPP to 
the drop-down capabilities. Type of submission will have a dropdown 
capability added. Subsectors will be added to some of the Sectors. A 
generic approving signature title will be added.
    CISA collects necessary information through 1670-0013 to facilitate 
security clearances needed for sharing classified information with the 
vetted SLTPS Stakeholders. The U.S. Government is authorized to ask for 
this information under sections 201 and 229 of the Homeland Security 
Act (Pub. L. 107-296, 6 U.S.C. 121, 150), and Executive Orders 12968, 
13526, 13549, 13636, and 13691 which authorize the collection of this 
information.
    In order to begin this process of adjudicating a nominee to 
participate in the clearance program, federal nominators will complete 
the DHS Form 9014, State, Local, Tribal and Private Sector Clearance 
Request Form, excluding their date of birth, place of birth and social 
security number. The federal nominator will sign the form and have it 
approved by a senior-level official from the corresponding Federal 
Department or Agency. Before being submitted to the CISA Office of the 
Chief Security Officer (OCSO) SLTPS Administrator via the CISA Action 
Task Tracker (CATT), the nominee would have been deemed to have a CISA 
mission and meet the requirements and criteria as outlined in Executive 
Order (E.O.) 13549, the Department of Homeland Security, Classified 
National Security Information Program for SLTPS Implementing Directive 
and E.O. 13691, sec. 4(c), and 32 CFR part 117, sec. 117.22 of the 
National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM). The 
SLTPS Administrator will extract the application from the electronic 
tracking system and will capture first and last name, clearance level 
being requested, sector or subsector they are involved in, company, job 
title, city and state the company is located, work and personal email 
and work phone number. This information is entered into a SharePoint 
system in order to track the clearance process and to provide a real-
time status of a nominee [and Stakeholders] to federal nominators and 
DHS employees who have a need to know. The OCSO Security Specialist is 
informed that the nominee is ready to start the clearance process and 
the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is requested and input 
into the Electronic Questionnaires for Investigations Processing (e-
QIP) system, the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) secure portal 
for investigation processing. Once the data is entered into e-QIP, the 
nominee is provided a password and can access the system and complete 
the online security questionnaire.
    This information is only available to Security Specialists within 
OCSO working on the program and is maintained in the Integrated 
Security Management System (ISMS), which is ``owned'' by the OCSO. The 
two-part PII request process helps minimize the collection of sensitive 
PII for only those nominees who meet the threshold and are sponsored by 
CISA.

Number of Respondents

    The current estimate of annual respondents is 660, however, based 
on recent program data, CISA is revising the estimate to 550.

Estimated Time per Response

    CISA is choosing to retain the estimate of 10 minutes (0.1667 
hours) per response in the current information collection.

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Annual Burden Hours

    In the current information collection, the estimated annual burden 
is 110 hours. To estimate the annual burden hours for this collection, 
the CISA multiplied the number of annual respondents by the estimated 
time burden of 0.1667 hours (10 minutes), for an estimated annual 
burden of 91.67 hours (i.e., 0.1667 hours multiplied by 550 annual 
respondents).

Total Annual Burden

    To estimate the total annual burden, CISA multiplied the annual 
burden of 24,879 hours by the average loaded hourly wage rate computer 
and information systems managers of $110.66 \1\ per hour. Therefore, 
the total annual burden cost for the collection is $10,144 (91.67 hours 
x $110.66). For the three-year period for which this collection will be 
approved, the total cost burden would be $6,603,456 ($2,201,152 annual 
cost multiplied by 3 years).
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    \1\ The above Average Hourly Wage Rate is the May 2021 Bureau of 
Labor Statistics average wage for Computer and Information Systems 
Managers (11-3021) of $78.33 times the wage rate benefit multiplier 
of 1.4127 (to account for fringe benefits) equaling $110.66. The 
benefits multiplier is estimated by dividing total compensation of 
$37.24 by salaries and wages of $26.36, based on Employer Cost for 
Employee Compensation, September 2021, released December 16, 2021 
(https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_12162021.pdf).
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    This is a revised information collection.
    OMB is particularly interested in comments that:
    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).

Analysis

    Agency: Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity and 
Infrastructure Security Agency.
    Title of Collection: State, Local, Tribal and Private Sector 
(SLTPS) Clearance Request Program.
    OMB Number: 1670-0013.
    Instrument: DHS Form 9014: State, Local, Tribal and Private Sector 
(SLTPS) Clearance Request Form.
    Frequency: ``Other''.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Number of Respondents: 550 respondents.
    Estimated Time per Respondent: 0.1667 hours (10 minutes).
    Total Burden Hours: 91.67 annual burden hours.
    Total Burden Cost (capital/startup): $0.
    Total Recordkeeping Burden: $0.
    Total Burden Cost: $10,144.
    Authority: 6 U.S.C. 121, 150.

Robert Costello,
Chief Information Officer, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security 
Agency, Department of Homeland Security.
[FR Doc. 2022-25273 Filed 11-18-22; 8:45 am]
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