[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 228 (Tuesday, November 29, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73284-73285]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-25936]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; Identifying Actionable Opportunities To Advance Equity and 
Remove Barriers To Support Underserved Communities

    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 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

[[Page 73285]]

comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on November 
2, 2021, during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an 
additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: Department of Commerce.
    Title: Identifying Actionable Opportunities to Advance Equity and 
Remove Barriers to Support Underserved Communities.
    OMB Control Number: 0690-NEW.
    Form Number(s): New.
    Type of Request: Regular submission, new collection.
    Number of Respondents: 150,000.
    Average Hours per Response: Varied, dependent upon the data 
collection method used. The possible response time to complete a 
questionnaire or survey may be 3 minutes or up to 2 hours to 
participate in an interview or focus group.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 32,875.
    Needs and Uses: In January 2021, President Biden issued Executive 
Order 13985, `Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved 
Communities', which established policy instructing the Federal 
Government to pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for 
all, including people of color and others who have been historically 
underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty 
and inequality, and tasks agencies with developing proactive policies, 
regulations, and guidance that affirmatively promote equity and speak 
to the needs of underserved communities. This will require agencies to 
review existing policies, rules, regulatory actions, and guidance. It 
will also require that agencies identify drivers of systemic inequities 
that are not currently being addressed and develop potential policies 
to address those inequities.
    This new information collection will enable the Department of 
Commerce to act in accordance with this Executive Order to improve both 
efficiency and mission delivery, and to remove systemic barriers to 
opportunities and benefits for underserved communities. To accomplish 
this mission effectively, Commerce needs ongoing feedback on its 
programs and services. This information collection item allows Commerce 
to solicit clients' opinions about the use of products, services, and 
events.
    Commerce will collect, analyze, and interpret information gathered 
through this information collection to identify gaps in equity and make 
improvements in accessibility, navigation, use, and service delivery 
based on insights gathered through developing an understanding of the 
user experience in underserved communities. Commerce will develop a 
question bank for all Bureaus to use to solicit information from both 
federal and non-federal individuals and organizations to develop 
policies and programs that deliver resources and benefits equitably to 
all.
    These data collection efforts may be either qualitative or 
quantitative in nature or may consist of mixed methods. Additionally, 
data may be collected via a variety of means, including but not limited 
to electronic or social media, direct or indirect observation (i.e., in 
person, video and audio collections), interviews, questionnaires, 
surveys, and focus groups. Steps will be taken to ensure anonymity of 
respondents in each activity covered by this request.
    As a general matter, these information collections will not result 
in any new system of records containing privacy information and will 
not ask questions of a sensitive nature and matters that are commonly 
considered private. Personally identifiable information (PII) is 
collected only to the extent necessary and is not retained.
    Affected Public: Collections will be targeted to the solicitation 
of opinions from respondents who have experience with the Commerce 
programs, services, or events or may have experience with the programs, 
services, or events in the future. For the purposes of this request, 
``customers'' are individuals, businesses, and organizations that 
interact with a Federal Government agency or program, either directly 
or via a federal contractor. This could include individuals or 
households; businesses or other for-profit organizations; not-for-
profit institutions; State, local or tribal governments; Federal 
government; and universities.
    Frequency: On occasion; Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: Executive Order (E.O.) 13985.
    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''.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2022-25936 Filed 11-28-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-17-P