[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 58 (Monday, March 27, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18173-18175]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-06240]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

[FWS-HQ-MB-2023-N030; FF09M30000-234-FXMB12320900000; 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 of 1995, we, 
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), are proposing to renew, 
without change, an information collection.

DATES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before 
April 26, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this 
particular information collection by selecting ``Currently under 
Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function. 
Please provide a copy of your comments to the Service Information 
Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS: PRB 
(JAO/3W), 5275 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041-3803 (mail); or by 
email to [email protected]. Please reference ``1018-0167'' in the 
subject line of your comments.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request additional information 
about this ICR, contact Madonna L. Baucum, Service Information 
Collection Clearance Officer, by email at [email protected], or by 
telephone at (703) 358-2503. Individuals in the United States who are 
deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 
711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay 
services. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay 
services offered within their country to make international calls to 
the point-of-contact in the United States.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 and 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 January 13, 2023, we published in the Federal Register (88 FR 
2369) a notice of our intent to request that OMB approve this 
information collection. In that notice, we solicited comments for 60 
days, ending on March 14, 2023. In an effort to increase public 
awareness of, and participation in, our public commenting processes 
associated with information collection requests, the Service also 
published the Federal Register notice on Regulations.gov (Docket FWS-
HQ-MB-2023-0009) to provide the public with an additional method to 
submit comments (in addition to the typical [email protected] email and 
U.S. mail submission methods). We received the following comments in 
response to that notice:
    Comment 1: Electronic comment received January 14, 2023 from Jean 
Publiee via Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0002). The commenter 
did not address the information collection requirements.
    Agency Response to Comment 1: No response required.
    Comment 2: Anonymous electronic comment received March 13, 2023 via 
Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0003). The commenter did not 
address the information collection requirements.

[[Page 18174]]

    Agency Response to Comment 2: No response required.
    Comment 3: Electronic comment received March 13, 2023 from Kelsey 
Royce via Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0004). The commenter 
requested an extension on the 60-day comment period of this notice.
    Agency Response to Comment 3: We declined to grant the extension 
due to the upcoming expiration date of this existing information 
collection. We will inform the commenter when the 30-day comment period 
opens for the renewal of this information collection, and we will also 
notify them for the opening of the comment period for the final rule.
    Comment 4: Electronic comment received March 14, 2023 from Brooke 
Marcus with the Energy and Wildlife Action Coalition via 
Regulations.gov (FWS-HQ-MB-2023-0009-0005). The commenter provided 
comments addressing the Service's proposed rule (RIN 1018-BE70; Docket 
No. FWS-HQ-MB-2020-0023) and did not address the current information 
collection requirements in this notice.
    Agency Response to Comment 4: The comments provided are outside the 
scope of this notice and appear to be in response to the proposed 
rulemaking. We will inform the commenter when the 30-day comment period 
opens for the renewal of this information collection, and we will also 
notify them for the opening of the comment period for the final rule.
    Comment 5: Comment received March 15, 2023 from Evan Inman via 
email. The commenter requested an extension on the 60-day comment 
period of this notice.
    Agency Response to Comment 5: We declined to grant the extension 
due to the upcoming expiration date of this existing information 
collection. We will inform the commenter when the 30-day comment period 
opens for the renewal of this information collection, and we will also 
notify them for the opening of the comment period for the final rule.
    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 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: 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. 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.
    The Service proposes to renew this information collection, without 
change, in order to extend the expiration date for the collection 
(currently July 31, 2023) while the Service continues to finalize our 
rulemaking under RIN 1018-BG70, Permits for Incidental Take of Eagles 
and Eagle Nests. On September 30, 2022, we published the proposed rule 
(87 FR 59598) to revise the regulations authorizing the issuance of 
permits for eagle incidental take and eagle nest take to increase the 
efficiency and effectiveness of permitting, facilitate and improve 
compliance, and increase the conservation benefit for eagles. The 
comment period for the proposed rule ended on November 29, 2022. On 
November 28, 2022, we extended the proposed rule's comment period to 
December 29, 2022 (87 FR 72957). We received no comments addressing the 
information collection requirements.
    In addition to continuing to authorize specific permits, the 
proposed rule, if finalized as written, would create general permits 
for certain activities under prescribed conditions (qualifying wind-
energy generation projects, power line infrastructure, activities that 
may disturb breeding bald eagles, and bald eagle nest take). It also 
would remove the current third-party monitoring requirement for eagle 
incidental take permits, update current permit fees, and clarify 
definitions. We anticipate publication of the final rule under RIN 
1018-BE70 in late 2023 or early 2024.
    The public may request copies of any form contained in this 
information collection by sending a request to the Service Information 
Collection Clearance Officer (see ADDRESSES).
    Title of Collection: Eagle Permits, 50 CFR 22.
    OMB Control Number: 1018-0167.
    Form Numbers: 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, 3-200-11 through 3-200-16, 
3-1552, 3-1591, and 3-2480.
    Type of Review: Extension without change of a currently approved 
collection.
    Respondents/Affected Public: Individuals and businesses. We expect 
that the majority of applicants seeking long-term permits will be in 
the energy production and electrical distribution business sectors.
    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

[[Page 18175]]

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.).

Signed:

Madonna Baucum,
Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service.
[FR Doc. 2023-06240 Filed 3-24-23; 8:45 am]
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