[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 87 (Friday, May 3, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36770-36771]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-09706]


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COMMITTEE FOR PURCHASE FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR SEVERELY DISABLED


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposals, Submissions, 
and Approvals

AGENCY: Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely 
Disabled.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or 
Severely Disabled operates as the U.S. AbilityOne Commission 
(Commission). This notice announces the Commission's intent to submit 
the Information Collection Request (``ICR'') described below to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval under applicable 
provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act. This notice provides an 
opportunity to interested members of the public and affected agencies 
to comment on a proposed Nonprofit Agency (NPA) AbilityOne 
Representations and Certifications (ARC) form.

DATES: Submit comments on or before July 1, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Submit comments to www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Stewart, Compliance and 
Enforcement Attorney, Office of General Counsel, U.S. AbilityOne 
Commission, 355 E Street SW, Suite 325, Washington, DC 20024; 
telephone: (703) 254-6172; email: [email protected]. If you are 
deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and wish to access 
telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Overview of ICR: This notice pertains to an 
ICR the Commission intends to submit to OMB for approval of an updated 
form that an AbilityOne NPA will submit annually regarding its 
AbilityOne Program performance. This is a revision of an existing form 
that is submitted on an annual reporting cycle. This ICR is consistent 
with OMB regulations at 5 CFR part 1320, which implement provisions of 
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). These 
regulations require the Commission to provide an opportunity for 
interested members of the public and affected agencies to comment on 
information collection and recordkeeping activities (see 5 CFR 
1320.8(d)), such as those proposed to be implemented through this 
updated form.
    The Commission is responsible for implementing the Javits-Wagner-
O'Day (JWOD) Act, 41 U.S.C. 8501-8506. In doing so, the Commission 
oversees the AbilityOne Program (Program), a program in which 
individuals who are blind or have significant disabilities provide 
products and services to Federal agencies, thereby creating employment 
opportunities for such individuals. The Commission maintains a 
Procurement List of mandatory source products and services provided by 
approximately 400 qualified nonprofit agencies (NPAs). Individuals who 
are working on AbilityOne contracts and counted towards the direct 
labor hour ratio mandated by the JWOD Act are called ``participating 
employees.''
    The implementing regulations for the JWOD Act, located at 41 CFR 
chapter 51, provide the program's requirements, procedures, and 
standards. Section 51-4.3 of the regulations sets forth the

[[Page 36771]]

requirements that an NPA must meet to maintain qualification for 
participation in the Program. Under this section of the regulations, an 
NPA must submit a completed copy of the appropriate Annual 
Certification form. This documentation helps the Commission determine 
whether the NPA is meeting the qualification requirements of the 
Program. The Commission has also published policies regarding 
compliance expectations of the NPAs. This information collection 
request seeks approval for the Commission to update its collection of 
information necessary to verify an NPA's compliance with Program 
requirements, as well as regarding an NPA's effective performance in 
meeting the mission of the Program. To ensure consistency with the 
Commission's modernization of the Program, the updated form will 
collect information on employment benefits offered to participating 
employees, aggregate data regarding employment mobility outcomes 
achieved by participating employees, and the prevalence of 
subcontracting that contributes to workplace integration and employee 
career development for participating employees.
    The proposed updated ARC is available at www.abilityone.gov.
    The ARC will be required annually at the Federal fiscal year-end. 
The form will be completed and submitted electronically.
    The updated form is expected to provide a net reduction in the time 
burden for NPAs and to result in greater efficiency and cost savings in 
the oversight process.
    The estimated time burden for the existing form is 8 hours. The 
Commission estimates that the updated form will require 5 hours to 
complete.
    The existing form requires 33 yes/no/not applicable responses to 
questions about the NPA's AbilityOne Program qualification standing, 
and these questions require that attachments be provided to explain 
certain responses to these questions. The existing form also includes 
seven data tables to be completed, with more than 60 rows of data.
    The proposed new form limits qualification standing responses to 
10, comprised of five yes/no/not applicable responses, with only two 
questions directing further explanation or an attachment, as well as 
one multiple choice question and four open text field questions. The 
proposed new form contains one less data table than the existing form 
and requires fewer than 30 rows of data to be completed. The Commission 
proposes two related forms for electronic completion, which should 
enable auto-calculation of certain data fields required by this 
proposed form, further streamlining the process to complete the 
proposed form. In total, the existing form requires 132 mandatory 
responses and requires additional (conditional) explanations to 33 
questions. The proposed new form requires fewer than 80 mandatory 
responses and approximately 65 conditional responses. The Commission 
does not expect the NPAs preparing this form to answer ``yes'' to every 
question that involves a conditional response. The Commission has also 
designed the new proposed form with check boxes where possible, to make 
preparation of the form more efficient.
    To calculate the cost burden for the average annual burden, the 
Commission used national average pay data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, using the May 2023 National Occupational Employment and 
Wage Estimate of $30.88 as the median hourly wage for a Human Resources 
Specialist (OC 13-1070) to fill out the form and a median principal 
officer hourly wage from the 990 Forms filed by a sampling of NPAs for 
the NPA principal officer to review and sign the form. (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#11-0000.)
    The table below represents the time and cost burden the Commission 
estimates this form will necessitate.

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                                                 Annual form                                    Annual form cost
                NPA positions                    time burden    Cost estimate for annual time     burden on all
                                                   (hours)           burden on employees              NPAs
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HR Specialist................................               4  $123.52 (for 4 hours)..........           $49,408
Principal Officer............................               1  $384.60 (for 1 hour)...........           153,840
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    Total Cost Burden: $203,248.
    With respect to this collection of information via the proposed 
form, the Commission welcomes comments on the following:
     The necessity to collect this information to support the 
Commission's mission and oversight responsibilities;
     Methodology to improve the accuracy of the estimated time 
burden;
     Suggestions or methods to minimize the burdens associated 
with collecting the information described in this ICR.
     The proposed form is viewable at www.abilityone.gov.

Michael R. Jurkowski,
Director, Business Operations.
[FR Doc. 2024-09706 Filed 5-2-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6353-01-P