[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 113 (Tuesday, June 11, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49147-49148]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-12769]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Economic Development Administration


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Agency Information 
Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Indigenous 
Communities Survey & Interview Collection Instruments

    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 comments were previously requested via the 
Federal Register on March 29, 2024 during a 60-day comment period. This 
notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: Economic Development Administration (EDA), Commerce.
    Title: Indigenous Communities Survey & Interview Collection 
Instruments.
    OMB Control Number: New information collection.
    Form Number(s): None yet determined; new information collection.
    Type of Request: Regular submission.
    Estimated Number of Respondents and Frequency: A total of 150 
respondents will complete a survey. Additional phone interviews will be 
conducted with a subset of 20 survey respondents. The proposed 
information collection will be conducted once. As the Community of 
Practice and Research Challenge to Support Indigenous Communities is a 
new cooperative agreement, EDA anticipates that these estimates will be 
further refined based on data generated completed survey respondents.
    Estimated Average Hours per Response: Half an hour (30 minutes) for 
the electronic survey and 1 hour for each phone interview.
    Estimated Burden Hours: 75 hours for the electronic survey and 20 
hours for the phone interviews.
    Needs and Uses: To effectively administer and monitor its economic 
development assistance programs, EDA collects certain information from 
applications for, and recipients of, EDA investment assistance. The 
purpose of this notice is to seek comments from the public and other 
Federal agencies on a request for a new information collection for 
recipients of awards under the EDA American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) 
Statewide Planning, Research, and Networks, and Economic Development 
Research and Evaluation (R&E) and National Technical Assistance (NTA) 
programs.
    The proposed information collection will employ an innovative mixed 
methods approach to gather traditional metrics in addition to 
qualitative data on Indigenous or Indigenous-serving projects. An 
annual survey will be sent to Indigenous or Indigenous serving grantees 
from 2019-2023 resulting in factsheets and reports that will help 
inform economic development policy, economic decision-making, and 
economic best practices.
    The collection will explore several thematic areas for Indigenous 
communities, each based on the following research questions:
    1. How has EDA funded Indigenous-serving projects and what are the 
characteristics of these projects relative to applications from 
Indigenous entities;
    2. What factors relate to project implementation and outputs for 
awards to Indigenous applicants and for Indigenous-serving projects;
    3. How did the structure of the Indigenous Communities funding 
program influence applicants and award

[[Page 49148]]

decisions relative to Indigenous applicants to other funding programs; 
and
    4. How do grant rates influence applications from Indigenous 
entities and applications from Indigenous-serving organizations with 
projects benefitting Indigenous communities;
    With each of these categories of questions, organized by thematic 
area and noted above, there will be a focus on learning about the 
economic development needs, planning, and priorities of Indigenous 
communities.
    Respondents will answer questions related to the following:
     Community characteristics;
     Economic development characteristics, priorities, 
challenges;
     Economic development funding sources;
     Match funding; and
     If applicable, the Indigenous Communities grant program.
    The collection instrument also includes questions related to the 
overall programmatic experience.
    Affected Public: This survey will specifically target EDA 
applicants for projects that are Indigenous and Indigenous serving. 
Entities may include (i) District Organization of an EDA-designated 
Economic Development District (EDD); (ii) Indian Tribe or a consortium 
of Indian Tribes; (iii) State, county, city, or other political 
subdivision of a State, including a special purpose unit of a State or 
local government engaged in economic or infrastructure development 
activities, or a consortium of political subdivisions; (iv) institution 
of higher education or a consortium of institutions of higher 
education; or (v) public or private non-profit organization or 
association acting in cooperation with officials of a general purpose 
political subdivision of a State.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: The Public Works and Economic Development Act of 
1965 (42 U.S.C. 3121 et seq.).
    This information collection request may be viewed at reginfo.gov. 
Follow the instructions to view 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 Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024-12769 Filed 6-10-24; 8:45 am]
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