[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 138 (Thursday, July 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58339-58340]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-15785]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the 
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment 
Request; A Coastal Management Needs Assessment and Market Analysis for 
Financing Resilience

    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 February 27, 2024 (89 FR 14447) during a 60-day 
comment period. No comments were received. This notice allows for an 
additional 30 days for public comments.
    Agency: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
Commerce.
    Title: A Coastal Management Needs Assessment and Market Analysis 
for Financing Resilience.
    OMB Control Number: 0648-0796.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Regular submission [extension of an approved 
information collection].
    Number of Respondents: 36.
    Average Hours per Response: 1.5 hours.
    Total Annual Burden Hours: 54.
    Needs and Uses: This is a request for extension to an approved 
collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 
3501 et seq., and implementing regulations at 5 CFR. part 1320. This 
previously-approved information collection assists NOAA in the 
development of funding and financing coastal resilience learning 
products and tools in support of the Coastal Zone Management Act of 
1972 (CZMA), 16 U.S.C. 1451 et seq. NOAA's Office for Coastal 
Management (OCM) and its regional, State, Federal, and non-profit 
partners have worked closely with coastal managers across the country 
to increase the resilience of our coastal communities, economies and 
ecosystems. Under the CZMA, OCM provides financial and technical 
assistance to states and territories, including that which helps its 
customers (coastal managers) develop hazard mitigation and climate 
adaptation plans that include strategies for short-term responses to 
immediate threats (e.g., flooding, hurricanes) as well as long-term 
responses to gradual changes (e.g., sea level rise, drought). Services 
are provided through outreach, training, funding, resource, and tool 
development.
    Solutions to these resilience challenges are often complex and 
cross-sectoral. Therefore, coastal decision-makers regularly point to 
the need for more substantial, coordinated, sustained and creative 
funding opportunities to support these efforts. The results of an 
initial review of more than 200 resources that NOAA conducted in 
support of this effort, and informal conversations with NOAA customers 
and other stakeholders indicate that there is no comprehensive 
inventory or guide to understanding and selecting appropriate funding 
options or financing strategies. These findings have been further 
confirmed in subsequent informal discussions with coastal resilience 
and finance practitioners at national venues such as the National 
Adaptation Forum and Social Coast Forum, as well as through the 
original needs assessment using this information collection instrument. 
NOAA's coastal management partners continue to request support on this 
topic.
    The financing world is one that is constantly evolving new products 
and retiring others. The range of funding and financing options, from 
grants and low-interest loans to more innovative private-public 
partnerships and emerging bonds, presents an ever-changing and complex 
array of choices. In initial internal communications and informal 
discussions conducted between June 2018 and February 2020, NOAA 
customers indicated that these opportunities and mechanisms are not 
well understood, and are generally inaccessible to coastal managers, 
particularly in small to mid-sized communities, rural areas, and tribal 
communities. The initial information gathered via this collection 
supported this.
    In many coastal communities, investment in mitigation and 
resilience measures remains either limited or reactive in response to a 
catastrophic event. While there are no data on the number of adaptation 
plans that have been implemented, lack of funding is a frequently cited 
barrier to implementation. At the same time, it has been estimated that 
investing in mitigation can save communities $6 for every $1 spent 
through mitigation grants

[[Page 58340]]

from agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Economic Development 
Administration (according to the National Institute of Building 
Sciences' October 2018 report, Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves: 
Utilities and Transportation Infrastructure). Understanding the suite 
of funding and financing options available at the time resilience 
planning is undertaken, and then incorporating financial strategies 
into the planning process and recommendations, will help ensure that 
these plans are implemented. Section 310 of the Coastal Zone Management 
Act allows for technical assistance and management-oriented research to 
develop and implement state coastal management program amendments.
    NOAA uses the information collected to develop needs assessments 
defining the types of funding, financing mechanisms, and associated 
resources that its state and local coastal manager customers need for 
coastal resilience activities and a market analysis of existing funding 
and financing programs and mechanisms. Simultaneously, NOAA is 
identifying existing resources and partnership opportunities for State 
and local coastal managers and NOAA's non-profit, academic, and other 
customers. Information collected to date has helped inform the 
development of new NOAA funding and financing products and services and 
future collection efforts will help NOAA better understand the impacts 
these products and services have had on coastal managers' barriers.
    This request for extension to an approved collection of information 
is for a set of related interviews to facilitate this research. NOAA 
will perform interviews with state and local coastal managers, as well 
as representatives from non-profit organizations, academia, the Federal 
Government, and the finance industry. The interviews will collect 
relevant information from interviewees on their experiences with 
coastal resilience funding and financing mechanisms, challenges and 
opportunities related to funding and financing coastal resilience, and 
technical support needs and opportunities that NOAA can address.
    The information provided by interviewees will be synthesized into 
the needs assessment, which will address needs and information gaps 
partitioned by region, financial scale, time scale, and scope/sector. 
The information provided by interviewees will also be used to help 
inform an inventory of existing entities providing resources for 
resilience funding, as well as a summary of existing and emerging 
funding sources and financial tools and mechanisms for coastal 
resilience. Finally, the interviews will inform recommendations on 
NOAA's potential niche in addressing the identified needs and gaps.
    The resulting research (and any subsequent resources or tools 
developed by NOAA to address identified gaps) will provide much needed 
information to NOAA's customers on funding and financing coastal 
resilience efforts, including available resources and mechanisms, best 
practices and strategies, real world success stories, and opportunities 
for technical and financial partnerships with private and public 
entities.
    Affected Public: State and local government, Federal Government, 
non-profit organizations, academic institutions, business or other for-
profit enterprises.
    Frequency: On Occasion.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: None.
    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'' or by using the search 
function and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB 
Control Number 0648-0796.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for 
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024-15785 Filed 7-17-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-22-P