Agencies and Commissions October 19, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Committee is proposing to add products and services to the Procurement List that will be furnished by nonprofit agencies employing persons who are blind or have other severe disabilities and deletes products previously furnished by such agencies.

The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance consultation program to provide the general public and federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA95) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). This program helps to ensure that requested data can be provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood, and the impact of collection requirement on respondents can be properly assessed. Currently, CNCS is soliciting comments concerning its proposed renewal of the President's Volunteer Service Awards (PVSA), parts A, B, C, D, E and F. Copies of the information collection request can be obtained by contacting the office listed in the addresses section of this notice.

The Postal Service hereby provides notice that it has filed a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission to remove International Restricted Delivery from the competitive product list.

This is a notice of an Administrative declaration of a disaster for the State of New York dated 10/10/2012. Incident: Heavy Rain and Flooding. Incident Period: 09/18/2012. Effective Date: 10/10/2012. Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 12/10/2012. Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan Application Deadline Date: 07/10/2013.

The FDIC, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. chapter 35), invites the general public and other Federal agencies to comment on the survey collection instrument for its third National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households (``Household Survey''), currently approved under OMB Control No. 3064- 0167, scheduled to be conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau as a supplement to its June 2013 Current Population Survey (``CPS''). The collection is a key component of the FDIC's efforts to comply with a Congressional mandate contained in section 7 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Reform Conforming Amendments Act of 2005 (``Reform Act'') (Pub. L. 109-173), which calls for the FDIC to conduct ongoing surveys ``on efforts by insured depository institutions to bring those individuals and families who have rarely, if ever, held a checking account, a savings account or other type of transaction or check cashing account at an insured depository institution (hereafter in this section referred to as the `unbanked') into the conventional finance system.'' Section 7 further instructs the FDIC to consider several factors in its conduct of the surveys, including: (1) ``What cultural, language and identification issues as well as transaction costs appear to most prevent `unbanked' individuals from establishing conventional accounts''; and (2) ``what is a fair estimate of the size and worth of the ``unbanked'' market in the United States.'' The household survey is designed to address these factors and provide a factual basis on the proportions of unbanked households. Such a factual basis is necessary to adequately assess banks' efforts to serve these households as required by the statutory mandate. To satisfy the Congressional mandate, the FDIC designed two complementary surveys: a survey of FDIC-insured depository institutions and a survey of households. The survey of FDIC-insured depository institutions, aimed at collecting data on their efforts to serve underbanked, as well as unbanked, populations (underbanked populations include individuals who have an account with an insured depository but also rely on non-bank alternative financial service providers for transaction services or high cost credit products), was conducted in mid-2007 and again in 2011. The results of the 2007 survey were released in February 2008 and the results of the 2011 survey are expected to be released in December 2012. The first survey of unbanked and underbanked households was conducted in January 2009 as a CPS supplement and the results were released to the public in December 2009. The second survey of unbanked and underbanked households was conducted in June 2011 and the results were released to the public in September 2012. The household survey seeks to estimate the proportions of unbanked and underbanked households in the U.S. and to identify the factors that inhibit the participation of these households in the mainstream banking system. The results of these ongoing surveys will help policymakers and bankers understand the issues and challenges underserved households perceive when deciding how and where to conduct financial transactions. This notice addresses the next Household Survey.