Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, 55031-55032 [E8-22412]
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Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 186 / Wednesday, September 24, 2008 / Notices
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington,
DC 20230 (or via the Internet at
dHynek@doc.gov).
Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to David Rostker, OMB Desk
Officer, Fax number (202) 395–7285, or
David_Rostker@omb.eop.gov.
Dated: September 18, 2008.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E8–22233 Filed 9–23–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will
submit to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for clearance the
following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the
Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C.
Chapter 35).
Agency: National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Title: Pacific Islands Region SeabirdFisheries Interaction Recovery
Reporting.
Form Number(s): None.
OMB Approval Number: 0648–0456.
Type of Request: Regular submission.
Burden Hours: 3.
Number of Respondents: 1.
Average Hours per Response: 3 hours.
Needs and Uses: Seabird mitigation
measures to reduce interactions between
seabirds and the Hawaii-based pelagic
longline fishery include a requirement
for longline vessel operators to notify
NMFS in the event an endangered shorttailed albatross (STAL) is hooked or
entangled during fishing operations.
Following the retrieval of a STAL from
the ocean, as required by Federal
regulations, the vessel captain must
record the condition of the injured
STAL on a recovery data form. The
information is used by a veterinarian in
providing advice to the captain caring
for the STAL. If the albatross is dead,
the vessel captain must attach an
identification/information tag to the
STAL carcass, as well as the specimen
bag, to assist the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (FWS) biologists in follow-up
studies on the specimen. This collection
is one of the terms and conditions
contained in a biological opinion issued
by FWS.
Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations.
Frequency: On occasion.
VerDate Aug<31>2005
17:26 Sep 23, 2008
Jkt 214001
Respondent’s Obligation: Mandatory.
OMB Desk Officer: David Rostker,
(202) 395–3897.
Copies of the above information
collection proposal can be obtained by
calling or writing Diana Hynek,
Departmental Paperwork Clearance
Officer, (202) 482–0266, Department of
Commerce, Room 6625, 14th and
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington,
DC 20230 (or via the Internet at
dHynek@doc.gov).
Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to David Rostker, OMB Desk
Officer, FAX number (202) 395–7285, or
David_Rostker@omb.eop.gov.
Dated: September 18, 2008.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E8–22234 Filed 9–23–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–22–P
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will
submit to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for clearance the
following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the
Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C.
chapter 35).
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
Title: Survey of Housing Starts, Sales
and Completions.
Form Number(s): SOC–Q1/SF.1, SOC–
Q1/MF.1.
OMB Control Number: 0607–0110.
Type of Request: Revision of a
currently approved collection.
Burden Hours: 14,615.
Number of Respondents: 22,200.
Average Hours Per Response: 5
minutes.
Needs and Uses: Government
agencies and private companies use
statistics from the Survey of Housing
Starts, Sales, and Completions,
otherwise known as the Survey of
Construction (SOC) to monitor and
evaluate the large and dynamic housing
construction industry. Data for two
principal economic indicators are
produced from the SOC: New
Residential Construction (housing starts
and housing completions) and New
Residential Sales. In addition, a number
of other statistical series are produced,
including extensive information on the
physical characteristics of new
residential buildings, and indexes
measuring rates of inflation in the price
PO 00000
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Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
55031
of new buildings. These statistics are
based on a sample of residential
buildings in permit-issuing places and a
road canvass in a sample of land areas
not covered by building permit systems.
The field representatives (FRs) mail
forms SOC–QI/SF.1 and SOC–QI/MF.1
to new respondents to complete. A few
days later, the FRs either call or visit the
respondents to enter their survey
responses into a laptop computer using
the Computer-Assisted Personal
Interviewing (CAPI) software formatted
for the SOC–QI/SF.1 and SOC–QI/MF.1
forms. The respondents are
homebuilders, real estate agents, rental
agents, or new homeowners of sampled
residential buildings. FRs contact
respondents multiple times based on the
number of projects in the sample and
the number of months required to
complete the project.
The CAPI software for all SOC data
collection has been rewritten and
modernized to work on laptop
computers with the Microsoft Windows
operating system. The new software has
been used in the field since May 2008.
The new software provides the
opportunity to modify the questionnaire
to introduce new data items that are of
interest to data users. After working
with key data users and testing potential
new data items, we identified seven
new data items to be added to the
single-family questionnaire and three
new items for the multi-family
questionnaire. We request approval to
add these questions to the electronic
questionnaire in December 2008 to
allow tabulation of these characteristics
for buildings started, completed, or sold
in 2009.
The Census Bureau also worked with
key data users to review the existing
data items for relevance and determined
that information about whether closing
costs are included in the sales price is
of limited usefulness because the dollar
value of these costs is not collected.
Data users had little interest in the data
so the question has been eliminated.
The previous SOC questionnaire
software required that all characteristics
of new single-family units be re-asked at
time of completion to identify any
changes that occurred during the
construction process. Census staff
studied the data and determined that
the square footage of the house and
basement were the only characteristics
that changed significantly upon
completion of the house and need to be
re-asked. Data users requested updates
to the sale price, contract price, and
intent at time of completion, so these
questions will also be re-asked. Because
several questions will no longer be re-
E:\FR\FM\24SEN1.SGM
24SEN1
55032
Federal Register / Vol. 73, No. 186 / Wednesday, September 24, 2008 / Notices
jlentini on PROD1PC65 with NOTICES
asked, the overall length of the average
interview will not change.
The Census Bureau uses the
information collected in the SOC to
publish estimates of the number of new
residential housing units started, under
construction, completed, and the
number of new houses sold and for sale.
The Census Bureau also publishes many
financial and physical characteristics of
new housing units. Government
agencies use these statistics to evaluate
economic policy, measure progress
towards the national housing goal, make
policy decisions, and formulate
legislation. For example, the Board of
Governors of the Federal Reserve
System uses data from this survey to
evaluate the effect of interest rates in
this interest-rate sensitive area of the
economy. The Bureau of Economic
Analysis uses the data in developing the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The
private sector uses the information for
estimating the demand for building
materials and the many products used
in new housing and to schedule
production, distribution, and sales
efforts. The financial community uses
the data to estimate the demand for
short-term (construction loans) and
long-term (mortgages) borrowing.
Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations; Not-for-profit
institutions.
Frequency: Monthly.
Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13, United
States Code, Sections 9(b), 161, and 182.
OMB Desk Officer: Brian HarrisKojetin, (202) 395–7314.
Copies of the above information
collection proposal can be obtained by
calling or writing Diana Hynek,
Departmental Paperwork Clearance
Officer, (202) 482–0266, Department of
Commerce, Room 6625, 14th and
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington,
DC 20230 (or via the Internet at
dhynek@doc.gov).
Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent
within 30 days of publication of this
notice to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB
Desk Officer either by fax (202–395–
7245) or e-mail (bharrisk@omb.eop.gov).
Dated: September 19, 2008.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E8–22412 Filed 9–23–08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–07–P
VerDate Aug<31>2005
17:26 Sep 23, 2008
Jkt 214001
SUMMARY: The Department of
Commerce, as part of its continuing
effort to reduce paperwork and
respondent burden, invites the general
public and other Federal agencies to
take this opportunity to comment on
proposed and/or continuing information
collections, as required by the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,
Public Law 104–13 (44 U.S.C.
3506(c)(2)(A)).
DATES: To ensure consideration, written
comments must be submitted on or
before November 24, 2008.
ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments
to Diana Hynek, Departmental
Paperwork Clearance officer,
Department of Commerce, Room 6625,
14th and Constitution Avenue, NW.,
Washington, DC 20230 (or via the
Internet at dHynek@doc.gov).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for additional information or
copies of the information collection
instrument(s) and instructions should
be directed to Jason Machowski, Bureau
of the Census, HQ–3H470C,
Washington, DC 20233; (301) 763–4173.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
effectiveness and feasibility. Finally,
evaluation studies analyze, interpret,
and synthesize the effectiveness of
census components, and their impact on
data quality and coverage. Evaluation
studies use data collected from census
operations, processes, systems, and
auxiliary data collections.
The 2010 CPEX program will operate
as a generic clearance. This public
notice specifically accounts for data
collection plans for four experiments
and three evaluations. The balance of
evaluations that potentially require
independent data collections in the
2010 CPEX will be submitted to the
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) on a flow basis, as more detail of
the activities are known. The estimated
number of respondents and annual
reporting hours being requested cover
both the known and yet to be submitted
experiments and evaluations.
The Census Bureau plans four
experimental designs: Alternative
Questionnaire Experiment (AQE); 2010
Nonresponse Followup (NRFU) Contact
Strategy Experiment; 2010 Deadline
Messaging (DM) Experiment, and 2010
Privacy Notification (PN) Experiment.
Most of the experimental designs have
been developed to test more than one
research objective, resulting in multiple
treatments per study. All experimental
questionnaires received will be treated
as the respondents’ official census form.
This public notice also includes three
evaluations: 2010 AQE Reinterview
Evaluation; 2010 Content Reinterview
Evaluation; and 2010 Alternative Group
Quarters (GQ) Questionnaire Evaluation.
I. Abstract
The Census Bureau will conduct the
2010 Census Program for Evaluations
and Experiments (CPEX) to evaluate the
current census and to build a
foundation on which to make early and
informed decisions for planning the
next one in 2020. Program planners
designed CPEX to measure the
effectiveness of the 2010 Census design
(including operations, systems, and
processes), in addition to determining
how the design impacts data quality.
The 2010 CPEX consists of
assessments, experiments, and
evaluations. Assessments document
final volumes, rates, and costs for
individual operations or processes; they
do not involve unique data collections,
and therefore will not be submitted for
clearance. Experiments are quantitative
studies that occur during a decennial
census. The decennial environment is
required for experimental studies
because it provides the best conditions
to learn about the value of new methods
and to accurately measure their
Alternative Questionnaire Experiment
(AQE)
The AQE has several objectives. The
overall goal of the study is to continue
efforts to develop a user-friendly
mailout questionnaire that can be
accurately completed by respondents.
This experiment will test various
designs on how the Census Bureau asks
respondents to provide their data on the
paper form. A large focus of the 2010
AQE is on methods to improve the
completeness and accuracy for reporting
of race and Hispanic origin. Four panels
will test the performance of a combined
race and Hispanic origin question (these
data are currently collected by asking
two separate questions: one on race and
one on Hispanic origin). In addition to
testing a combined question on race and
Hispanic origin, seven panels will be
devoted to potential refinements of the
current separate-question approach, for
a total of eleven panels devoted to race
and Hispanic origin research. Other
topics covered by the AQE include an
examination of true residence status by
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Proposed Information Collection;
Comment Request; Generic Clearance
for the 2010 Census Program for
Evaluations and Experiments
U.S. Census Bureau.
Notice.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
PO 00000
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Fmt 4703
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24SEN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 186 (Wednesday, September 24, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55031-55032]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-22412]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request
The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. chapter 35).
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
Title: Survey of Housing Starts, Sales and Completions.
Form Number(s): SOC-Q1/SF.1, SOC-Q1/MF.1.
OMB Control Number: 0607-0110.
Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Burden Hours: 14,615.
Number of Respondents: 22,200.
Average Hours Per Response: 5 minutes.
Needs and Uses: Government agencies and private companies use
statistics from the Survey of Housing Starts, Sales, and Completions,
otherwise known as the Survey of Construction (SOC) to monitor and
evaluate the large and dynamic housing construction industry. Data for
two principal economic indicators are produced from the SOC: New
Residential Construction (housing starts and housing completions) and
New Residential Sales. In addition, a number of other statistical
series are produced, including extensive information on the physical
characteristics of new residential buildings, and indexes measuring
rates of inflation in the price of new buildings. These statistics are
based on a sample of residential buildings in permit-issuing places and
a road canvass in a sample of land areas not covered by building permit
systems.
The field representatives (FRs) mail forms SOC-QI/SF.1 and SOC-QI/
MF.1 to new respondents to complete. A few days later, the FRs either
call or visit the respondents to enter their survey responses into a
laptop computer using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing
(CAPI) software formatted for the SOC-QI/SF.1 and SOC-QI/MF.1 forms.
The respondents are homebuilders, real estate agents, rental agents, or
new homeowners of sampled residential buildings. FRs contact
respondents multiple times based on the number of projects in the
sample and the number of months required to complete the project.
The CAPI software for all SOC data collection has been rewritten
and modernized to work on laptop computers with the Microsoft Windows
operating system. The new software has been used in the field since May
2008. The new software provides the opportunity to modify the
questionnaire to introduce new data items that are of interest to data
users. After working with key data users and testing potential new data
items, we identified seven new data items to be added to the single-
family questionnaire and three new items for the multi-family
questionnaire. We request approval to add these questions to the
electronic questionnaire in December 2008 to allow tabulation of these
characteristics for buildings started, completed, or sold in 2009.
The Census Bureau also worked with key data users to review the
existing data items for relevance and determined that information about
whether closing costs are included in the sales price is of limited
usefulness because the dollar value of these costs is not collected.
Data users had little interest in the data so the question has been
eliminated.
The previous SOC questionnaire software required that all
characteristics of new single-family units be re-asked at time of
completion to identify any changes that occurred during the
construction process. Census staff studied the data and determined that
the square footage of the house and basement were the only
characteristics that changed significantly upon completion of the house
and need to be re-asked. Data users requested updates to the sale
price, contract price, and intent at time of completion, so these
questions will also be re-asked. Because several questions will no
longer be re-
[[Page 55032]]
asked, the overall length of the average interview will not change.
The Census Bureau uses the information collected in the SOC to
publish estimates of the number of new residential housing units
started, under construction, completed, and the number of new houses
sold and for sale. The Census Bureau also publishes many financial and
physical characteristics of new housing units. Government agencies use
these statistics to evaluate economic policy, measure progress towards
the national housing goal, make policy decisions, and formulate
legislation. For example, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System uses data from this survey to evaluate the effect of interest
rates in this interest-rate sensitive area of the economy. The Bureau
of Economic Analysis uses the data in developing the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). The private sector uses the information for estimating
the demand for building materials and the many products used in new
housing and to schedule production, distribution, and sales efforts.
The financial community uses the data to estimate the demand for short-
term (construction loans) and long-term (mortgages) borrowing.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations; Not-
for-profit institutions.
Frequency: Monthly.
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 9(b), 161,
and 182.
OMB Desk Officer: Brian Harris-Kojetin, (202) 395-7314.
Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained
by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance
Officer, (202) 482-0266, Department of Commerce, Room 6625, 14th and
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at
dhynek@doc.gov).
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice
to Brian Harris-Kojetin, OMB Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245)
or e-mail (bharrisk@omb.eop.gov).
Dated: September 19, 2008.
Gwellnar Banks,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E8-22412 Filed 9-23-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
