Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request, 7834-7835 [2015-02865]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 29 (Thursday, February 12, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7834-7835]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-02865]


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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: 2014-2016 Company Organization Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0444.
    Form Number(s): NC-99001, NC-99007.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 47,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 3 hours and 10 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 148,566.
    Needs and Uses: The Census Bureau requests an extension of the 
currently approved Company Organization Survey (COS) data collection 
for survey years 2014, 2015 and 2016.
    The Census Bureau conducts the annual COS to update and maintain a 
centralized, multipurpose Business Register (BR). In particular, the 
COS supplies critical information on the organizational structure, 
operating characteristics, and employment and payroll of multi-location 
enterprises. The 2014-2016 COS collection will not differ from the 
2013. The sample size will remain the same as in 2013 surveying 47,000 
respondents.
    Form NC-99001 is mailed to multi-location enterprises. We ask 
questions on ownership or control by a domestic parent, ownership or 
control by a foreign parent, and ownership of foreign affiliates; 
research and development; company activities such as--employees from a 
professional employer organization, operating revenue and net sales, 
royalties and license fees for the use of intellectual property and 
manufacturing activities. Establishment inquiries include questions on 
operational status, mid-March employment, first-quarter payroll, and 
annual payroll of establishments.
    In 2011, we submitted a non-substantive change to the COS 
questionnaire. This revision added three new inquiries as part of the 
Enterprise Statistics Program (ESP). These three inquiries were: (1) 
Operating Revenues and Net Sales; (2) Royalties and Licenses Fees for 
the Use of Intellectual Property; and (3) Manufacturing Activities. In 
2012 and 2013 we continued to ask these questions on Form NC-99001 and 
it is our intention to continue to ask these additional questions for 
2014-2016 on Form NC-99001. We also ask questions on ownership or 
control by a foreign parent, and ownership of foreign affiliates; 
research and development; royalties and license fees for the use of 
intellectual property and manufacturing activities. In addition to the 
mailing of multi-location enterprises, the Census Bureau will collect 
data for single-location companies on Form NC-99007 to some large 
single-location enterprises that may have added some locations.
    The 2014-2016 COS will request company-level information from a 
selection of multi-establishment enterprises, which comprises roughly 
42,000 parent companies and more than 1.4 million establishments. COS 
inquiries sent to each of the 42,000 multi-establishment enterprises 
will include inquiries on ownership or control by a domestic parent, 
ownership or control by a foreign parent, and ownership of foreign 
affiliates; research and development; company activities, such as--
employees from a professional employer organization, operating revenue 
and net sales, royalties and license fees for the use of intellectual 
property, and manufacturing activities. Establishment inquiries include 
questions on operational status, mid-March employment, first-quarter 
payroll, and annual payroll of establishments.
    In addition to the 42,000 multi-establishment enterprises, the 
2014--2016 COS will include approximately 5,000 single-location 
companies that may have added some locations. The NC-99007 Form will 
collect data for the 5,000 single-location businesses.

[[Page 7835]]

    The information collected by the COS is used to maintain and update 
the BR. The BR serves two fundamental purposes:
     First and most important, it provides sampling populations 
and enumeration lists for the Census Bureau's economic surveys and 
censuses, and it serves as an integral part of the statistical 
foundation underlying those programs. Essential for this purpose is the 
BR's ability to identify all known United States business 
establishments and their parent companies. Further, the BR must 
accurately record basic business attributes needed to control sampling 
and enumeration. These attributes include industry and geographic 
classifications, measures of size and economic activity, ownership 
characteristics, and contact information (for example, name and 
address).
     Second, it provides establishment data that serve as the 
basis for the annual County Business Patterns (CBP) statistical series. 
The CBP reports present data on number of establishments, first quarter 
payroll, annual payroll, and mid-March employment summarized by 
industry and employment size class for the United States, the District 
of Columbia, island areas, counties, and county-equivalents. No other 
annual or more frequent series of industry statistics provides 
comparable detail, particularly for small geographic areas
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit; Not-for-profit 
institutions; Farms; State, local or tribal governments.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.

    Legal Authority: Title 13 United States Code, Sections 182, 195, 
224, and 225.

    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.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 sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to OIRA_Submission@omb.eop.gov or fax to (202)395-5806.

    Dated: February 6, 2015.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2015-02865 Filed 2-11-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P