Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Form BC-170, U.S. Census Employment Application and Form BC-171, Additional Applicant Information, 15356-15358 [2018-07260]

Agencies

• Census Bureau
• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 10, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15356-15358]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-07260]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

 Census Bureau


Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Form BC-170, 
U.S. Census Employment Application and Form BC-171, Additional 
Applicant Information

AGENCY: U.S. Census Bureau, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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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.

DATES: To ensure consideration, written comments must be submitted on 
or before June 11, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Direct all written comments to Jennifer Jessup, Departmental 
Paperwork Clearance Officer, Department of Commerce, Room 6616, 14th 
and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230 (or via the internet 
at [email protected]). You may also submit comments, identified by 
Docket Number USBC-2018-0004, to the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: 
https://www.regulations.gov. All comments received are part of the 
public record. No comments will be posted to https://www.regulations.gov 
for public viewing until after the comment period has closed. Comments 
will generally be posted without change. All Personally Identifiable 
Information (for example, name and address) voluntarily submitted by 
the commenter may be publicly accessible. Do not submit Confidential 
Business Information or otherwise sensitive or protected information. 
You may submit attachments to electronic comments in Microsoft Word, 
Excel, WordPerfect, or Adobe PDF file formats only.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the information collection instrument(s) and instructions 
should be directed to Michael A. DeFrank, Chief, Management Services 
Branch. Mr. DeFrank can be reached by telephone on 301-763-2864 or by 
email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    The Census Bureau proposes consolidating the contents of the four 
forms used to collect information on job applicants into two new forms: 
The BC-170, U.S. Census Employment Application and the BC-171, 
Additional Applicant Information forms.
    Currently, the Census Bureau uses the BC-170A, BC-170B, and BC-170D 
forms to collect applicant information such as personal data and work 
experience. Selecting officials review the applicant information 
indicated on these forms to evaluate the eligibility and quality of an 
applicant for employment at the Census Bureau. In addition, the Census 
Bureau uses the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) common 
use form 3046-0046, Demographic Information on Applicants for Federal 
Employment, to collect voluntary applicant data. All of these forms are 
available online in a PDF fillable format for applicants to complete 
and submit to the Regional Office. Paper forms of the BC-170A, B and D 
are available as a secondary option under some circumstances (i.e., 
special request, lack of internet access).
    The Census Bureau currently uses the:
     BC-170A to collect applicant information for temporary 
office and field positions for current surveys such as the Current 
Population Survey (CPS).
     BC-170B to collect applicant information for temporary 
office and field positions for special censuses.
     BC-170D to collect applicant information for temporary 
office and field positions for Decennial censuses.
     EEOC common use form 3046-0046, Demographic Information on 
Applicants for Federal Employment, which asks about voluntary applicant 
information including Race, Hispanic Origin, and Disability.
    Because the Census Bureau uses three different BC-170 forms based 
on the specific applicant information required for each operation, 
applicants interested in multiple positions across operations often 
need to submit duplicative information on different forms, which causes 
unnecessary burden on the applicants. Consequently, selecting officials 
often need to assess multiple forms that comprise duplicate information 
from the same applicant, which causes unnecessary burden on the 
selecting officials. Additionally, voluntary applicant information is 
currently captured across the three BC-170 forms and the EEOC common 
use form, Demographic Information on Applicants for Federal Employment, 
adding to the undue burden on both the applicant and human resources 
staff.
    To address this issue, the Census Bureau intends to consolidate the 
contents of the four forms into two new forms, the BC-170, U.S. Census 
Employment Application and the BC-171, Additional Applicant Information 
forms. The current EEOC common use form 3046-0046, Demographic 
Information on Applicants for Federal Employment will be replaced by 
the BC-171. The BC-171 collects the same information as the EEOC common 
use form, including Race, Hispanic Origin, and Disability. In addition, 
the BC-171 contains the Education and Recruiting Sources questions 
needed to evaluate Census Bureau recruitment strategies. Upon receiving 
OMB approval for this submission, we would submit a ``discontinue use'' 
request for the EEOC common form.
    The Census Bureau conducted a thorough review of the three BC-170 
forms and the EEOC common form to identify, assess, and eliminate 
redundant and/or nonessential collection of data that contributed to 
unnecessary burden on the applicant. Table A below includes additional 
information on how the four forms were consolidated into the BC-170 and 
BC-171.

                                                     Table A
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                                                     Old forms                                 New forms
                             -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Content                                                       EEOC common
                                 BC-170A       BC-170B       BC-170D      use form       BC-170        BC-171
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Applicant                       X             X             X   ............            X   ............
 Information................
Voluntary Applicant                     X             X             X             X   ............            X
 Information................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The specific changes made to consolidate the BC-170A, B, and D are 
as follows:
    1. Rearranged the contents so that the general applicant 
information questions, regardless of position and operations, appear in 
the BC-170 (e.g., Name, Address);
    2. Removed the Prior Work Experience and Education fields as the 
Census Bureau no longer requires them to determine eligibility and/or 
qualifications of an applicant;
    3. Removed the Driver's License field as the Census Bureau does not 
use this to determine eligibility and/or qualifications of an 
applicant;
    4. Removed the Period of Service and Branch/Rank/Campaign 
Expeditionary Badge or Award sub-fields in the Veterans' Preference 
field as the Census Bureau already collects them elsewhere on the 
application through the DD-214 attachment;
    5. Removed the Types of Work field as it is not needed to determine 
eligibility and/or qualifications of an applicant;
    6. Added a Selective Service Number sub-field in the Selective 
Service field in the BC-170 so that the Census Bureau could use this 
information to adjudicate the application since the OF-306 is not 
required from all applicants;
    7. Added additional lines to the Additional Information section in 
the BC-170 to allow applicants to provide detailed information, as 
needed;
    8. Updated the Introduction section in the BC-170 with updated 
descriptions of the Types of Work, Duration of Work, Applicant 
Instructions, Eligibility, Pay, Training, Privacy Act Statement, and 
Assessment Instructions;
    9. Updated the Availability field to capture general applicant 
availability broken down into Evenings, Weekends, and Weekdays in lieu 
of specific applicant availability broken down into Any Hours, 
Mornings, Afternoons, and Evenings segmented by days of the week;
    10. Moved the Education question to the BC-171 to make it 
voluntary, as it is used to determine recruitment strategies and is not 
needed to

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determine eligibility and/or qualifications of an applicant;
    11. Moved the Recruiting Sources question to the BC-171 to make it 
voluntary, as it is used to determine recruitment strategies and is not 
needed to determine eligibility and/or qualifications of an applicant.
    The Census Bureau intends for applicants to access, complete, and 
submit both the BC-170 and BC-171 to human resources staff via the 
Census Schedule A Recruitment, Assessment, and Payroll System (C-
SHARPS) online applicant system. The Census Bureau also intends for a 
paper form of the BC-170 and BC-171 to be accessible to applicants 
under some circumstances (i.e., special request, lack of internet 
access) and all forms will be available electronically in PDF format 
for applicants to complete and submit to the Regional Office. Lastly, 
C-SHARPS, paper forms and the online PDF format forms will be available 
in Spanish for both stateside and Puerto Rico.

II. Method of Collection

    The main method of collection will be online using Census Schedule 
A Recruitment, Assessment, and Payroll System (C-SHARPS) accessible in 
English and Spanish for both stateside and Puerto Rico. The BC-170 and 
BC-171 will also be available in English and Spanish for both stateside 
and Puerto Rico:
     On paper as a secondary option under some circumstances 
(i.e., special request, lack of internet access),
     Online in PDF format for applicants to complete and submit 
to the Regional Office.

III. Data

    OMB Control Number: 0607-0139.
    Form Number(s): BC-170 and BC-171.
    Type of Review: Change to a previous OMB approval.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 3,000,000 persons (Note that on 
non-Decennial periods of data collection after 2020, the estimated 
number of respondents annually is approximately 12,000 persons).
    Estimated Time per Response: 20 minutes (Note that this is based on 
calculations that determined 15 minutes for completing the BC-170 and 5 
minutes for completing the BC-171. The combined total is 20 minutes for 
applicants completing both forms).
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 333,334 annual hours on 
average.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost to Public: $0.
    Respondent's Obligation: Required to obtain or retain benefits.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C., Chapter 1, Subchapter II, Section 
23 a and c.; Title 5 U.S.C., Part II, Chapter 13; Title 5 U.S.C. Part 
III, Chapter 33, Subchapter 1, Section 1 and 20.

IV. Request for Comments

    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden 
(including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information; 
(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on respondents, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology.
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of this information 
collection; they also will become a matter of public record.

Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental Lead PRA Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2018-07260 Filed 4-9-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P