Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Proposed Collection; Comment Request for a Modified OGE Form 278e Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report, 49385-49386 [2018-21270]
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amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with NOTICES
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 190 / Monday, October 1, 2018 / Notices
of the Ethics in Government Act, 5
U.S.C. app. sec. 107(a). OGE proposes
several modifications to the form.
On October 5, 2016, OGE published a
proposed rule for amending 5 CFR part
2634. See 81 FR 69204 (October 5,
2016). The final rule was published on
July 18, 2018, and is effective on
January 1, 2019. See 83 FR 33980 (July
18, 2018). The proposed modifications
to the OGE Form 450 revise the
instructions to reflect the changes to the
financial disclosure regulation.
Specifically, OGE proposes to change
the reporting periods for each part
completed by new entrants, change the
income disclosure threshold to $1,000
of received income, eliminate the
disclosure of diversified funds held
within an employee benefit plan, clarify
that the disclosure requirement for
agreements and arrangements includes
those with a current employer,
eliminate the disclosure of continued
participation in a defined contribution
plan to which an employer is no longer
making contributions, and combine gifts
and travel reimbursement into a single
category for purposes of applying the
disclosure thresholds.
OGE is also proposing to update the
Privacy Act statement in accordance
with changes to the applicable system of
records, update the examples provided
on the last page of the form, and make
other minor technical changes.
OGE published a first round notice of
its intent to request paperwork
clearance for a modified OGE Form 450
Executive Branch Confidential Financial
Disclosure Report. See 83 FR 32123
(July 11, 2018). OGE received one
response to that notice from a private
citizen. The private citizen’s response
was unrelated to the notice and did not
address the information collection.
Request for Comments: Agency and
public comment is again invited
specifically on the need for and
practical utility of this information
collection, the accuracy of OGE’s
burden estimate, the enhancement of
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information collected, and the
minimization of burden (including the
use of information technology).
Comments received in response to this
notice may be included with the OGE
request for approval of the modified
information collection. The comments
will also become a matter of public
record.
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:50 Sep 28, 2018
Jkt 247001
Approved: September 26, 2018.
Diana Veilleux,
Chief, Legal, External Affairs and
Performance Branch, Office of Government
Ethics.
[FR Doc. 2018–21275 Filed 9–28–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6345–02–P
OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Submission for OMB
Review; Proposed Collection;
Comment Request for a Modified OGE
Form 278e Executive Branch
Personnel Public Financial Disclosure
Report
AGENCY:
Office of Government Ethics
(OGE).
Notice of request for agency and
public comments.
ACTION:
After publication of this
second round notice, the Office of
Government Ethics (OGE) intends to
submit a modified OGE Form 278e
Executive Branch Personnel Public
Financial Disclosure Report to the
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) for review and approval under
the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Written comments by the public
and the agencies on this proposed
modification are invited and must be
received by October 31, 2018.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
on this paperwork notice to the Office
of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk
Officer for OGE, via fax at 202–395–
6974 or email at OIRA_Submission@
omb.eop.gov. (Include reference to
‘‘OGE Form 278e paperwork comment’’
in the subject line of the message).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sara
Nekou at the U.S. Office of Government
Ethics; telephone: 202–482–9229; TTY:
800–877–8339; FAX: 202–482–9237;
Email: snekou@oge.gov. An electronic
copy of the OGE Form 278e is available
in the Forms Library section of OGE’s
website at https://www.oge.gov. A paper
copy may also be obtained, without
charge, by contacting Ms. Nekou.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Executive Branch Personnel
Public Financial Disclosure Report.
Form Number: OGE Form 278e.
OMB Control Number: 3209–0001.
Type of Information Collection:
Revision of a currently approved
collection.
Type of Review Request: Regular.
Respondents: Private citizen
Presidential nominees to executive
branch positions subject to Senate
confirmation; other private citizens who
are potential (incoming) Federal
SUMMARY:
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49385
employees whose positions are
designated for public disclosure filing;
those who file termination reports from
such positions after their Government
service ends; and Presidential and VicePresidential candidates.
Estimated Annual Number of
Respondents: 4,821.
Estimated Time per Response: 10
hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden:
48,210 hours.
Abstract: The OGE Form 278 collects
information from certain officers and
high-level employees in the executive
branch for conflicts of interest review
and public disclosure.
The form is also completed by
individuals who are nominated by the
President for high-level executive
branch positions requiring Senate
confirmation and individuals entering
into and departing from other public
reporting positions in the executive
branch. The financial information
collected relates to: Assets and income;
transactions; gifts, reimbursements and
travel expenses; liabilities; agreements
or arrangements; outside positions; and
compensation over $5,000 paid by a
source—all subject to various reporting
thresholds and exclusions. The
information is collected in accordance
with section 102 of the Ethics in
Government Act, 5 U.S.C. app. sec. 102,
as amended by the Stop Trading on
Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012
(Pub. L. 112–105) (STOCK Act) and
OGE’s implementing financial
disclosure regulations at 5 CFR part
2634.
In 2013, OGE sought and received
approval for the OGE Form 278e, an
electronic version of the Form 278,
implemented pursuant to the e-filing
system mandated under section 11(b) of
the STOCK Act. The OGE Form 278e
collects the same information as the
OGE Form 278. In 2014, OGE sought
and received approval to incorporate the
OGE Form 278e into its new Integrity efiling application. Integrity has been in
use since January 1, 2015, and OGE now
requires filers to use a version of the
OGE Form 278e rather than the old OGE
Form 278. The version of the Form 278e
that is produced by Integrity is a
streamlined output report format that
presents only the filer’s inputs in given
categories and does not report other
categories not selected by the filer.
On October 5, 2016, OGE published a
proposed rule for amending 5 CFR part
2634. See 81 FR 69204 (October 5,
2016). The final rule was published on
July 18, 2018, and is effective on
January 1, 2019. See 83 FR 33980 (July
18, 2018). The proposed modifications
to the OGE Form 278e revise the
E:\FR\FM\01OCN1.SGM
01OCN1
amozie on DSK3GDR082PROD with NOTICES
49386
Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 190 / Monday, October 1, 2018 / Notices
instructions to reflect the changes to the
financial disclosure regulation.
Specifically, OGE proposes to: Revise
the reporting period for termination
reports to include the entire preceding
calendar year if a required annual report
has not been filed; revise the income
disclosure requirement to include only
received income; revise the ‘‘widely
diversified’’ criterion for purposes of
determining whether a fund qualifies as
an ‘‘excepted investment fund;’’ add a
new feature (checkbox) for purposes of
managing early termination report filing
on the Integrity version of the Form
278e; clarify the Definition section of
Part 2; clarify when a source of
compensation need not be disclosed and
the method for disclosing the existence
of such sources; and eliminate the
disclosure of transactions that occurred
before the reporting individual became
subject to the public financial disclosure
requirements.
OGE is also proposing to update the
Privacy Act statement in accordance
with changes to the applicable system of
records and to make certain minor
formatting changes and corrections to
the instructions and one of the data
entry fields.
OGE published a first round notice of
its intent to request paperwork
clearance for a modified OGE Form 278e
Executive Branch Personnel Public
Financial Disclosure Report. See 83 FR
32122 (July 11, 2018). OGE received
three responses to that notice. The first
response was unrelated to the notice
and did not address the information
collection.
The second comment suggested
eliminating the requirement to report
diversified mutual funds. The financial
disclosure requirements are dictated by
the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA), 5
U.S.C. app. sec. 102, as amended. The
commenter’s suggested change could
not be made without revisions to the
EIGA. Accordingly, OGE declines to
adopt this suggestion as a modification
of the OGE Form 278e.
The third comment was from an
individual identifying himself as a
former nominee to a Presidentiallyappointed, Senate-confirmed position.
The commenter made several
suggestions about how the government
should address potential conflicts of
interest identified through the financial
disclosure review and certification
process, as well as ways that the
government could make that process
more efficient. These matters are beyond
the scope of the information collection
and cannot be addressed through the
modification of the OGE Form 278e. The
commenter also made suggestions
regarding the detail with which filers
VerDate Sep<11>2014
17:50 Sep 28, 2018
Jkt 247001
are required to report certain assets,
suggesting that the form requires
excessive reporting of ‘‘low value’’ data.
As discussed above, the financial
disclosure requirements are dictated by
the EIGA. Therefore, OGE cannot make
substantive changes to the financial
disclosure reporting requirements
through a modification of the OGE Form
278e.
Finally, the third commenter also
stated that the government’s estimate of
the reporting burden vastly understates
the actual burden for candidates with
extensive or complicated financial
holdings. In addressing this issue, the
commenter noted that completing the
form required ‘‘at least 40 hours of
work’’ by him and his family. He also
noted that the government’s cumulative
response time during the review and
certification process was 114 days. As
an initial matter, OGE notes that its
estimate of the average reporting burden
for the 278e is currently ten hours, not
three as stated by the commenter.
Moreover, the estimated burden
properly does not include the time
spent by the government in reviewing
and responding to the filers’ completed
forms. OGE’s estimated time per
response is an average based on the
estimated burden on all types of filers—
those with complicated financial
holdings and those with simpler
financial holdings. While OGE
recognizes that the burden for a filer
with extensive or complicated financial
holdings may be significantly more than
ten hours, the estimated burden for the
majority of filers is fewer than five
hours. Accordingly, OGE declines to
revise its estimated burden at this time.
Request for Comments: Agency and
public comment is again invited
specifically on the need for and
practical utility of this information
collection, the accuracy of OGE’s
burden estimate, the enhancement of
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information collected, and the
minimization of burden (including the
use of information technology).
Comments received in response to this
notice may be included with the OGE
request for approval of the modified
information collection. The comments
will also become a matter of public
record.
Approved: September 26, 2018.
Diana Veilleux,
Chief, Legal, External Affairs and
Performance Branch, Office of Government
Ethics.
[FR Doc. 2018–21270 Filed 9–28–18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6345–03–P
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Frm 00034
Fmt 4703
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality
Supplemental Evidence and Data
Request on Antipsychotics for the
Prevention and Treatment of Delirium:
A Systematic Review
Agency for Healthcare Research
and Quality (AHRQ), HHS.
ACTION: Request for Supplemental
Evidence and Data Submissions
AGENCY:
The Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) is seeking
scientific information submissions from
the public. Scientific information is
being solicited to inform our review of
Antipsychotics for the Prevention and
Treatment of Delirium: A Systematic
Review, which is currently being
conducted by the AHRQ’s Evidencebased Practice Centers (EPC) Program.
Access to published and unpublished
pertinent scientific information will
improve the quality of this review.
DATES: Submission Deadline on or
before October 31, 2018.
ADDRESSES:
Email submissions: epc@
ahrq.hhs.gov.
Print submissions:
Mailing Address: Center for Evidence
and Practice Improvement, Agency for
Healthcare Research and Quality,
ATTN: EPC SEADs Coordinator, 5600
Fishers Lane, Mail Stop 06E53A,
Rockville, MD 20857.
Shipping Address (FedEx, UPS, etc.):
Center for Evidence and Practice
Improvement, Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality, ATTN: EPC
SEADs Coordinator, 5600 Fishers Lane,
Mail Stop 06E77D, Rockville, MD
20857.
SUMMARY:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jenae Benns, Telephone: 301–427–1496
or Email: epc@ahrq.hhs.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The
Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality has commissioned the
Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPC)
Program to complete a review of the
evidence for Antipsychotics for the
Prevention and Treatment of Delirium:
A Systematic Review. AHRQ is
conducting this systematic review
pursuant to Section 902(a) of the Public
Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 299a(a).
The EPC Program is dedicated to
identifying as many studies as possible
that are relevant to the questions for
each of its reviews. In order to do so, we
are supplementing the usual manual
and electronic database searches of the
E:\FR\FM\01OCN1.SGM
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 190 (Monday, October 1, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49385-49386]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-21270]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB
Review; Proposed Collection; Comment Request for a Modified OGE Form
278e Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report
AGENCY: Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
ACTION: Notice of request for agency and public comments.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: After publication of this second round notice, the Office of
Government Ethics (OGE) intends to submit a modified OGE Form 278e
Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval under the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Written comments by the public and the agencies on this proposed
modification are invited and must be received by October 31, 2018.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this paperwork notice to the
Office of Management and Budget, Attn: Desk Officer for OGE, via fax at
202-395-6974 or email at [email protected]. (Include
reference to ``OGE Form 278e paperwork comment'' in the subject line of
the message).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sara Nekou at the U.S. Office of
Government Ethics; telephone: 202-482-9229; TTY: 800-877-8339; FAX:
202-482-9237; Email: [email protected]. An electronic copy of the OGE Form
278e is available in the Forms Library section of OGE's website at
https://www.oge.gov. A paper copy may also be obtained, without charge,
by contacting Ms. Nekou.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure
Report.
Form Number: OGE Form 278e.
OMB Control Number: 3209-0001.
Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved
collection.
Type of Review Request: Regular.
Respondents: Private citizen Presidential nominees to executive
branch positions subject to Senate confirmation; other private citizens
who are potential (incoming) Federal employees whose positions are
designated for public disclosure filing; those who file termination
reports from such positions after their Government service ends; and
Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.
Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 4,821.
Estimated Time per Response: 10 hours.
Estimated Total Annual Burden: 48,210 hours.
Abstract: The OGE Form 278 collects information from certain
officers and high-level employees in the executive branch for conflicts
of interest review and public disclosure.
The form is also completed by individuals who are nominated by the
President for high-level executive branch positions requiring Senate
confirmation and individuals entering into and departing from other
public reporting positions in the executive branch. The financial
information collected relates to: Assets and income; transactions;
gifts, reimbursements and travel expenses; liabilities; agreements or
arrangements; outside positions; and compensation over $5,000 paid by a
source--all subject to various reporting thresholds and exclusions. The
information is collected in accordance with section 102 of the Ethics
in Government Act, 5 U.S.C. app. sec. 102, as amended by the Stop
Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (Pub. L. 112-105) (STOCK
Act) and OGE's implementing financial disclosure regulations at 5 CFR
part 2634.
In 2013, OGE sought and received approval for the OGE Form 278e, an
electronic version of the Form 278, implemented pursuant to the e-
filing system mandated under section 11(b) of the STOCK Act. The OGE
Form 278e collects the same information as the OGE Form 278. In 2014,
OGE sought and received approval to incorporate the OGE Form 278e into
its new Integrity e-filing application. Integrity has been in use since
January 1, 2015, and OGE now requires filers to use a version of the
OGE Form 278e rather than the old OGE Form 278. The version of the Form
278e that is produced by Integrity is a streamlined output report
format that presents only the filer's inputs in given categories and
does not report other categories not selected by the filer.
On October 5, 2016, OGE published a proposed rule for amending 5
CFR part 2634. See 81 FR 69204 (October 5, 2016). The final rule was
published on July 18, 2018, and is effective on January 1, 2019. See 83
FR 33980 (July 18, 2018). The proposed modifications to the OGE Form
278e revise the
[[Page 49386]]
instructions to reflect the changes to the financial disclosure
regulation. Specifically, OGE proposes to: Revise the reporting period
for termination reports to include the entire preceding calendar year
if a required annual report has not been filed; revise the income
disclosure requirement to include only received income; revise the
``widely diversified'' criterion for purposes of determining whether a
fund qualifies as an ``excepted investment fund;'' add a new feature
(checkbox) for purposes of managing early termination report filing on
the Integrity version of the Form 278e; clarify the Definition section
of Part 2; clarify when a source of compensation need not be disclosed
and the method for disclosing the existence of such sources; and
eliminate the disclosure of transactions that occurred before the
reporting individual became subject to the public financial disclosure
requirements.
OGE is also proposing to update the Privacy Act statement in
accordance with changes to the applicable system of records and to make
certain minor formatting changes and corrections to the instructions
and one of the data entry fields.
OGE published a first round notice of its intent to request
paperwork clearance for a modified OGE Form 278e Executive Branch
Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report. See 83 FR 32122 (July 11,
2018). OGE received three responses to that notice. The first response
was unrelated to the notice and did not address the information
collection.
The second comment suggested eliminating the requirement to report
diversified mutual funds. The financial disclosure requirements are
dictated by the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA), 5 U.S.C. app. sec.
102, as amended. The commenter's suggested change could not be made
without revisions to the EIGA. Accordingly, OGE declines to adopt this
suggestion as a modification of the OGE Form 278e.
The third comment was from an individual identifying himself as a
former nominee to a Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed
position. The commenter made several suggestions about how the
government should address potential conflicts of interest identified
through the financial disclosure review and certification process, as
well as ways that the government could make that process more
efficient. These matters are beyond the scope of the information
collection and cannot be addressed through the modification of the OGE
Form 278e. The commenter also made suggestions regarding the detail
with which filers are required to report certain assets, suggesting
that the form requires excessive reporting of ``low value'' data. As
discussed above, the financial disclosure requirements are dictated by
the EIGA. Therefore, OGE cannot make substantive changes to the
financial disclosure reporting requirements through a modification of
the OGE Form 278e.
Finally, the third commenter also stated that the government's
estimate of the reporting burden vastly understates the actual burden
for candidates with extensive or complicated financial holdings. In
addressing this issue, the commenter noted that completing the form
required ``at least 40 hours of work'' by him and his family. He also
noted that the government's cumulative response time during the review
and certification process was 114 days. As an initial matter, OGE notes
that its estimate of the average reporting burden for the 278e is
currently ten hours, not three as stated by the commenter. Moreover,
the estimated burden properly does not include the time spent by the
government in reviewing and responding to the filers' completed forms.
OGE's estimated time per response is an average based on the estimated
burden on all types of filers--those with complicated financial
holdings and those with simpler financial holdings. While OGE
recognizes that the burden for a filer with extensive or complicated
financial holdings may be significantly more than ten hours, the
estimated burden for the majority of filers is fewer than five hours.
Accordingly, OGE declines to revise its estimated burden at this time.
Request for Comments: Agency and public comment is again invited
specifically on the need for and practical utility of this information
collection, the accuracy of OGE's burden estimate, the enhancement of
quality, utility, and clarity of the information collected, and the
minimization of burden (including the use of information technology).
Comments received in response to this notice may be included with the
OGE request for approval of the modified information collection. The
comments will also become a matter of public record.
Approved: September 26, 2018.
Diana Veilleux,
Chief, Legal, External Affairs and Performance Branch, Office of
Government Ethics.
[FR Doc. 2018-21270 Filed 9-28-18; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6345-03-P
