Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for Comment; Uniform Procedures for State Highway Safety Grant Programs, 8832-8834 [2021-02652]

Agencies

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 9, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8832-8834]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-02652]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

[Docket No. NHTSA-2021-0009]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Notice and Request for 
Comment; Uniform Procedures for State Highway Safety Grant Programs

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments on an extension of a currently-
approved information collection.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 
invites public comments about our intention to request approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for an extension of a 
currently-approved information collection. Before a Federal agency can 
collect certain information from the public, it must receive approval 
from OMB. Under procedures established by the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995, before seeking OMB approval, Federal agencies must solicit 
public comment on proposed collections of information, including 
extensions and reinstatement of previously approved collections. This 
document describes NHTSA's collection of information for its State 
Highway Safety Grant Program.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before April 12, 2021.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by the Docket No. NHTSA-
2021-0009 through any of the following methods:
     Electronic submissions: Go to the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal at https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions 
for submitting comments.
     Fax: (202) 493-2251.
     Mail or Hand Delivery: Docket Management, U.S. Department 
of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Room W12-
140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, except on Federal holidays.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the agency name and 
docket number for this notice. Note that all comments received will be 
posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any 
personal information provided. Please see the Privacy Act heading 
below.
    Privacy Act: Anyone is able to search the electronic form of all 
comments received into any of our dockets by the name of the individual 
submitting the comment (or signing the comment, if submitted on behalf 
of an association, business, labor union, etc.). You may review DOT's 
complete Privacy Act Statement in the Federal Register published on 
April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78) or you may visit https://www.transportation.gov/privacy.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to https://www.regulations.gov or the street 
address listed above. Follow the online instructions for accessing the 
dockets via internet.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For programmatic issues, contact 
Barbara Sauers, Regional Operations and Program Delivery, NRO-011, 
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590; 
Telephone: 202-366-0144. For legal issues and background information, 
contact Roland (R.T.) Baumann III, Office of the Chief Counsel, NCC-
300, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20590; 
Telephone: 202-366-1834. Please identify the relevant collection of 
information by referring to its OMB Control Number.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), before an agency submits a proposed 
collection of information to OMB for approval, it must first publish a 
document in the Federal Register providing a 60-day comment period and 
otherwise consult with members of the public and affected agencies 
concerning each proposed collection of information. The OMB has 
promulgated regulations describing what must be included in such a 
document. Under OMB's regulation (at 5 CFR 1320.8(d)), an agency must 
ask for public comment on the following: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the agency, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of 
the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (c) how to enhance 
the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (d) how to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g. permitting electronic 
submission of responses. In compliance with these requirements, NHTSA 
asks for public comments on the following proposed collection of 
information for which the agency is seeking approval from OMB.
    Title: Uniform Procedures for State Highway Safety Grant Programs.
    OMB Control Number: 2127-0730.
    Form Number(s): None.
    Type of Request: Extension.
    Type of Review Requested: Regular.
    Requested Expiration Date of Approval: 3 years from date of 
approval.

Summary of the Collection of Information

    The Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST), Public Law 
114-94, authorizes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 
(NHTSA) to issue highway safety grants to States under Chapter 4 of 
Title 23, U.S.C. Specifically, these grant programs include the Highway 
Safety Program grants (23 U.S.C. 402 or Section 402), the National 
Priority Safety Program grants (23 U.S.C. 405 or Section 405) and a 
separate grant on racial profiling data collection contained in a 
previous authorization that was revised and restored under the FAST Act 
(Pub. L. 109-59, Sec. 1906 or Section 1906, as amended by Sec. 4011, 
Pub. L. 114-94).
    For all of these grants, as directed in statute, NHTSA uses a 
consolidated application process that relies on the Highway Safety Plan 
(HSP) States submit under the Section 402 program as a single 
application. The information required to be submitted for these grants 
includes the HSP consisting of information on the highway safety 
planning process, performance report, performance plan, problem 
identification, highway safety countermeasure strategies, projects and 
funding amounts, certifications and assurances, and application 
materials that cover Section 405 grants and the reauthorized Section 
1906 grant.\1\ States

[[Page 8833]]

also must submit an annual report evaluating their progress in 
achieving performance targets. In addition, as part of the statutory 
criteria for Section 405 grants covering the areas of occupant 
protection, traffic safety information system improvement and impaired 
driving countermeasures, States may be required to receive assessments 
of their State programs in order to receive a grant.\2\ States must 
provide information and respond to questions as part of the assessment 
process.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ Section 405 grants cover the following: Occupant Protection 
Grants; State Traffic Safety Information System Improvements Grants; 
Impaired Driving Countermeasures Grants (including Alcohol-Ignition 
Interlock Grants and 24-7 Sobriety Program Grants); Distracted 
Driving Grants; Motorcyclist Safety Grants; State Graduated Driver 
Licensing Incentive Grants; and Nonmotorized Safety Grants. Section 
1906 is a separate racial profiling data collection grant.
    \2\ Under occupant protection grants, one criterion that a State 
with a lower belt use rate may use to receive a grant is to complete 
an assessment of its occupant protection program once every three 
years (23 U.S.C. 405(b)(3)(B)(ii)(VI)(aa)); and another criterion is 
a comprehensive occupant protection program that includes a program 
assessment conducted every five years as one of its elements (23 
U.S.C. 405(b)(3)(B)(ii)(V)(aa); 23 CFR 1300.21(e)(5)(i)). Under 
traffic safety system information system improvement grants, a State 
must have an assessment of its highway safety data and traffic 
records system once every 5 years in order to receive a grant (23 
U.S.C. 405(c)(3)(E)). Under impaired driving countermeasure grants, 
a State with high average impaired driving fatality rates must have 
an assessment of its impaired driving program once every 3 years in 
order to receive a grant. (23 U.S.C. 405(d)(3)(C)(i)(I)).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Consistent with the statute, NHTSA has implemented a final rule 
that creates uniform procedures for States to apply for grant funds (83 
FR 3466, January 25, 2018). These procedures specify the information 
that is required to be submitted to receive a grant and the type of 
information required to verify performance under the grants.
    As indicated above, States may be required to receive an assessment 
of certain covered programs in order to be eligible for some grants 
under Section 405. Separate from these requirements, States also may 
request assessments in these areas at their discretion. NHTSA uses two 
different assessment approaches based on the traffic safety area 
covered. For occupant protection and impaired driving, assessments are 
based on NHTSA's Uniform Guidelines for State Highway Safety Programs, 
which are required by Congress and periodically updated through a 
process that seeks public comment.\3\ State programs are assessed 
against these uniform guidelines by a team of subject matter experts. 
The assessment team produces a final report with recommendations on how 
the State can improve the effectiveness of its program. As part of the 
process, States provide written materials in response to requests from 
the assessment team and participate in a comprehensive interview 
process. For traffic safety information systems, States respond to 
questions based on NHTSA's Traffic Records Program Assessment Advisory 
(DOT HS 812 601), which describes an ideal traffic records system. The 
questions cover nine topical areas and examine how well a State plans, 
collects, manages, and integrates information from several State 
traffic records systems.\4\ Responses are evaluated by subject matter 
experts, and a final report is provided to the State with 
recommendations for improvement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ The Uniform Guidelines for State Highway Safety Programs are 
available online at https://one.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa/whatsup/tea21/tea21programs/index.htm.
    \4\ The Traffic Records Program Assessment Advisory is available 
online at https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812601.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Description of the Need for the Information and Proposed Use of the 
Information

    As noted above, the statute provides that the HSP is the 
application for grants each fiscal year. The information is necessary 
to determine whether a State satisfies the Federal criteria for grant 
awards. The annual report tracks progress in achieving the aims of the 
grant program. The information is necessary to verify performance under 
the grants and to provide a basis for improvement. As specified in 
statute, States may be required to receive an assessment of certain 
covered programs. The information provided by a State allows subject 
matter experts to provide recommendations for the purpose of improving 
the covered areas.

Affected Public

    This collection impacts the fifty-seven entities that are eligible 
to apply for grants under the NHTSA Highway Grant Program (the fifty 
States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin 
Islands, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of the Indian 
Country). These respondents will hereafter be referred to as ``State 
respondents.''
    This collection also impacts the subject matter experts and 
administrative assistants who are involved in assessments for the grant 
program. These subject matter experts are recruited by NHTSA by asking 
NHTSA Regional Offices and the State Highway Safety Offices to make 
recommendations. All new occupant protection and impaired driving 
assessors complete an e-learning course, Conducting Highway Safety 
Program Assessments.The course is self-paced and entirely on-line. Each 
impaired driving and occupant protection assessment team consists of 
five (5) assessors and an administrative assistant. For traffic records 
assessments, NHTSA uses a contractor to recruit and train the assessors 
for the online traffic records assessment conducted using NHTSA's 
Traffic Records Improvement Program Reporting System (TRIPRS). All 
subject matter experts are current or former members of State Traffic 
Records Coordinating Committees. There are between 10 to 14 assessors 
for each traffic records assessment.

Estimated Number of Respondents

    There are 57 potential State respondents (the fifty States, the 
District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, 
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on behalf of the Indian Country).
    NHTSA estimates there will be approximately 260 assessor 
respondents per year. This estimate includes assessors and 
administrative assistants. Each occupant protection or impaired driving 
assessment involves five (5) subject matter experts and one (1) 
administrative assistant. NHTSA estimates that 13 occupant protection 
and impaired driving assessments will be completed each year, for a 
total of 78 respondents. Each traffic records assessment involves 
approximately thirteen (13) subject matter experts. NHTSA estimates 
that 14 traffic records assessments are completed each year, for a 
total of 182 traffic records assessors.

Frequency

    Applications for grant funding and annul reporting are submitted 
once a year and assessments are conducted once every three or five 
years.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 40,666

    The estimated burden hours for the grant application and annual 
report part of the collection of information are based on all eligible 
respondents each year for each of the grants:
     Section 402 grants: 57 (fifty States, the District of 
Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, 
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Bureau of 
Indian Affairs);
     Section 405 Grants (except Impaired Driving 
Countermeasures, Motorcyclist Safety and Nonmotorized Grants) and 
Section 1906 Grant: 56 (fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto 
Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the 
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands); and

[[Page 8834]]

     Section 405, Impaired Driving Countermeasures, 
Motorcyclist Safety and Nonmotorized Grants: 52 (fifty States, the 
District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico).
    The estimated burden hours for the assessment part of the 
collection of information are based on the average number of State 
assessments that are carried out each year in each of the covered grant 
areas: \5\ There are 9 assessments planned for the Section 405 Occupant 
Protection grants, 14 assessments for the Section 405 Traffic safety 
information system improvement grants and 4 assessments for the Section 
405 Impaired driving grant.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \5\ Assessment average is based on the total number of 
assessments conducted each year and divided by the number of years 
since the inception of assessment requirements for certain grants 
under MAP-21, Public Law 112-141.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Under the grant application and annual report requirements, we 
estimate that it will take each respondent approximately 240 hours to 
collect, review and submit the required information to NHTSA for the 
Section 402 program (200 burden hours for grant applications and 40 
hours for annual reports). We further estimate that it will take each 
respondent approximately 180 hours to collect, review and submit the 
required information to NHTSA for the Section 405 program. For traffic 
safety information system improvement grants, we estimate that it takes 
123 hours to respond to questions under the assessment. For occupant 
protection and impaired driving countermeasures grants, we estimate 
that it takes 80 hours to provide the required information and respond 
to questions under an assessment. Based on the above information, the 
estimated annual burden hours for all State respondents is 26,522 
hours.
    NHTSA estimates the labor cost associated with respondents 
preparing application materials using the estimated average wage for 
``Management Analysts,'' Occupation Code 13-1111. The Bureau of Labor 
Statistics estimates that the average hourly wage for management 
analysts in State and local government is $31.95.\6\ The Bureau of 
Labor Statistics estimates that wages for State and local government 
workers represent 61.8% of total compensation costs.\7\ Therefore, 
NHTSA estimates the hourly labor costs to be $51.70 and estimates that 
hourly labor cost associated with preparing materials to be $24,056 per 
respondent. If all eligible States applied for and received grants for 
all programs (and including the annual number of assessment responses 
required from States), the total labor costs on all respondents would 
be $1,855,099.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \6\ See May 2019 National Industry-Specific Occupational 
Employment and Wage Estimates, NAICS 336100--Motor Vehicle 
Manufacturing, available at https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_999200.htm (accessed January 6, 2021).
    \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    These estimates are based on every eligible respondent submitting 
the required information for every available grant. However, not all 
States apply for and receive a grant each year under each of these 
programs. In addition, under Section 405 grants, some requirements 
permit States to submit a single application covering multiple years 
allowing States to simply recertify in subsequent years.
    In addition to the burden hours for State respondents, this 
information collection also involves burden hours for subject matter 
experts who assess the States and burden hours for administrative 
assistants. For occupant protection and impaired driving assessments it 
is estimated that assessors spend approximately 80 hours of work on 
each assessment, based on the following assumptions: 46 hours for the 
interviews and panel discussions and 34 hours for pre- and post-
assessment activities, to include reviewing: (1) Briefing book 
materials; (2) resources on the State Highway Safety Office's website, 
and (3) reviewing comments and/or suggestions submitted from the State 
after their review of the assessment final report.The honorarium the 
State pays to each team member is $2,700, which translates to $33.75 
per hour.
    An administrative assistant works approximately 46 hours for the 
interviews and panel discussions and 18 hours for pre- and post-
assessment activities, to include coordinating logistics, assisting 
team members and editing the document. The honorarium for this position 
is $2,100 (which translates to $32.80 per hour).
    The cost for traffic records assessments is based on the honorarium 
that NHTSA pays each assessor. NHTSA pays each assessor $2,100 for 
their time and NHTSA estimates that each assessor spends approximately 
16 hours for the assessment, or $131.25 per hour.
    Accordingly, NHTSA estimates the total burden hours for this 
information collection request is 44,826 hours and the associated labor 
costs is estimated to be $2,440,089.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Cost: $422,500

    In addition to the cost of states in conjunction with the 
assessments, there are other costs involved related to conducting the 
event such as subject matter expert stipend, travel and per diem. These 
costs are approximately $32,500 per occupant protection and impaired 
driving assessment. For the thirteen planned assessments, the cost is 
estimated to be $422,500.
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspects of 
this information collection, including (a) whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of 
the functions of the Department, including whether the information will 
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Department's estimate 
of the burden of the proposed information collection; (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 the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.

    Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. 
chapter 35, as amended; 49 CFR 1.49; and DOT Order 1351.29.

Jamie Pfister,
Associate Administrator for Regional Operations and Program Delivery.
[FR Doc. 2021-02652 Filed 2-8-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P