Personnel Management Office December 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-13, May 22, 1995), this notice announces that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) submitted a request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OPM requested OMB to approve a collection associated with the Scholarship For Service (SFS) Program Internet webpage. Approval of the webpage is necessary to facilitate the timely registration, selection, and placement of program-enrolled students in Federal agencies. The SFS Program was established by the National Science Foundation in accordance with the Federal Cyber Service Training and Education Initiative as described in the President's National Plan for Information Systems Protection. This program seeks to increase the number of qualified students entering the fields of information assurance and computer security in an effort to respond to the threat to the Federal Government's information technology infrastructure. The program provides capacity building grants to selected 4-year colleges and universities to develop or improve their capacity to train information assurance professionals. It also provides selected 4-year colleges and universities scholarship grants to attract students to the information assurance field. Participating students who receive scholarships from this program are required to serve a 10-week internship during their studies and complete a post-graduation employment commitment equivalent to the length of the scholarship or one year, whichever is longer. OPM projects that 450 students will graduate from participating institutions over the next three years. These students will need placement in addition to the 180 students needing placement this year. We estimate the collection of information for registering and creating an online resume to be 45 minutes to 1 hour. We estimate the total number of hours to be 630. Comments: We received no comments in response to our 60-day notice.

This gives notice of OPM decisions granting authority to make appointments under Schedules A, B, and C in the excepted service as required by 5 CFR 6.6 and 213.103.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, May 22, 1995), this notice announces that the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) intends to submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request for review of a new information collection document. Optional Form (OF) XX, Certificate of Medical Examination replaces the existing Civil Service Commission Standard Form (SF) 78, Certificate of Medical Examination, which was last revised in October 1969. Replacement is necessary because the SF-78 is no longer accurate. Revisions include making the form optional for agencies, incorporating changes required by 29 CFR 1630.13, which addresses prohibited medical examinations and inquiries, and deleting references to the Federal Personnel Manual and other outdated references. It will be used to collect medical information about individuals who are incumbents of positions which require physical fitness/agility testing and medical examinations, or who have been selected for such a position contingent upon meeting physical fitness/agility testing and medical examinations as a condition of their employment. This information is needed to ensure fair and consistent treatment of employees and job applicants, to adjudicate requests to pass over preference eligibles, and to adjudicate claims of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Approximately 45,000 forms are submitted annually. It takes approximately 30 total minutes to complete the form. The annual estimated burden is 22,500 hours. Comments are particularly invited on: Whether this collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of functions of OPM, and whether it will have practical utility; Whether our estimate of the public burden of this collection is accurate, and based on valid assumptions and methodology; Ways we can enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information collected; and Ways we can minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, through use of the appropriate technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. For copies of this proposal, contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey on (202) 606-8358, Fax (202) 418-3251, or e-mail to mbtoomey@opm.gov. Please include a mailing address with your request.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, May 22, 1995), this notice announces that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a request for review of a revised information collection for Occupational Questionnaire (OPM Forms 1203-FX and 1203-EZ). The Occupational Questionnaire is an optical scan form designed to collect applicant information and qualifications in a format suitable for automated processing and to create applicant records for an automated examining system. Each version of this form contains a unique scan form identifier in the upper left-hand corner for the scanning equipment to recognize which version is being used. The 1203 series was commonly referred to as the Qualifications and Availability Form C. OPM has re- titled the series as Occupational Questionnaire, to fit a more generic need. OPM uses these forms to carry out its responsibility for open competitive examining for admission to the competitive service in accordance with section 3304, of title 5, United States Code. OPM has not revised the Form 1203-FX Occupational Questionnaire commonly referred to as Form C. Upon clearance from the Office of Management and Budget in 2002, the Occupational Questionnaire was available via OPM's Web site and OPM's USAJOBS Web site. OPM Form 1203- EZ is a three page version that is shorter and was previously approved by OMB in 2002. The approved OPM Form1203-EZ is being discontinued because over the past two years the form was not used. The Form 1203 FX version allowed the applicant to transmit information via facsimile, mail, or the Internet using a fillable Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF) file. The public reporting burden of collecting this information is estimated to vary from 20 minutes to 45 minutes. The average time to complete this form is 30 minutes. Over the past three years an annual average of 54,202 applicants used Form 1203-FX for a public burden of 27,101 hours per year. A comment request for these forms was published in the Federal Register on November 9, 2005 [FR Vol. 70, No. 216]. During the initial 60-day comment request period, OPM received only one comment from the Department of the Treasury: ``None [bureaus] are using the three-page version, OPM Form 1203-EZ; therefore, we have no objections to OPM's plans to discontinue this three-page version.'' Further, ``* * * we definitely do see the need for continued use of the regular OPM Form 1203-FX, and are glad to hear that OPM plans to continue its availability.'' For copies of this proposal, contact Mary Beth Smith-Toomey on 202- 606-8358, fax at 202-418-3251, or e-mail at mbtoomey@opm.gov. Please include a mailing address with your request.