National Endowment for the Humanities 2017 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has submitted the following public information collection request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (``NEH'') is publishing a notice of its systems of records with descriptions of the systems and the ways in which they are maintained, as required by the Privacy Act of 1974. NEH's mission has not changed since its inception in 1965: It extends federal financial assistance to support humanities-related projects, conducted by both individuals and organizations. In that endeavor, it employs staff and special government employees, and engages academic peer reviewers, to evaluate grant applications. NEH created several systems of records to maintain records concerning the individuals with whom it regularly interacts: e.g., grant applicants, employees, peer reviewers, contractors and vendors. As with its mission, the categories of individuals with whom NEH interacts and the systems it created to host records regarding such individuals have not changed significantly since NEH's inception. This notice reflects administrative and operational changes that have been made at NEH since it last published notice of its systems of records, such as agency restructuring and the increased use of electronic technology. This notice will enable individuals who wish to access information maintained in NEH systems of records to make accurate and specific requests for such information. This notice does not reflect, nor has NEH undertaken, significant changes to the numbers or categories of individuals about whom it maintains records in its systems of records, the categories of records maintained in these systems, the purpose for which it maintains these systems, or the availability of information contained in these systems. This notice also reflects certain new routine uses requested by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Government Information Services of the National Archives and Records Administration, as well as routine uses that are standard within other federal agencies.

On June 30, 2016, President Obama signed the Freedom of Information Act (``FOIA'') Improvement Act of 2016 (the ``FOIA Improvement Act''). Section 3 of the FOIA Improvement Act requires, that not later than 180 days after the date of its enactment, the head of each agency review and revise the agency's regulations to implement the FOIA Improvement Act's amendments. The FOIA Improvement Act specifically requires that the regulations of each agency include procedures for engaging in dispute resolution through the FOIA Public Liaison and the Office of Government Information Services. After undertaking a review of its FOIA regulations in accordance with Section 3 of the FOIA Improvement Act, NEH is revising its FOIA regulations to incorporate the statutory mandates.