Notice2022-25868
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
November 28, 2022
Issuing agencies
Federal Housing Finance Agency
Abstract
In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking public comments concerning an information collection known as "Community Support Requirements," which has been assigned control number 2590-0005 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due to expire on September 30, 2023.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 227 (Monday, November 28, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 227 (Monday, November 28, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 72994-72997]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-25868]
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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY
[No. 2022-N-14]
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.
ACTION: 30-Day notice of submission of information collection for
approval from the Office of Management and Budget.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking
public comments concerning an information collection known as
``Community Support Requirements,'' which has been assigned control
number 2590-0005 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FHFA
intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and
approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due
to expire on September 30, 2023.
DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before December 28,
2022.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget, Attention: Desk Officer
for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Washington, DC 20503, Fax:
(202) 395-3047, Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#85caccd7c4daf6f0e7e8ecf6f6eceaebc5eae8e7abe0eaf5abe2eaf3"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0946405b48567a7c6b64607a7a6066674966646b276c6679276e667f">[email protected]</span></a>. Please also submit
comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed Collection; Comment Request:
`Community Support Requirements, (No. 2022-N-14)' '' by any of the
following methods:
<bullet> Agency Website: <a href="http://www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input">www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input</a>.
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="https://www.regulations.gov">https://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email
to FHFA at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f7a59290b4989a9a92998384b7919f9196d9909881"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="aefccbc9edc1c3c3cbc0daddeec8c6c8cf80c9c1d8">[email protected]</span></a> to ensure timely receipt by the agency.
<bullet> Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fourth
Floor, 400 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: ``Community Support Requirements, (No.
2022-N-14).'' Please note that all mail sent to FHFA via the U.S.
Postal Service is routed through a national irradiation facility, a
process that may delay delivery by approximately two weeks. For any
time-sensitive correspondence, please plan accordingly.
We will post all public comments we receive without change,
including any personal information you provide, such as your name and
address, email address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at
<a href="https://www.fhfa.gov">https://www.fhfa.gov</a>.
Copies of all comments received will be available for examination
by the public through the electronic comment docket for this PRA Notice
also located on the FHFA website.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mike Price, Senior Policy Analyst, by
email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e4a98d878c858188cab4968d8781a4828c8285ca838b92"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2c61454f444d4940027c5e454f496c4a444a4d024b435a">[email protected]</span></a>, by telephone at (202) 649-3134;
Tiffani Moore, Supervisory Policy Analyst, by email at
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#46122f202027282f680b2929342306202e202768212930"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="2b7f424d4d4a454205664444594e6b4d434d4a054c445d">[email protected]</span></a>, by telephone at (202) 649-3304; or Angela
Supervielle, Counsel, by email at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#61200f06040d004f32141104131708040d0d0421070907004f060e17"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="10517e77757c713e43656075626679757c7c7550767876713e777f66">[email protected]</span></a>, by
telephone at (202) 649-3973 (these are not toll-free numbers). For TTY/
TRS users with hearing and speech disabilities, dial 711 and ask to be
connected to any of the contact numbers above.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Background
1. Paperwork Reduction Act
Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501--3520), and its implementing
regulation (5 CFR part 1320), Federal agencies must obtain approval
from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor.
``Collection of information'' is defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(3) and 5 CFR
1320.3(c) to include agency collection of information from ten or more
persons. Section 3507(b) of title 44 requires Federal agencies to
provide a 30-day notice in the Federal Register for the public to
provide comments to OMB \1\ concerning each proposed collection of
information, including each proposed extension of an existing
collection of information. 44 U.S.C. 3507(b); 5 CFR 1320.10(a). FHFA's
collection of information set forth in this document is titled the
``Community Support Requirements'' (assigned control number 2590-0005
by OMB). To comply with the PRA requirement, FHFA is publishing this
Notice of a proposed three-year extension of this collection of
information.
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\1\ The PRA requires Federal agencies to issue two notices
seeking public comment on information collection activities before
OMB may approve paperwork submissions. As required by section
3506(c)(2)(A) of title 44 of the PRA, FHFA published the first
required notice in the Federal Register on August 19, 2022 (87 FR
51095) that provided a 60-day comment period for the public to
submit comments to FHFA. 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A); 5 CFR 1320.8(d).
This notice providing a 30-day comment period for the public to
submit comments to OMB is the second required notice.
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2. Community Support Requirements
The Federal Home Loan Bank System (System) consists of eleven
regional Federal Home Loan Banks (Banks) and the Office of Finance, a
joint office of the Banks that issues and services their debt
securities. The Banks are wholesale financial institutions, organized
under authority of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) to serve
the public interest by enhancing the availability of residential
housing finance and community lending credit through their member
institutions and, to a limited extent, through eligible non-member
``housing associates.'' Each Bank is structured as a regional
cooperative that is owned and controlled by member financial
institutions located within its district, which are also its primary
customers.
Section 10(g)(1) of the Bank Act requires the Director of FHFA to
promulgate regulations establishing standards of community investment
or service that Bank member institutions must meet in order to maintain
access to long-term Bank advances.<SUP>2 3</SUP> Section 10(g)(2) of
the Bank Act requires that, in establishing these community support
requirements for Bank members, FHFA take into account factors such as
the member's performance under the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977
(CRA) \4\ and record of lending to first-time homebuyers.\5\ FHFA's
community support regulation, which establishes standards and review
criteria for determining compliance with section 10(g) of the Bank Act,
is set forth at 12 CFR part 1290.
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\2\ 12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(1).
\3\ For purposes of the community support requirements, a long-
term advance is an advance with a term of maturity greater than one
year. 12 CFR 1290.1 (definition of ``long-term advance'').
\4\ See 12 U.S.C. 2901 et seq.
\5\ 12 U.S.C. 1430(g)(2).
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Part 1290 requires that each Bank member subject to community
support review submit to FHFA biennially a completed Community Support
Statement (Form 060), which contains several short questions, the
answers to which are used by FHFA to assess the responding member's
compliance with the statutory and regulatory community
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support standards.\6\ Members are strongly encouraged to complete and
submit Form 060 online, but may submit a version via email or fax if
they cannot complete the submission online. In part I of Form 060, a
member that is subject to the CRA must record its most recent CRA
rating and the year of that rating. Part II of Form 060 addresses a
member's efforts to assist first-time homebuyers. A member may either
record the number and dollar amount of mortgage loans made to first-
time homebuyers in the previous or current calendar year (part II.A),
or indicate the types of programs or activities it has undertaken to
assist first-time homebuyers by checking selections from a list (part
II.B), or do both. If a member has received a CRA rating of
``Outstanding,'' it need not complete part II. A copy of the current
Form 060 and related instructions appear at the end of this notice.
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\6\ See 12 CFR 1290.2. Non-depository community development
financial institutions and institutions that have been Bank members
for less than one year as of March 31 of the year the Form 060 is
due are not required to submit Form 060.
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Part 1290 also establishes the circumstances under which FHFA will
restrict a member's access to long-term Bank advances and to the Bank
Affordable Housing Programs (AHP), Community Investment Programs (CIP),
and Community Investment Cash Advance (CICA) programs for failure to
meet the community support requirements.\7\ Part 1290 permits Bank
members whose access to long-term advances has been restricted to apply
directly to FHFA to remove the restriction.\8\
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\7\ See 12 CFR 1290.5(b), (e).
\8\ See 12 CFR 1290.5(d).
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B. Need for and Use of the Information Collection
FHFA uses the information collection contained in FHFA Form 060 to
determine whether Bank members satisfy the statutory and regulatory
community support requirements, and to ensure that, as required by
statute and regulation, only Bank members that meet those requirements
maintain continued access to long-term Bank advances and to the Bank
AHP, CIP, and CICA programs.
The OMB control number for this information collection is 2590-
0005, which is due to expire on September 30, 2023. The respondents are
Bank member institutions.
C. Burden Estimate
FHFA has analyzed the two facets of this information collection to
estimate the hour burdens that the collection will impose upon Bank
members annually over the next three years. Based on that analysis,
FHFA estimates that the total annual hour burden will be 1,884 hours.
The method FHFA used to determine the annual hour burden for each facet
of the information collection is explained in detail below.
1. Community Support Statements
There are currently about 6,600 Bank members. With exceptions, most
Bank members must submit a Community Support Statement biennially. Bank
members that are non-depository community development financial
institutions (CDFIs) are exempt from the submission requirement.
Currently, there are 68 non-depository CDFI Bank members. Bank members
who have been Bank members for less than one year as of March 31st of
the year the submission is required are also exempt from filing. The
Banks have lost, on average, 94 new members per year over the last
three years. After subtracting the exempt members (68) and the
estimated loss of 282 members (94 new members x 3 years) from the
current membership of 6,600, FHFA arrives at a total estimate of about
6,250 respondents required to submit Community Support Statements each
biennial cycle. Under the Community Support biennial review cycle,
members submit Community Support Statements every other year.
Accordingly, FHFA estimates that the total number of respondents per
year is about 3,125 (half of 6,250).
FHFA estimates that the average preparation and submission time for
each Community Support Statement is 0.6 hours. Therefore, the estimate
for the total annual hour burden on Bank members in connection with the
preparation and submission of Community Support Statements is, 1,875
hours (3,125 Statements x 0.6 hours).
2. Requests To Remove a Restriction on Access to Long-Term Advances
FHFA estimates that an annual average of 12 Bank members whose
access to long-term Bank advances and to AHP, CIP, and CICA programs
has been restricted will prepare and submit requests to FHFA to remove
those restrictions, and that the average preparation time for each
request will be 0.75 hours. Therefore, the estimate for the total
annual hour burden on Bank members in connection with the preparation
and submission of requests to remove a restriction on access to long-
term advances is 9 hours (12 requests x 0.75 hours).
D. Comment Request
In accordance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.8(d), FHFA
published an initial notice and request for public comments regarding
this information collection in the Federal Register on August 19,
2022.\9\ The 60-day comment period closed on October 18, 2022. FHFA
received one comment letter that was not responsive to any of the
questions in the notice and contained no comments relating to the
Community Support Requirements or any issues arising under the PRA.
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\9\ See 87 FR 51095 (Aug. 19, 2022).
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FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) Whether the
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical
utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimates of the burdens of the
collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility,
and clarity of the information collected; and (4) 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.
Shawn Bucholtz,
Chief Data Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
BILLING CODE 8070-01-1
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[FR Doc. 2022-25868 Filed 11-25-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-C
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