Notice2023-23407
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
October 24, 2023
Issuing agencies
Defense Department
Abstract
In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness announces a proposed public information collection and seeks public comment on the provisions thereof. Comments are invited on: whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 204 (Tuesday, October 24, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 204 (Tuesday, October 24, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73007-73008]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-23407]
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Office of the Secretary
[Docket ID: DoD-2023-OS-0100]
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
AGENCY: Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and
Readiness
[[Page 73008]]
(OUSD(P&R)), Department of Defense (DoD).
ACTION: 60-Day information collection notice.
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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
announces a proposed public information collection and seeks public
comment on the provisions thereof. Comments are invited on: whether the
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the
information shall have practical utility; the accuracy of the agency's
estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; ways to
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be
collected; and ways to minimize the burden of the information
collection on respondents, including through the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
DATES: Consideration will be given to all comments received by December
26, 2023.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number and
title, by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>. Follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant to the
Secretary of Defense for Privacy, Civil Liberties, and Transparency,
4800 Mark Center Drive, Mailbox #24, Suite 08D09, Alexandria, VA 22350-
1700.
Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency
name, docket number and title for this Federal Register document. The
general policy for comments and other submissions from members of the
public is to make these submissions available for public viewing on the
internet at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a> as they are received without
change, including any personal identifiers or contact information.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on this
proposed information collection or to obtain a copy of the proposal and
associated collection instruments, please write to, Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Health Affairs, 1200 Defense Pentagon, Washington, DC
20301, Ms. Kimberly Lahm, 703-681-8184, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#99fdf1f8b7f7faebb7f1fcf8f5edf1faf8ebfcb4f6e9eab7f4fbe1b7f1f8b4eef6f4fcf7eab4f1fcf8f5edf1b4e9f6f5f0fae0d9f1fcf8f5edf1b7f4f0f5"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="1d79757c33737e6f3375787c7169757e7c6f7830726d6e33707f6533757c306a727078736e3075787c716975306d7271747e645d75787c71697533707471">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title; Associated Form; and OMB Number: Understanding Service
Member Experiences with Family Planning; OMB Control Number: 0704-SMFP.
Needs and Uses: The recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v.
Jackson Women's Health removed the Constitutional right to abortion. In
its wake, several states banned or severely restricted access to
abortion, and several more states are poised to do so. In addition to
restricting access to abortion, the Dobbs decision raises questions
about miscarriage and infertility care. Several of the states that have
severely restricted access to or banned abortion are also home to large
military instillations. This raises questions about service member
access to abortion care, as well as a range of family planning options.
There is little existing research on service members' experiences with
family planning.
Building on prior experience executing the DoD Women's Reproductive
Health Survey (WRHS) and other research on the health and health
behaviors of service members (e.g., the Health Related Behaviors Survey
[HRBS]), RAND National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) will conduct a
series of focus groups with men and women across DoD service branches
(Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force) to augment this
survey data and better understand how service members experience family
planning both within the Military Health System and via community
providers. These focus groups will also gather information on service
members' experiences with any new policies that the DoD unveils in
response to the Dobbs decision.
This study will highlight areas related to family planning that may
threaten the DoD's ability to field a ready and lethal force. It will
also point to areas where DoD may need to augment or develop care,
programs, services, or policies that provide needed reproductive health
care and family planning services to the force in order to maintain and
enhance health, readiness, retention, and lethality.
Affected Public: Individuals and households.
Annual Burden Hours: 4,800.
Number of Respondents: 4,800.
Responses per Respondent: 1.
Annual Responses: 4,800.
Average Burden per Response: 1 hour.
Frequency: Once.
The purpose of the data collection effort is to better understand
service members experiences with family planning services provided by
both DoD and community providers. Respondents include approximately
4,800 active duty service members from all service branches (below the
rank of flag officer) at 24 CONUS installations. Data will be collected
via 60-minute focus group. These focus groups will be in-person,
conducted separately by gender (i.e., men vs women) and rank (i.e., E1-
E4, E5-E6, E7-E9/W1-W5, O1-O3, O4-O5, O6). Each group will be led by
one facilitator and include one notetaker. Consent will be obtained
verbally at the beginning of each session and each participant will
receive an information sheet containing the consent information. A
recruitment flyer will be used to assist installation POCs with
recruitment.
Dedicated notetakers will take verbatim notes during each focus
group and discussion. These notes will be immediately cleaned to remove
any identifying information (e.g., names, titles). Notes will be
entered into a COTS software package for analyzing qualitative data
(e.g., NVivo) and will be stored on RAND-issued laptops and RAND
servers, both of which require two-factor authentication. A Data Safety
Plan has been approved for the study.
A six-item post-focus group survey will also be given to
participants. The purpose is to collect sociodemographic and military
characteristics that will be used to understand the representativeness
of participants compared to the larger active-duty force. The survey
will be paper-and-pencil and is anonymous. It should take no more than
two minutes to complete. Data from the survey will be hand-entered into
Excel and analyzed using the same software.
Dated: October 18, 2023.
Aaron T. Siegel,
Alternate OSD Federal Register Liaison Officer, Department of Defense.
[FR Doc. 2023-23407 Filed 10-23-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6001-FR-P
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