Notice2023-23660
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request-Generic Clearance for FNS Quick Response Surveys (FNS QRS)
Primary source
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Published
October 26, 2023
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentFood and Nutrition Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on this proposed information collection. This collection is a revision of a currently approved collection to conduct short, quick-turnaround surveys of State and local agencies providing food, education, and other services in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Child Nutrition Programs, and Supplemental Nutrition and Safety Programs administered at the federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). These programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); National School Lunch Program (NSLP); School Breakfast Program (SBP); Special Milk Program (SMP); Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP); Summer Food Service Program (SFSP); Summer EBT (SEBT); Team Nutrition; the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Program; the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP); USDA Foods in Schools; Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR); The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 206 (Thursday, October 26, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 206 (Thursday, October 26, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 73585-73587]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-23660]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Food and Nutrition Service
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request--Generic Clearance for FNS Quick Response Surveys (FNS
QRS)
AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), USDA.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this
notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment
on this proposed information collection. This collection is a revision
of a currently approved collection to conduct short, quick-turnaround
surveys of State and local agencies providing food, education, and
other services in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Child
Nutrition Programs, and Supplemental Nutrition and Safety Programs
administered at the federal level by the Food and Nutrition Service
(FNS). These programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC); National School Lunch Program (NSLP);
School Breakfast Program (SBP); Special Milk Program (SMP); Fresh Fruit
and Vegetable Program (FFVP); Summer Food Service Program (SFSP);
Summer EBT (SEBT); Team Nutrition; the Patrick Leahy Farm to School
Program; the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP); USDA Foods in
Schools; Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR); The
Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP); and the Commodity
Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).
DATES: Written comments must be received on or before December 26,
2023.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted via email to
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#0a69656465782467696d657c6f78644a7f796e6b246d657c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="7d1e1213120f53101e1a120b180f133d080e191c531a120b">[email protected]</span></a>. Comments will also be accepted through the
Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>, and
follow the online instructions for submitting comments electronically.
All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the
request for Office of Management and Budget approval. All comments will
be a matter of public record.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or
copies of this information collection should be directed to Conor
McGovern at <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#71121e1f1e035f1c12161e0714031f31040215105f161e07"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f0939f9e9f82de9d93979f8695829eb085839491de979f86">[email protected]</span></a>, 703-457-7740.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Comments are invited on: (a) 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; (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
that were used; (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 those who are to respond, including
use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other
technological collection techniques or other forms of information
technology.
Title: Generic Clearance for FNS Quick Response Surveys (FNS QRS).
Form Number: N/A.
OMB Number: 0584-0613.
Expiration Date: 05/31/2024.
Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Abstract: The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) intends to request
the renewal of a generic clearance that allows FNS to conduct short,
quick-turnaround surveys of State, local, and Tribal agencies and
businesses that receive food, funds, and nutrition information through
programs administered by FNS. This generic clearance enables FNS to
better meet the goals of Executive Order 14058, Transforming Federal
Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in
Government, by allowing FNS to expeditiously gather information from
program operators to improve and refine customer experience and service
delivery.
These programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC); National School Lunch Program (NSLP);
School Breakfast Program (SBP); Special Milk Program (SMP); Fresh Fruit
and Vegetable Program (FFVP); Summer Food Service Program (SFSP);
Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (SEBT); the Patrick Leahy Farm to
School Program; Team Nutrition; the Child and Adult Care Food Program
(CACFP); USDA Foods in Schools; Food Distribution Program on Indian
Reservations (FDPIR); The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP);
and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).
Legislation authorizing these programs requires operators to
cooperate with USDA program research and evaluation activities.
Traditionally, FNS conducts large, program-specific studies to collect
information on numerous features of each program. Such studies often
take several years to complete. Quick response surveys provide a system
for rapidly collecting current information on a specific feature or
issue, and, therefore, enable FNS to administer the programs more
effectively.
The data collection activities under this clearance will include:
(1) sample frame data collections and (2) quick-response surveys. The
sample frame data collections are used to request contact information
from State agencies for the local program operators within their
purview. The quick-response survey data collections will be used to
survey key administrators of FNS programs at the State, local, and site
level to answer policy and implementation questions.
Following standard OMB requirements, FNS will submit a change
request to OMB for each data collection activity undertaken under this
generic clearance. The respondents will be identified at the time that
each change request is submitted to OMB. FNS will provide OMB with the
instruments and supporting materials describing the research project
and specific pre-testing activities.
This revision makes some changes to the information collection as
previously approved. SNAP, Summer EBT, and the Patrick Leahy Farm to
School Program have been added as separate programs, thereby expanding
it to all current FNS programs. The type of information to be collected
and the methods of collection will remain broadly the same. In this
revision, FNS has changed the manner in which we account for burden on
respondents. Previously, we requested burden for exactly one survey per
program per year at the state and local levels. This had several
downsides. First, it overestimated the burden of the clearance itself
on many respondent groups, as some programs are surveyed more commonly
than others. Second, it reduced flexibility for FNS to perform multiple
surveys for a given program when there were significant policy or
[[Page 73586]]
operational needs. In making these revisions, we still take steps to
ensure that a given individual respondent receives no more than three
surveys about the same program each year, with an average of one per
program per year expected.
Affected Public: State, Local and Tribal Governments and
Businesses. State, Local and Tribal government respondents will
include: (1) State Program Directors, including SNAP State agency
directors, WIC State Agency directors and nutrition education and
breastfeeding coordinators, directors of the Child Nutrition programs
(NSLP, SBP, FFVP, SFSP, SEBT, Farm to School, CACFP), directors of
State Distributing Agencies (CSFP, TEFAP, USDA Foods in Schools), and
FDPIR State Agencies and Indian Tribal Organizations; and (2) local-
level program administrators, including Local WIC Agencies and Sites,
School Food Authorities (SFAs), Schools, SFSP Sponsors and Sites, USDA
Foods in Schools Local Agencies and Providers, TEFAP Eligible Recipient
Agencies (ERAs) and Emergency Food Organizations (EFOs), CSFP Local
Agencies, etc. Business respondents include not-for-profit local WIC
Sites, not-for-profit SFSP Sponsors and Sites, for-profit and not-for-
profit CACFP Sponsors and Providers, not-for-profit TEFAP ERAs and
EFOs, not-for-profit CSFP Local Agencies, etc.
Estimated Number of Respondents: The total estimated number of
annual respondents is 41,346. This includes all State Program Directors
(675 total) and a sample of local-level program administrators from
local government agencies (20,391 total) and businesses (20,280 total).
The total number of respondents includes an estimated 34,213 total
responsive entities as well as 7,133 local program administrators from
both local agencies (3,479 total) and (3,654 total) whom FNS expects
will not respond to the information collection request.
Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent: Approximately once
each year, State agencies responsible for a program will be asked to
update contact information for their respective local agencies as part
of the sample frame data collection. Any single individual respondent,
State agency or local program operator, will receive no more than three
surveys about the same FNS program in a given year, with each expected
to receive a single survey in a given year. Including recruitment
requests for the surveys, FNS estimates that respondents will average 2
responses per year.
Estimated Total Annual Responses: 82,692.
Estimated Time per Response: The estimated time of response ranges
from 3 minutes (0.05 hours) to 1 hour for respondents and 1 minute (.02
hours) for non-respondents, depending on the data collection activity,
as shown in the table below. The average estimated time across all
responses is approximately 14 minutes (0.24 hours).
Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: The estimated total
annual burden is 19,744 hours, for a total of 59,231 over the clearance
period. See the table below for estimated total annual burden for each
type of collection and respondent.
Tameka Owens,
Assistant Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
BILLING CODE 3410-30-P
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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN26OC23.025
[FR Doc. 2023-23660 Filed 10-25-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-30-C
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