Notice2025-04842
Information Collection Being Submitted for Review and Approval to Office of Management and Budget
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
March 21, 2025
Issuing agencies
Federal Communications Commission
Abstract
As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or the Commission) invites the general public and other Federal Agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the following information collection. Pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, the FCC seeks specific comment on how it might "further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees."
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 54 (Friday, March 21, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 54 (Friday, March 21, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13362-13364]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-04842]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
[OMB 3060-0174; FR ID 285584]
Information Collection Being Submitted for Review and Approval to
Office of Management and Budget
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens,
as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC or the Commission) invites the general
[[Page 13363]]
public and other Federal Agencies to take this opportunity to comment
on the following information collection. Pursuant to the Small Business
Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, the FCC seeks specific comment on how it
might ``further reduce the information collection burden for small
business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.''
DATES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be submitted on or before April 21, 2025.
ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>. Find this particular information collection by selecting
``Currently under 30-day Review--Open for Public Comments'' or by using
the search function. Your comment must be submitted into
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a> per the above instructions for it to be considered. In
addition to submitting in <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a> also send a copy of your
comment on the proposed information collection to Cathy Williams, FCC,
via email to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#eebebcafae888d8dc0898198"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0f5f5d4e4f696c6c21686079">[email protected]</span></a> and to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a4e7c5d0ccdd8af3cdc8c8cdc5c9d7e4c2c7c78ac3cbd2"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="c281a3b6aabbec95abaeaeaba3afb182a4a1a1eca5adb4">[email protected]</span></a>. Include in the
comments the OMB control number as shown in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For additional information or copies
of the information collection, contact Cathy Williams at (202) 418-
2918. To view a copy of this information collection request (ICR)
submitted to OMB: (1) go to the web page <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain">http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain</a>, (2) look for the section of the web page called ``Currently
Under Review,'' (3) click on the downward-pointing arrow in the
``Select Agency'' box below the ``Currently Under Review'' heading, (4)
select ``Federal Communications Commission'' from the list of agencies
presented in the ``Select Agency'' box, (5) click the ``Submit'' button
to the right of the ``Select Agency'' box, (6) when the list of FCC
ICRs currently under review appears, look for the Title of this ICR and
then click on the ICR Reference Number. A copy of the FCC submission to
OMB will be displayed.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission may not conduct or sponsor a
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. No person shall be
subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of
information subject to the PRA that does not display a valid OMB
control number.
As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, as
required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-
3520), the FCC invited the general public and other Federal Agencies to
take this opportunity to comment on the following information
collection. Comments are requested concerning: (a) Whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
the functions of the Commission, including whether the information
shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the Commission's
burden estimates; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity
of the information collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of
the collection of information on the respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or other forms of information
technology. Pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of
2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4), the FCC seeks
specific comment on how it might ``further reduce the information
collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25
employees.''
OMB Control Number: 3060-0174.
Title: Sections 73.1212, 76.1615, and 76.1715, Sponsorship
Identification.
Form Number: Not applicable.
Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
Respondents: Business or other for-profit entities and Individuals
or households.
Number of Respondents and Responses: 52,760 respondents, 1,939,422
responses.
Estimated Time per Response: 0.0011 hour-2.166 hours.
Frequency of Response: Recordkeeping requirement; Third party
disclosure requirement; On occasion reporting requirement.
Obligation to Respond: Required to obtain or retain benefits. The
statutory authority for this collection of information is contained in
47 U.S.C. 151, 152, 154(i), 154(j), 303(r), 307, 317, and 325(c) of the
Communications Act, as amended.
Total Annual Burden: 347,851 hours.
Total Annual Cost: $2,010,723.
Needs and Uses: The Commission, in the Second Report and Order, FCC
24-61, takes steps to ensure clear and reasonable foreign sponsorship
identification rules. Section 73.1212(j) of the Commission's rules, 47
CFR 73.1212(j), requires radio and television broadcast stations to
disclose to their audiences, at the time of broadcast, when material
aired pursuant to the lease of time on the station has been sponsored,
paid for, or furnished by a foreign governmental entity. Section
73.1212(k) of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 73.1212(k), imposes
corresponding obligations on stations with section 325(c) permits. The
Commission's authority to impose these regulations stems from section
317 of the Communications Act, which requires broadcast licensees to
inform their audiences when the station has been paid to air a
particular program, in furtherance of the longstanding broadcasting
tenet that the public has a right to know the identity of those that
solicit its support.
The foreign sponsorship identification rules require broadcast
licensees, at the time of entering or renewing a lease agreement
(unless a once-a-year exception applies), to exercise reasonable
diligence to ascertain whether a programming disclosure is required. To
ensure that licensees are complying with their reasonable diligence and
disclosure obligations, the foreign sponsorship identification rules
require licensees to memorialize their required inquiries of lessees
and to maintain records of their programming disclosures and their
reasonable diligence efforts.
In the Second Report and Order, the Commission modified the rule's
information collection requirements by adopting an approach that
provides licensees with two options for demonstrating that they have
met their duty of inquiry in seeking to obtain the information needed
to determine whether the programming provided by a lessee is sponsored
by a foreign governmental entity. The Commission designed this approach
to provide licensees with as much flexibility as possible and to
minimize their paperwork costs and burdens while still ensuring
compliance with the reasonable diligence requirements.
One option available to licensees is the use of certifications,
where both the licensee and the lessee complete a certification
reflecting the communications and inquiries required under the existing
rules. Licensees and lessees have the option either to use sample
certification language set forth in simple, one-page, ``check-box''
templates appended to the Second Report and Order or to use language of
the parties' own choosing. Most licensee and lessee employees should be
able to complete the forms quickly and readily, based upon their
existing knowledge and understanding. It is highly unlikely that either
the licensee or the lessee would need to engage in any type of research
to respond to the queries contained in the certifications. Notably,
these are the same inquiries the Commission adopted in the First Report
and Order, only formatted now as a certification. If licensees and
lessees
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prefer not to use the Commission's templates, they may use their own
certification language, provided that language addresses the points
listed in Sec. 73.1212(j)(3)(i) through (iii) of the rules, which were
adopted in the First Report and Order. The Commission granted this
flexibility to alleviate or minimize costs for licensees that already
had developed their own certifications based on the existing foreign
sponsorship identification rules. A lessee's certification should
convey the information needed to determine whether a disclosure is
required and the information needed for a broadcast disclosure if one
is required.
As an alternative to the certification option, licensees may choose
to ask their lessees for screenshots of lessees' search results of two
federal government websites (the Department of Justice's FARA database
and the Commission's U.S.-based foreign media outlet report). Licensees
choosing this option must still comply with all other aspects of the
current rules, as they have been required to do since the compliance
date of the First Report and Order. Licensees are encouraged to include
in their lease agreements a requirement for lessees to provide notice
of any change in status so as to trigger the need for a foreign
sponsorship disclosure.
Federal Communications Commission.
Marlene Dortch,
Secretary, Office of the Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2025-04842 Filed 3-20-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P
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