Notice2025-13566
Agency Information Collection Activities: “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications (NSEPC)”
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
July 18, 2025
Issuing agencies
Homeland Security Department
Abstract
The Emergency Communications Division within Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will submit the following Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 136 (Friday, July 18, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 136 (Friday, July 18, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33976-33978]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-13566]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
[Docket No. CISA-2025-0006]
Agency Information Collection Activities: ``Generic Clearance for
the Collection of Qualitative Feedback on National Security and
Emergency Preparedness Communications (NSEPC)''
AGENCY: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA),
Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
ACTION: 60-Day Notice and request for comments; Collection Request,
(Request for OMB Control Number).
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SUMMARY: The Emergency Communications Division within Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will submit the following
Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995.
DATES: Comments are encouraged and will be accepted until September 16,
2025.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number Docket
#CISA-2025-0006, at:
[cir] Federal eRulemaking Portal: <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
Please follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name
and docket number Docket #CISA-2025-0006. All comments received will be
posted without change to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>, including any
personal information provided.
Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or
comments received, go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Antonio Branham, 202-981-1930,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#80c1eef4efeee9efaee2f2e1eee8e1edc0ede1e9ecaee3e9f3e1aee4e8f3aee7eff6"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="f0b19e849f9e999fde9282919e98919db09d91999cde93998391de949883de979f86">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Executive Order 12862 directs Federal
agencies to provide service to the public that matches or exceeds the
best service available in the private sector. Congress passed Public
Law 109-295 in 2006, which included Subtitle D, SEC. 671 `Emergency
Communications', also referred to as the `21st Century Emergency
Communications Act of 2006'. The legislation established the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Emergency Communications, which
was retitled in 2018 as the Emergency Communications Division (ECD)
(hereafter ``the Agency'') within CISA, to spearhead the development
and implementation efforts, on behalf of emergency responders and
government officials across public and private sectors, of an extensive
approach to advancing national interoperable communications
capabilities.
[[Page 33977]]
Under Subtitle D, SEC. 1801. Office of Emergency Communications, 6
U.S.C. 571(c), the following requirements and responsibilities were
established for the Director for Emergency Communications to:
(4) conduct extensive, nationwide outreach to support and promote
the ability of emergency response providers and relevant government
officials to continue to communicate in the event of natural disasters,
acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters.
(5) conduct extensive nationwide outreach and foster the
development of interoperable emergency communications capabilities by
state, regional, local, and tribal governments, emergency responders,
public safety agencies, and by regional consortia thereof.
(8) promote the development of standard operating procedures and
best practices with respect to use of interoperable emergency
communications capabilities for incident response and facilitate the
sharing of information on such best practices for achieving,
maintaining, and enhancing interoperable emergency communications
capabilities for such response.
(9) coordinate, in cooperation with the National Communications
System, the establishment of a national response capability with
initial and ongoing planning, implementation, and training for the
deployment of communications equipment for relevant state, local, and
tribal governments and emergency response providers in the event of a
catastrophic loss of local and regional emergency communications
services.
(13) develop and update periodically, as appropriate, a National
Emergency Communications Plan under section 572 of this title;
(14) perform such other duties of the Department necessary to
support and promote the ability of emergency response providers and
relevant government officials to continue to communicate in the event
of natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters;
and
(15) perform other duties of the Department necessary to achieve
the goal of and maintain and enhance interoperable emergency
communications capabilities
Sec. 1802. 6 U. S. C. Sec. 572 (a)-(c) requires the Director of
Emergency Communications, in cooperation with state, local, and tribal
governments, federal departments and agencies, emergency response
providers, and the private sector, develop no later than 180 days after
the completion of the baseline assessment under section 573 of this
title, and periodically update, a National Emergency Communications
Plan to support, promote, accelerate, and attain interoperable
emergency communications nationwide.
To meet the statutory requirements of 6 U.S.C. 573, the collection
of information is necessary to due to the requirement of continuous
examinations of nationwide emergency communications capabilities. 6 U.
S. C Sec. 573 (a) requires the DHS Secretary to conduct an assessment
of Federal, State, local, and tribal governments that (1) defines the
range of capabilities needed by emergency response providers and
relevant government officials, (3) assesses the current available
capabilities to meet such communications needs; (4) identifies the gap
between such current capabilities and defined requirements; at least
every five years.
To continuously work to ensure that programs are effective and meet
customers' needs, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
Emergency Communications Division (hereafter ``the Agency'') seeks to
obtain OMB approval through the generic clearance process to collect
qualitative and quantitative feedback on national security and
emergency preparedness communications. Qualitative feedback means
information that provides useful insights on perceptions and opinions
but are not statistical surveys that yield quantitative results that
can be generalized to the population of study.
This information is an imperative requirement to address the
multifaceted national emergency and critical infrastructure plans and
interagency coordination to implement, support, protect, strengthen,
and enhance emergency communications capabilities. Enabling and
improving efforts to garner customer and stakeholder feedback in an
efficient, and timely manner is vital to the security of the nation to
establish uniform policies, standards, and guidelines for integrating
emergency communications across federal infrastructure protection and
risk management within all 16 infrastructure sectors.
It will allow for insight into customer and stakeholder
perceptions, experiences and expectations, and to focus attention on
areas where emergency communications, public safety training, or
changes or in operations might improve ECD initiatives. The collections
from the NSEPC will allow for ongoing, collaborative, and actionable
communications between the Agency and its customers and stakeholders
while simultaneously contributing directly to the improvement of
program management.
Improving agency programs requires the consistency of ongoing
assessment of service delivery, meaning a systematic review of the
operation of a program compared to a set of explicit or implicit
standards, as a way of contributing to the continuous improvement of
the program. The Agency will collect, analyze, and interpret
information gathered through this generic clearance to identify
strengths and weaknesses of current services and make improvements in
service delivery based on feedback. The respondent pool consists of,
but is not limited to, federal, state, local, tribal, territorial and
industry users of emergency communications priority services. Responses
will be assessed to plan and inform efforts to improve or maintain the
quality of service offered to the public. If this information is not
collected, vital feedback from customers and stakeholders on the
Agency's services will be unavailable. The Agency will only submit a
collection for approval under this generic clearance if it meets the
following conditions:
<bullet> Information gathered will be used only internally for
general service improvement and program management purposes and is not
intended for release outside of the agency. (If released, appropriate
Agency procedures will be followed);
<bullet> Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of
substantially informing influential policy decisions;
<bullet> Information gathered will yield qualitative information;
the collections will not be designed or expected to yield statistically
reliable results or used as though the results are generalizable to the
population of study;
<bullet> The collections are voluntary;
<bullet> The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on
considerations of total burden hours, total number of respondents, or
burden-hours per respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents
and the Federal Government;
<bullet> The collections are non-controversial and do not raise
issues of concern to other Federal agencies;
<bullet> Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions
from respondents who have experience with the program or may have
experience with the program in the near future; and
<bullet> With the exception of information needed to provide
renumeration for participants of focus groups and cognitive laboratory
studies, personally identifiable information (PII) is collected only to
the extent necessary and is not retained.
[[Page 33978]]
If these conditions are not met, the Agency will submit an
information collection request to OMB for approval through the normal
PRA process. To obtain approval for a collection that meets the
conditions of this generic clearance, a standardized form will be
submitted to OMB along with supporting documentation (e.g., a copy of
the comment card). The submission will have automatic approval unless
OMB identifies issues within 5 business days.
The types of collections that this generic clearance covers
include, but are not limited to:
--Customer satisfaction surveys/feedback surveys
--Customer comment cards/complaint forms
--Self-Assessment questionnaire
--Small panel/discussion groups of customers, potential customers, or
other stakeholders
The Agency has established a manager/managing entity to serve for
this generic clearance and will conduct an independent review of each
information collection to ensure compliance with the terms of this
clearance prior to submitting each collection to OMB. If appropriate,
agencies will collect information electronically and/or use online
collaboration tools to reduce burden. Small business or other small
entities may be involved in these efforts, but the Agency will minimize
the burden on them of information collections approved under this
clearance by sampling, asking for readily available information, and
using short, easy-to-complete information collection instruments.
Without these types of feedback, the Agency will not have timely
information to adjust its services to meet customer needs. If a
confidentiality pledge is deemed useful and feasible, the Agency will
only include a pledge of confidentiality that is supported by authority
established in statute or regulation, that is supported by disclosure
and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, and
that does not unnecessarily impede sharing of data with other agencies
for compatible confidential use. If the agency includes a pledge of
confidentiality, it will include a citation for the statute or
regulation supporting the pledge. There are no program changes since
the previous OMB approval.
This is a new information collection request.
The Office of Management and Budget is particularly interested in
comments which:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency,
including whether the information will have practical utility;
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected;
4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those
who are to respond, including through utilization of appropriate
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting
electronic submissions of responses.
Analysis
Agency: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA),
Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Title: Generic Clearance for the Collection of Qualitative Feedback
on National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications (NSEPC).
OMB Number: 1670-NEW.
Frequency: Quarterly.
Affected Public: Federal, State, Local, Tribal, Territorial, And
Industry Users of National Security and Emergency Preparedness
Communications Public Safety Services.
Number of Respondents: 10,000,000 (customer satisfaction/feedback
surveys), 1,899,000 (customer comment cards/complaint forms), 100,000
(self-assessment questionnaire), 1,000 (small panel/discussion groups).
Estimated Time per Respondent: 30 minutes (customer satisfaction/
feedback surveys), 10 minutes (customer comment cards/complaint forms),
30 minutes (self-assessment questionnaire), 1 hour (small panel/
discussion groups).
Total Burden Hours: 5,368,133.
Annualized Respondent Cost: $292,350,840.
Total Annualized Government Cost: $68,076.83.
Robert J. Costello,
Chief Information Officer, Department of Homeland Security,
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
[FR Doc. 2025-13566 Filed 7-17-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9111-LF-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on July 18, 2025.
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