Notice2025-20475
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Survey of Construction Questionnaire for the Building Permit Official (SOC-QBPO)
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 20, 2025
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentCensus Bureau
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 222 (Thursday, November 20, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 222 (Thursday, November 20, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52354-52355]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-20475]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Survey of Construction Questionnaire for the Building Permit
Official (SOC-QBPO)
The Department of Commerce will submit the following information
collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, on or after the date of publication of this notice. We invite the
general public and other Federal agencies to
[[Page 52355]]
comment on proposed, and continuing information collections, which
helps us assess the impact of our information collection requirements
and minimize the public's reporting burden. Public comments were
previously requested via the Federal Register on June 27, 2025 during a
60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for
public comments.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce.
Title: Survey of Construction Questionnaire for the Building Permit
Official (SOC-QBPO).
OMB Control Number: 0607-0125.
Form Number(s): SOC-QBPO.
Type of Request: Regular submission, Request for an Extension,
without Change, of a Currently Approved Collection.
Number of Respondents: 1,000.
Average Hours per Response: 15 minutes.
Burden Hours: 250.
Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting an extension
of the currently approved collection for the Survey of Construction
Questionnaire for the Building Permit Official (SOC-QBPO). The
information collected on the SOC-QBPO is necessary to carry out the
sampling for the Survey of Housing Starts, Sales and Completions (OMB
number 0607-0110), also known as the Survey of Construction (SOC).
Government agencies and private companies use statistics from the SOC
to monitor and evaluate the large and dynamic housing construction
industry.
The SOC-QBPO is an electronic questionnaire. The field
representatives (FRs) either call or visit the respondents to enter
their survey responses into a laptop computer using the Computer
Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) software formatted for the SOC-
QBPO. The overall length of the interview will not change, and the
sample size will only receive a minor downward adjustment.
The Census Bureau FRs use the SOC-QBPO to obtain information on the
operating procedures of a permit office. This enables them to locate,
classify, list, and sample building permits for residential
construction. These permits are used as the basis for the sample
selected for SOC. The Census Bureau also uses the information to verify
and update the geographic coverage of permit offices.
Failure to collect this information would make it difficult, if not
impossible, to accurately classify and sample building permits for the
SOC. Data for two principal economic indicators are produced from the
SOC: New Residential Construction (housing starts and housing
completions) and New Residential Sales. Government agencies use these
statistics to evaluate economic policy, measure progress towards the
national housing goal, make policy decisions, and formulate
legislation. For example, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System uses data from this survey to evaluate the effect of interest
rates in this interest-rate sensitive area of the economy. The Bureau
of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the data in developing the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). The private sector and other data users from
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National
Association of Home Builders (NAHB) use the information for estimating
the demand for housing, building materials and the many products used
in new housing and to schedule production, distribution, and sales
efforts. The financial community uses the data to estimate the demand
for short-term (construction loans) and long-term (mortgages)
borrowing.
Affected Public: State, Local, or Tribal government.
Frequency: Annually.
Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and
182.
This information collection request may be viewed at
<a href="http://www.reginfo.gov">www.reginfo.gov</a>. Follow the instructions to view the Department of
Commerce collections currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be submitted within 30 days of the publication of
this notice on the following website <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 and entering either the title of the collection or the OMB
Control Number 0607-0125.
Sheleen Dumas,
Departmental PRA Compliance Officer, Office of the Under Secretary for
Economic Affairs, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2025-20475 Filed 11-19-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on November 20, 2025.
This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.