ICRRegistrationReqs07

SUPPORTING STATEMENT JUSTIFICATION FOR

REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS

1. Circumstances Making Collection Of Information Necessary:

This is a request for a revision of an approved information collection, regarding registration requirements, OMB number 0583-0128.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has been delegated the authority to exercise the functions of the Secretary as provided in the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) (21 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) and the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) (21 U.S.C. 451 et seq.). These statutes mandate that FSIS protect the public by ensuring that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and properly labeled and packaged.

Provisions of the FMIA (21 U.S.C. 643) and the PPIA (21 U.S.C. 460(c)) prohibit any person, firm, or corporation from engaging in commerce as a meat or poultry products broker, renderer, animal food manufacturer, wholesaler, or public warehouseman, or from buying, selling, or transporting, or importing any dead, dying, disabled, or diseased livestock or poultry or parts of the carcasses of livestock or poultry that died otherwise than by slaughter, unless it has registered its business as required by the regulations.

According to the regulations, (9 CFR 320.5 and 381.179), parties required to register with FSIS must do so by submitting a form (FSIS Form 5020-1, Registration of Meat and Poultry Handlers) and must provide current and correct information to FSIS, including their name, the address of all locations at which they conduct the business that requires them to register, and all trade or business names under which they conduct these businesses. They must also inform FSIS when information on the form needs to be updated.

2. How, By Whom and Purpose Information Is To Be Used:

The following is a discussion of the information collection activities.

FSIS uses this information to maintain a database of these businesses. Should Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) be introduced into the Unites States, registration information will be crucial in quickly tracking the source of BSE to prevent its spread.

There are 150 total burden hours for the information collection request relating to registration requirements.

3. Use Of Improved Information Technology:

Under the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, FSIS form 5020-1 may be completed electronically to FSIS and then submitted to FSIS.

4. Efforts To Identify Duplication:

No other USDA agency or any other Government agency requires information of this kind. There is no other available information that can be used or modified.

5. Methods To Minimize Burden On Small Business Entities:

Data required of small entities are the same as for large ones. The information collections must apply to all requestors.

6. Consequences If Information Were Collected Less Frequently:

To conduct the information collections less frequently will reduce the effectiveness of the meat and poultry inspection program.

7. Circumstances That Would Cause The Information Collection To Be Conducted In A Manner:

• requiring respondents to report informa­tion to the agency more often than quarterly;

• requiring respondents to prepare a writ­ten response to a collection of infor­ma­tion in fewer than 30 days after receipt of it;

• requiring respondents to submit more than an original and two copies of any docu­ment;

• requiring respondents to retain re­cords, other than health, medical, governm­ent contract, grant-in-aid, or tax records for more than three years;

• in connection with a statisti­cal sur­vey, that is not de­signed to produce valid and reli­able results that can be general­ized to the uni­verse of study;

• requiring the use of a statis­tical data classi­fication that has not been re­vie­wed and approved by OMB;

• that includes a pledge of confiden­tiali­ty that is not supported by au­thority estab­lished in statute or regu­la­tion, that is not sup­ported by dis­closure and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, or which unneces­sarily impedes shar­ing of data with other agencies for com­patible confiden­tial use; or

• requiring respondents to submit propri­etary trade secret, or other confidential information unless the agency can demon­strate that it has instituted procedures to protect the information's confidentiality to the extent permit­ted by law.

Firms will submit data only once a year, or less frequently; hence, the information collection and recordkeeping activities in this submission are consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. Consultation With Persons Outside The Agency:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, FSIS published a 60-day notice (71 FR 64680) in the Federal Register on November 3, 2006 requesting comments regarding this information collection request. The Agency did receive one comment from an industry group. They thought the Agency’s estimates were reasonable. In addition FSIS contacted three people who work with industry (Molly Davis, 479/272-6418; Mark Mignogna, 281/584-1399; Mandy Isensee, 888/711-4020). Two of the three commented that it would take 15 minutes to complete the form. One of the responders thought it would take 5 minutes to respond. Consequently, FSIS revised its time estimate to 15 minutes per response.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents:

Respondents will not receive any gifts or payments.

10. Confidentiality Provided To Respondents:

No assurances other than routine protection provided under the Freedom of Information Act have been provided to respondents.

11. Questions Of A Sensitive Nature:

The applicants are not asked to furnish any information of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Burden

The total burden estimate for the reporting and recordkeeping requirements associated with this information collection is 50 hours.

The Agency estimates that 600 establishments will respond once annually taking 15 minutes to supply the information needed for a total of 150 hours.

REGISTRTATION OF MEAT AND POULTRY HANDLERS

(FSIS Form 5020-1;

Type of Establish- Ment	No. of Respon-dents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Total Annual Responses	Time for Response in Mins.	Total Annual Time in Hours
Ests.	600	1	600	15	150

13. Capital and Start-up Cost and Subsequent Maintenance

There are no capital and start-up costs and subsequent maintenance burdens.

14. Annual Cost To Federal Government And Respondents:

The cost to the Federal Government for these information collection requirements is $1,500 annually. The costs arise primarily from the time spent by FSIS staff reviewing the registration data. The Agency estimates a cost of $30 per hour.

The cost to the respondents is estimated at $4,500 annually. The Agency estimates that it will cost respondents $30 an hour in fulfilling these paperwork and recordkeeping requirements. Respondents will spend an annual total of 150 hours and $4,500.

15. Reasons For Changes In Burden:

This is a revised information collection. FSIS is reducing its estimate of the amount of time it takes to complete the registration form because the initial information collection imposed a burden on all firms required to register, while this information collection accounts for only new firms and firms that need to revise their registration form.

16. Tabulation, Analyses And Publication Plans:

There are no plans to publish the data for statistical use.

17. OMB Approval Number Display:

FSIS will display the OMB approval number on any instructions it publishes relating to recordkeeping activities.

18. Exceptions to the Certification:

There are no exceptions to the certification. This information collection accords with the certification in item 19 of the OMB 83-I.

Page 6