Statement

Supporting Statement

Land Border Carrier Initiative Program/Customs and Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT)

1651-0077

A. Justification

1. The Land Border Carrier Initiative Program (LBCIP) is designed to prevent smugglers from utilizing commercial conveyances for their commodities, and to provide expedited processing to participants in this Program at certain, high-risk locations by prescreening participants. The Customs and Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) Program has superseded the LBCIP by expanding it to include other entities including air and sea, and by deterring terrorist weapons, including weapons of mass destruction. Most of the participants in LBCIP now participate in C-TPAT. The purpose of both programs is to provide participants with expedited processing at the border by prescreening participants. The expansion of this program to include air and sea shipments was mandated by the SAFE Port Act.

2. The information collected on drivers, and sea and air carriers is to be used by CBP officers to assist in the release of merchandise at certain high‑risk locations to enhance CBP ability to assess the threat of certain commercial transactions more effectively.

3. Applicants wishing to apply for C-TPAT apply through the CBP website, so it is an electronic application.

4. Since each notice is unique, this information is not duplicated elsewhere.

5. No additional consideration has been given to small businesses or entities since all applicants are treated equally.

6. Failure to collect this information would result in CBP to discontinuing the C-TPAT program which would have a negative impact on the trade community by increasing the processing time at ports of entries.

7. This information collection is conducted in a manner consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5(c)(2).

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8. Public comments were solicited through a Federal Register notice published in the Federal Register on March 1, 2007, and on May 1, 2007. As of this submission no comments have been received. If CBP receives any comments while this collection is under review at OMB, they will be forwarded immediately.

9. There is no offer of a monetary or material value for this information collection.

10. This information collection does not involve questions of a commercially sensitive nature.

11. The personal information contained in these applications will be maintained in a secure database and access will be restricted only to Department of Homeland Security officers on a "need to know" basis.

12. Estimated Annualized Burden on the Public - The estimated annual burden for this information collection is 32,500 hours, based on an estimated 6500 respondents filing one initial application which is estimated at 4 hours per application, plus one annual self assessment to update information. The self assessment is estimated to take one hour.

6500 respondents x 4 hour application process = 26,000 hours

6500 respondents x 1 hour self-assessment = 6,500 hours

32,500 hours

Estimated Annualized Cost to the Public. The estimated cost to the respondents is $650,000, based on 32,500 burden hours at an average rate of $20.00 per hour.

13. Estimated Record Keeping Burden on the Public. There is no record keeping burden associated with this collection.

Estimated Capitalization Cost Burden on the Public. There are no capitalization costs associated with this information collection.

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14. Estimated Cost to the Federal Government - The estimated annual cost to the Federal Government in handling, processing and recording the information collected with regard to this collection is $487,500.00. This is based on CBP officers processing 6500 applications annually, spending 2.5 hours to review each application at an average cost of $30.00 per hour. (6500 applications x 2.5 hours= 16,250 hours x $30 = $487,500.00

15. The increase in the burden hours is due to the C-TPAT program overtaking the LBCIP program and expanding the program to air and sea. LBCIP applied only to land carriers. CBP requests that the title of this information collection be changed to Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT).

16. This information will not be published for statistical purposes.

17. There is no form associated with this information collection.

18. CBP does not request an exception to the certification of this information collection.

B. Collection of Information Employing Statistical Methods.

No statistical methods were employed.