Under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (Act), Pub.L. 109-8, the United States Trustee (UST) is charged with creating an approved list of credit counseling agencies. Each agency must meet minimum qualifications established by Congress in the new law. The UST needs the information in the application in order to evaluate whether the applicants meet these qualifications established by Congress. The respondents to the application will be credit counseling agencies who seek to counsel individuals before they file for bankruptcy.
The total annual hours burden was reduced from 8,000 annual hours to 3,000 annual hours because fewer applicants actually applied for approval than expected three years ago. The total annual cost burden was also reduced from $400,000 to $150,000 to reflect the lower number of applicants. This cost was excluded from the previous ICR submission due to an error, therefore, the cost burden from the previous submission increased from $0 to $150,000.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.