Supporting Statement for Local Business Recovery Survey
1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’), Private Sector Office (PSO), is charged with the following:
Creating and fostering strategic communications with the private sector to enhance the primary mission of the Department to protect the American homeland.
Advising the Secretary on the impact of the Department’s policies, regulations, processes and actions on the private sector.
Promoting existing, and developing new, public-private partnerships to provide for collaboration and mutual support to address homeland security challenges;
Assisting in the development and promotion of private sector best practices to secure critical infrastructure.
Coordinating industry efforts to identify private sector resources that could be effective in supplementing government efforts to prevent or respond to a terrorist attack.
Working with the travel and tourism industry to make Departmental policies known, to improve the travel and tourism experience for our domestic and international travelers, to increase security and to lessen any unintended, negative policy impacts, economic or otherwise categorized.
In order to do this the PSO must be involved in the business community.
In 2005, the Private Sector Office (PSO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) co-sponsored a series of business recovery workshops designed to provide necessary disaster recovery information to firms affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The workshops were considered a success and the PSO plans to conduct similar events for future disasters. In order to ensure that each successive workshop improves upon its predecessor, the PSO requires constructive feedback from the workshop attendees.
2. Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used.
Information obtained from survey respondents will be used by the PSO to determine both the most critical needs of the workshop attendees as well as how effectively the workshop addressed those needs. The PSO will consider the results when planning either follow-up workshops for the same disaster or other workshops for future disasters. Some responses, such as whether the workshop met the expectations of the attendees, will be aggregated to gauge a level of success for the event.
3. Describe any consideration of information technology to reduce burden, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.
Due to the survey being administered following a significant local disaster, the availability of computers or other electronic equipment should not be relied upon for the collection of survey responses. The survey is structured in a way to minimize the effort needed to transfer the information to an electronic format at a later time.
4. Describe efforts to identify duplication. Show specifically why any similar information already available cannot be used or modified for use for the purposes described in Item 2 above.
The survey will be used to collect satisfaction information for workshop events which have not yet taken place. Since no other groups are currently planning to collect similar information at these future workshops, there is no possibility of duplication.
5. If the collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities, describe the methods used to minimize burden.
The survey is designed to be brief so as to be completed in a matter of minutes. No materials or equipment is required to participate. Participation in the survey is purely voluntary.
6. Describe the consequence to Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted, or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.
If this collection is not performed, very little information will be available to the Private Sector Office of DHS regarding the usefulness of the information provided in the Recovery Workshops. This would hamper our ability to ensure the private sector is receiving the best information in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Following a disaster of great magnitude, the ability of state or local agencies to perform a similar collection of information could be severely hampered due to limited resources.
7. Explain any special circumstances that would cause an information collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2)
There are no special circumstances requiring collection of information to be inconsistent with 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2). PSO has taken reasonable steps to ensure that the proposed collection of information is the least burdensome necessary to comply with legal requirements and achieve program objectives; is not duplicative of information otherwise accessible to the agency; and has practical utility.
8. If applicable, provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency’s notice soliciting comments on the information collection prior to submission to OMB.
The PSO has not yet published this information collection in the Federal Register.
9. Explain any decision to provide any payment or gift to respondent, other than remuneration to contractors or grantees.
PSO will not provide payments or gifts to respondents for this collection.
10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for the assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.
All information submitted by the respondents will be held private to the extent permitted by law in terms of explicitly identified responses that can be directly attributed to the respondent. All information will be compiled for analysis and reported only at the aggregate level. PSO is complying with the Privacy Act which requires that the survey itself contain a Privacy Act Notification Statement pursuant to 5 USC 552a (e)(3).
11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.
PSO does not seek sensitive information from respondents
12. Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information. The statement should:
Number of Respondents: Based on previous workshops conducted following the 2005 hurricane season, PSO expects up to 2,000 individuals to attend each future workshop. PSO also expects 40% of attendees (800; each representing a unique business) to complete a survey. If there are 2-3 major disasters each year, then PSO expects up to 2,000 respondents each year.
Frequency of Response: Participants will be asked to complete the written survey once. This survey should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The total hour burden for the written survey is 500 hours.
13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to respondents or record keepers resulting from the collection of information. (Do not include the cost of any hour burden shown in Items 12 and 14).
There are no capital or start up costs associated with this information collection.
Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.
There are no additional costs to the Federal government.
Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in Items 13 or 14 of the OMB Form 83-I.
Program changes are based on the federal government’s need to assess the concerns of the private sector following a local disaster, as well as PSO initiatives. This is a new information collection.
16. For collection of information whose results will be published, outline plans for tabulation, and publication.
PSO does not plan to publish the results.
17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons that display would be inappropriate.
PSO will display the expiration date for this survey, once OMB approves the collection.
18. Explain each exception to the certification statement identified in item 19 “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions,” of OMB Form 83-I.
PSO is not seeking any exceptions to the certification statement.
OMB 83‑I (10/95)
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | Supporting Statement for Local Business Recovery Survey |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-02-03 |