30-day Federal Register Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 228 / Wednesday, November 28, 2007 / Notices
Affairs, Office of Management and
Budget. Comments should be addressed
to Nathan Lesser, Desk Officer,
Department of Transportation/FAA, and
sent via electronic mail to
[email protected] or faxed
to (202) 395–6974.
Comments are invited on: Whether
the proposed collection of information
is necessary for the proper performance
of the functions of the Department,
including whether the information will
have practical utility; the accuracy of
the Department’s estimates of the
burden of the proposed information
collection; ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and ways to minimize the
burden of the collection of information
on respondents, including the use of
automated collection techniques or
other forms of information technology.
Dated: Issued in Washington, DC, on
November 20, 2007.
Carla Mauney,
FAA Information Collection Clearance
Officer, IT Enterprises Business Services
Division, AES–200.
[FR Doc. 07–5849 Filed 11–27–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–13–M

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Aviation Administration
Environmental Impact Statement: Sitka
Rocky Gutierrez Airport, Sitka, AK
Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), DOT.
ACTION: Supplemental Notice of intent.

ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES

AGENCY:

SUMMARY: The Federal Aviation
Administration announces that it will
be including the assessment of the
transfer of lands from federal to state
ownership for aviation uses within the
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
currently being prepared by the Federal
Aviation Administration. Public and
Agency Scoping comments are being
sought by the Federal Aviation
Administration to receive input
regarding the assessment of this
additional proposed project within the
EIS.
Responsible Official: Patricia A.
Sullivan, Environmental Protection
Specialist, Federal Aviation
Administration, Alaskan Region,
Airports Division, 222 W. 7th Avenue,
#14, Anchorage, AK 99513–7587,
Telephone (907) 271–5454.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Patricia A. Sullivan, Environmental
Protection Specialist, Federal Aviation
Administration, Alaskan Region,
Airports Division, 222 W. 7th Avenue,

VerDate Aug<31>2005

15:18 Nov 27, 2007

Jkt 214001

67337

#14, Anchorage, AK 99513–7587,
Telephone (907) 271–5454.
Submit Written Comments, Send to:
Patricia A. Sullivan, Environmental
Protection Specialist, Federal Aviation
Administration, Alaskan Region,
Airports Division, 222 W. 7th Avenue,
#14, Anchorage, AK 99513–7587,
Telephone (907) 271–5454.

Issued in Anchorage, Alaska, on November
19, 2007.
Byron K. Huffman,
Manager, Airports Division, AAL–600.
[FR Doc. 07–5850 Filed 11–27–07; 8:45 am]

The FAA
is currently preparing an EIS for the
implementation of proposed projects at
the Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport. Major
projects already included in the EIS
include improvements to the runway
safety area; installation of an approach
light system; construction of a parallel
taxiway; construction of a seaplane
pullout; and repairs and improvements
to the airport seawall. These projects,
along with other projects proposed to
improve safety and efficiency and
accommodate growing aviation demand,
were identified in the Sitka Airport
Master Plan.
It has been determined that portions
of property believed to be existing
airport lands are not currently state
owned, but instead are federally owned,
and managed by the Bureau of Land
Management. If the proposed airport
improvements are approved through the
EIS process, portions of the federal
lands, including those commonly
referred to as the Makhnati lands, would
need to be transferred from federal to
state ownership before implementation
of proposed airport improvements. As
such, the FAA is adding the transfer of
the lands necessary for implementation
of the projects being assessed in the EIS
as well as lands necessary for other
existing and future aviation uses, as a
proposed action that will be examined
in the EIS. The federally owned lands
needed for aviation uses include
segments of filled land on Japonski
Island, Charcoal Island, and portions of
submerged land surrounding the airport.
To ensure that the full range of issues
related to the proposed actions are
addressed and that all significant issues
are identified, the FAA intends to
coordinate and consult with the public;
tribal governments; and Federal, State,
and local agencies that have jurisdiction
by law or have special expertise with
respect to any environmental impacts
associated with the proposed projects.
Agencies and the public may submit
written comments via the address
under, ‘‘To Submit Written Comments,
Send to.’’ Comments must be submitted
by December 31, 2007.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

PO 00000

Frm 00072

Fmt 4703

Sfmt 4703

BILLING CODE 4910–13–M

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

[Docket No. FMCSA–2007–0054]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; Revision of an Approved
Information Collection: Motor Carrier
Safety Assistance Program
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice and request for
comments.
AGENCY:

SUMMARY: In accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995,
FMCSA announces its plan to submit
the Information Collection Request (ICR)
described below to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and approval. This information
collection consists of grant application
preparation, quarterly reports and
electronic data documenting the results
of driver/vehicle inspections performed
by the States. On September 21, 2007,
FMCSA published a Federal Register
notice allowing for a 60-day comment
period on the ICR. One comment was
received.
DATES: Please send your comments by
December 28, 2007. OMB must receive
your comments by this date in order to
act quickly on the ICR.
ADDRESSES: All comments should
reference DOT Docket No. FMCSA–
2007–0054. You may submit comments
to the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs, Office of
Management and Budget, 725
Seventeenth Street, NW., Washington,
DC 20503, Attention: DOT/FMCSA Desk
Officer.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John
E. Kostelnik, Office of Safety Programs,
State Programs Division, Department of
Transportation, Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration, West Building
6th Floor, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE.,
Washington, DC 20590. Telephone:
202–366–5721; e-mail:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Motor Carrier Safety Assistance
Program.
OMB Control Number: 2126–0010.
Type of Request: Revision of a
currently approved collection.

E:\FR\FM\28NON1.SGM

28NON1

ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES

67338

Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 228 / Wednesday, November 28, 2007 / Notices

Respondents: State MCSAP lead
agencies and local agencies.
Estimated Number of Respondents: 52
[50 States + Puerto Rico + District of
Columbia = 52].
Estimated Time per Response: 80
hours per grant application preparation;
8 hours per quarterly report preparation;
and 1 minute per inspection and data
upload.
Expiration Date: November 30, 2007.
Frequency of Response: 1 grant
application annually; 4 quarterly reports
annually; and approximately 3 million
total inspection and data uploads
annually.
Estimated Total Annual Burden:
12,280 hours.
The methods used to calculate the
hours necessary to prepare grant
applications, upload data, and prepare
quarterly reports are based on
interviews with the State and Federal
personnel charged with those
responsibilities. The information
required to prepare the applications for
grants and the subsequent reports is
based on general information ordinarily
maintained by the States in the general
course of business, and only simple
computations are required to determine
burden hours. The grant applications
and reports are submitted by the 50
States, four Territories, Puerto Rico, and
the District of Columbia. The four
territories of American Samoa, Guam,
U.S. Virgin Islands and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands are funded at 100 percent;
therefore they are not included in the
computation of the annual burden. Each
entity submits one grant request and
four quarterly reports per year. In
addition, about three million total
inspection reports are uploaded each
year.
This figure reflects only 20 percent of
the total estimated annual hours to
perform the activities because MCSAP
reimburses 80 percent of the eligible
costs incurred in the administration of
an approved plan as set forth in 49 CFR
350.303, 350.309 and 350.311. Labor
hours are estimated and an average
hourly rate for professional personnel is
applied.
Background: Sections 401 through
404 of the Surface Transportation
Assistance Act of 1982 (STAA) (Pub. L.
97–424) established a program of
financial assistance to the States to
implement programs to enforce: (a)
Federal rules, regulations, standards,
and orders applicable to commercial
motor vehicle safety; and (b) compatible
State rules, regulations, standards and
orders. This grant-in-aid program is
known as the Motor Carrier Safety
Assistance Program (MCSAP). Section

VerDate Aug<31>2005

15:18 Nov 27, 2007

Jkt 214001

402(c) of the STAA requires that the
Secretary of Transportation (Secretary),
on the basis of reports submitted by the
States and the Secretary’s own
inspections, make a continuing
evaluation of the manner in which each
State is carrying out its approved safety
enforcement plan.
The Transportation Equity Act for the
21st Century (TEA–21) further revised
the MCSAP to broaden its purpose
beyond enforcement activities and
programs by requiring participating
States to assume greater responsibility
for improving motor carrier safety.
TEA–21 required States to develop
performance-based plans reflecting
national priorities and performance
goals, revised the MCSAP funding
distribution formula, and created a new
incentive funding program. As a result,
States are given greater flexibility in
designing programs to address national
and State goals of reducing the number
and severity of commercial motor
vehicle (CMV) accidents.
The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and
Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A
Legacy for Users (SAFETEA–LU)
amended 49 U.S.C. 31102(b)(1) to
modify and augment the conditions a
State must meet to qualify for basic
program funds under the MCSAP. The
statute requires a State to document in
the State Commercial Vehicle Safety
Plan (CVSP) its commitment to meet the
following additional conditions:
• Deploy technology to enhance the
efficiency and effectiveness of CMV
safety programs;
• Include, in both the training manual
for the licensing examination to drive a
non-CMV and the training manual for
the licensing examination to drive a
CMV, information on best practices for
driving safely in the vicinity of
noncommercial and commercial motor
vehicles;
• Conduct comprehensive and highly
visible traffic enforcement and CMV
safety inspection programs in high-risk
locations and corridors; and
• Except in the case of an imminent
or obvious safety hazard, ensure that an
inspection of a vehicle transporting
passengers for a motor carrier of
passengers is conducted at a station,
terminal, border crossing, maintenance
facility, destination, or other location
where a motor carrier may make a
planned stop.
Additionally, SAFETEA–LU provided
that States may use a portion of MCSAP
basic grant funds to conduct
documented enforcement of State traffic
laws—both laws and regulations
designed to promote the safe operation
of CMVs and laws and regulations
relating to non-CMVs, when necessary

PO 00000

Frm 00073

Fmt 4703

Sfmt 4703

to promote the safe operation of CMVs.
Section 4106 amended 49 U.S.C.
31102(c) to provide that a State may use
a portion of MCSAP grant funds to
conduct documented enforcement of
State traffic laws.
In order for the Federal Motor Carrier
Safety Administration (FMCSA) to
evaluate program effectiveness, it is
necessary for the State to provide and
maintain information concerning past,
present and future program activity. The
Final Rule that revised Part 350
(MCSAP) to comply with the
congressionally-mandated provisions of
TEA–21 was published in the Federal
Register (65 FR 15092) on March 21,
2000. Part 350 is currently being revised
to implement the changes to the MCSAP
made by SAFETEA–LU. The State’s
grant application, known as the
Commercial Vehicle Safety Plan (CVSP),
must contain the information required
by 49 CFR 350.201, 350.211 and
350.213. This information is necessary
to enable the FMCSA to determine
whether a State meets the statutory and
administrative criteria to be eligible for
a grant. It is necessary that a State’s
work activities and accomplishments be
reported so that the FMCSA can monitor
and evaluate a State’s progress under its
approved plan and make the
determinations and decisions required
of 49 CFR 350.205 and 350.207. The
FMCSA is required to determine
whether each State’s efforts meet the
intended objectives of its plan. In the
event of nonconformity with any
approved plan and failure on the part of
a State to remedy deficiencies, the
FMCSA is required to take action to
cease Federal participation in that
State’s plan.
This information collection supports
the DOT Strategic Goal of Safety (i.e.,
reducing commercial truck-related
fatalities by providing financial and
technical support to State CMV
enforcement efforts).
The FMCSA uses the information in
the CVSP to determine whether a State
has the necessary resources and
authority to undertake the program
intended by Congress. After a grant has
been awarded to a State, a continuing
and final evaluation of the State’s
activities is performed to determine
whether continued funding is
appropriate and if revisions in the
State’s CVSP should be made. A
quarterly report in narrative form is
submitted by the States to provide the
minimum necessary information to
assist in appropriate monitoring of a
State’s performance, compared to its
CVSP, and to permit the FMCSA to
determine whether the effort of a State
is cost efficient and whether Federal

E:\FR\FM\28NON1.SGM

28NON1

ebenthall on PRODPC61 with NOTICES

Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 228 / Wednesday, November 28, 2007 / Notices
assistance should be continued. In
addition, inspection data and reports are
submitted electronically by the
inspecting officer from the field to the
FMCSA at the time of completion of the
inspection.
SAFETEA–LU provides that States
may now conduct traffic enforcement
activities against non-CMVs to promote
the safe operation of CMVs. The States
have been routinely conducting traffic
enforcement activities on CMVs and
have been reimbursed, provided an
appropriate inspection was conducted
at the time. Previously, non-CMV traffic
enforcement was not an eligible MCSAP
activity for reimbursement so the States
have not captured activity levels for this
type of enforcement. It is anticipated
that the number of non-CMV
enforcement activities conducted by the
States will be minimal since SAFETEA–
LU limits the amount of MCSAP grant
funding that can be used for non-CMV
traffic enforcement activities to no more
than five percent of the basic amount
the State receives annually.
The quarterly report is created by the
State and submitted to the FMCSA
using inspection data and other
information. The collection of uniform
data permits analysis and comparison of
State programs and facilitates program
administration and reporting; e.g.,
comparison of the data from a single
State to the national average, equipment
violation and out-of-service trends, etc.
The FMCSA routinely uses quarterly
report information to measure
individual and collective State program
accomplishment and to assist with
future program development.
Description of MCSAP forms:
a. Form MCSAP–1, Motor Carrier
Safety Assistance Program: The
MCSAP–1 form is submitted with the
CVSP grant application. It specifies the
name of the applicant agency, the
amount applied for, and contains the
signatures of the responsible State
authorities.
b. Form MCSAP–2, Grant Agreement:
The MCSAP–2 form is the grant
agreement that specifies the total
amount of the State Program, the State
and Federal participating shares, the
period of the grant, and the signatures
of the responsible State official and the
FMCSA Division Administrator. The
reverse side of the MCSAP–2 contains
the ‘‘General Provisions for the
Agreement.’’
c. Form MCSAP–2A, Grant
Amendment for Fiscal Year_: The
MCSAP–2A form is used to modify the
terms of the grant. It is used to increase
or decrease the amount of the grant, or
to extend the period of the grant. It
contains the signatures of the

VerDate Aug<31>2005

15:18 Nov 27, 2007

Jkt 214001

responsible State official and the
FMCSA Division Administrator.
In addition, the following documents
are provided as part of the CVSP
package:
a. State Training Plan (optional
format): This document is a request for
commercial vehicle training courses. It
is used by the FMCSA’s National
Training Center to more effectively
schedule training courses to meet the
needs of State enforcement agencies.
b. State Certification: The CVSP must
contain a State Certification signed by
the Governor, the State Attorney
General, or other specially designated
State official. The Certification contains
requirements of conditions that must be
met by the State to receive MCSAP grant
funds.
Virtually all (99%) of the information
required by the MCSAP grant program
is submitted electronically. This
includes over three million inspection
reports, which are uploaded
electronically from laptop computers at
inspection sites in the field to the
FMCSA annually. The near-universal
use of laptops for submitting these
inspection reports has resulted in a
dramatic cut of the time burden. The
annual CVSPs require signed
certifications by State personnel and are
not, therefore, electronically
transmitted.
The FMCSA is the only Federal
agency given authority to enforce safety
regulations applicable to commercial
trucks and buses in interstate
commerce. The type of information to
be gathered from the States through this
information collection is unique to the
MCSAP. No duplication was identified
through the rulemaking process to
implement relevant sections of
SAFETEA–LU.
The legislative requirement is that
grants be extended to the States
predicated on annual submission of
CVSPs. The FMCSA has determined
that although monthly or bimonthly
reports are not needed, a semiannual
report would not be sufficiently
frequent to allow for timely evaluation
and changes in State program direction.
Therefore, quarterly reports were
determined to be the most appropriate,
considering burden and Federal need. If
the reports were submitted less
frequently, the FMCSA would be unable
to exercise appropriate oversight and
administration of the program as
envisioned by the Congress.
On September 21, 2007, FMCSA
published a Federal Register notice (72
FR 54096) allowing for a 60-day
comment period on the proposed
revision of this ICR. One comment was
received from a private citizen that did

PO 00000

Frm 00074

Fmt 4703

Sfmt 4703

67339

not discuss the revised burden hours
and cost aspects related to this ICR.
Public Comments Invited: You are
asked to comment on any aspect of this
information collection, including: (1)
Whether the proposed collection is
necessary for the performance of
FMCSA’s functions; (2) the accuracy of
the estimated burden; (3) ways for the
FMCSA to enhance the quality,
usefulness, and clarity of the collected
information; and (4) ways that the
burden could be minimized without
reducing the quality of the collected
information.
Issued on: November 20, 2007.
Terry Shelton,
Associate Administrator for Research and
Information Technology.
[FR Doc. E7–23078 Filed 11–27–07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910–EX–P

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration
Solicitation of Applications for FY
2008, Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV)
Operator Safety Training Grant
Opportunity
Federal Motor Carrier Safety
Administration (FMCSA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:

SUMMARY: FMCSA announces that it has
published an opportunity to apply for
FY 2008 funding for the CMV Operator
Safety Training Grant on the grants.gov
Web site (http://www.grants.gov). This
opportunity was established by Section
4134 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible,
Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A
Legacy for Users (SAFETEA–LU, Pub. L.
109–59). This legislation requires grant
recipients to train current and future
drivers in the safe operation of CMVs,
as defined in Section 31301 of Title 49,
United States Code. Funding priority
will be given to regional or multi-state
educational or nonprofit associations
serving economically distressed regions
of the United States. Eligible awardees
can also include State governments,
local governments, and accredited postsecondary educational institutions
(public or private) such as colleges,
universities, vocational-technical
schools and truck driver training
schools. To apply for funding,
applicants must first be registered with
grants.gov at the following link: http://
www.grants.gov/applicants/
get_registered.jsp. Note that grants.gov
registration takes three to five business
days to process your information before
you can apply. Applications for grant

E:\FR\FM\28NON1.SGM

28NON1