30 Day FRN Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 169 / Wednesday, August 31, 2011 / Notices
According to Federal Procurement
Data System-Next Generation (FPDS–
NG) the number of Post-Contract award
information has increased each year
over the past two years in annual
respondent and burden hours. This
increase is the result of a new estimate
of awards, which contributes to the
Post-Award information that is
collected. This collection was
previously approved by OMB on
January 26, 2009. This collection will be
submitted to OMB for review to request
approval to extend the collection past
the current expiration date of January
31, 2011. There are no proposed
changes to the information being
collected, instructions, frequency of the
collection or the use of the information
being collected.
The Office of Management and Budget
is particularly interested in comments
which:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the
functions of the agency, including
whether the information will have
practical utility;
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the
agency’s estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected; and
4. Minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who
are to respond, including through the
use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other
technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology,
e.g., permitting electronic submissions
of responses.

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Analysis
Agency: Office of Chief Procurement
Officer, DHS.
Title: Post-Award Contract
Information.
OMB Number: 1600–0003.
Frequency: On occasion.
Affected Public: Private sector.
Number of Respondents: 8,000.
Estimated Time per Respondent: 14
hours.
Total Burden Hours: 336,000.
Dated: August 22, 2011.
Richard Spires,
Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2011–22236 Filed 8–30–11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9110–9B–P

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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
Agency Information Collection
Activities: Solicitation of Proposal
Information for Award of Public
Contracts
AGENCY: Office of the Chief Procurement
Officer, DHS.
ACTION: 60-Day Notice and request for
comments; Extension without change of
a currently approved collection.
SUMMARY: The Department of Homeland
Security, Office of the Chief
Procurement Officer, will submit the
following Information Collection
Request (ICR) to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance
with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (Pub. L. 104–13, 44 U.S.C. chapter
35).
DATES: Comments are encouraged and
will be accepted until October 31, 2011.
This process is conducted in accordance
with 5 CFR 1320.1.
ADDRESSES: Written comments and
questions about this Information
Collection Request should be forwarded
to the Office of Chief Procurement
Officer, Acquisition Policy and
Legislation Office, DHS Attn.: Camara
Francis, Department of Homeland
Security, Office of the Chief
Procurement Officer, Room 3114,
Washington, DC 20528,
[email protected], 202–447–
5904.

The
Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) and the Office of the Chief
Procurement Officer (OCPO) collect
information when inviting firms to
submit bids, proposals, and offers for
public contracts for supplies and
services. The information collection is
necessary for compliance with the
Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR);
48 CFR chapter 1, the Federal Property
and Administrative Services Act
(Division C of Title 41), under the Small
Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
and Small Business Technology
Transfer (STTR) programs 15 U.S.C.
628.
For solicitations to contract made
through a variety of means, whether
conducted orally or in writing,
contracting officers normally request
information from prospective offerors
such as pricing information, delivery
schedule compliance, and whether the
offeror has the resources (both human
and financial) to accomplish
requirements. Examples of the kinds of
information collected can be found in

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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the FAR at FAR 13.106–1, 13.106–3,
13.302–1, –3, –5, subpart 13.5, subpart
14.2, subpart 15.2, subpart 6.1, and
subpart 35.
Examples where collections of
information occur in soliciting for
supplies/services include the issuance
of draft Requests for Proposal (RFP),
Requests for Information (RFI), and
Broad Agency Announcements (BAA).
The Government generally issues an
RFP using the uniform contract format
(FAR 15.204–1) with the intent of
awarding a contract to one or more
prospective offerors. The RFP can
require those interested in making an
offer to provide information in the
following areas: schedule (FAR 15.204–
2); contract clauses (FAR 15.204–3); list
of documents, exhibits and other
attachments (FAR 15.204–4) or
representations and instructions
(15.204–5).
FAR 15.201(e) authorizes agencies to
issue RFIs when an agency ‘‘does not
presently intend to award a contract, but
wants to obtain price, delivery, other
market information, or capabilities for
planning purposes’’. RFIs solicit
responses from the public. Similarly,
FAR 35.106 authorizes Federal agencies
to use BAAs to ‘‘fulfill their
requirements for scientific study and
experimentation directed toward
advancing the state-of-the-art or
increasing knowledge or understanding
rather than focusing on a specific
system or hardware solution.’’
The DHS Science and Technology
(S&T) Directorate issues BAAs soliciting
white papers and proposals from the
public. DHS S&T evaluates white papers
and proposals received from the public
in response to a DHS S&T BAA using
the evaluation criteria specified in the
BAA through a peer or scientific review
process in accordance with FAR
35.016(d). White paper evaluation
determines those research ideas that
merit submission of a full proposal and
proposal evaluation determines those
proposals that merit selection for
contract award. Unclassified white
papers and proposals are typically
collected via the DHS S&T BAA secure
Web site, while classified white papers
and proposals must be submitted via
proper classified courier or proper
classified mailing procedures as
described in the National Industrial
Security Program Operating Manual
(NSPOM).
Federal agencies with an annual
extramural research and development
(R&D) budget exceeding $100 million
are required to participate in the SBIR
Program. Similarly, Federal agencies
with an extramural R&D budget

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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 169 / Wednesday, August 31, 2011 / Notices

exceeding $1 billion are required to
participate in the STTR Program.
Federal agencies who participate in
the SBIR and STTR programs must
collect information from the public to:
(1) Meet their reporting requirements
under 15 U.S.C. 638 (b)(7), (g)(8), (i),
(j)(1)(E), (j)(3)(C), (l), (o)(10), and (v); (2)
Meet the requirement to maintain both
a publicly accessible database of SBIR/
STTR award information and a
government database of SBIR/STTR
award information for SBIR and STTR
program evaluation under 15 U.S.C. 638
g(10), (k), (o)(9), and (o)(15); and (3)
Meet requirements for public outreach
under 15 U.S.C. 638 (j)(2)(F), (o)(14),
and (s).
DHS is not asking for anything
outside of what is already required in
the FAR. Should anything outside the
FAR arise, DHS will submit a request for
Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) approval. The prior information
collect request for OMB No. 1600–005
was approved through October 31, 2011
by OMB in a Notice of OMB Action.
The information being collected is
used by the Government’s contracting
officers and other acquisition personnel,
including technical and legal staffs to
determine adequacy of technical and
management approach, experience,
responsibility, responsiveness, expertise
of the firms submitting offers,
identification of members of the public
(i.e., small businesses) who qualify for,
and are interested in participating in,
the DHS SBIR Program, facilitate SBIR
outreach to the public, and provide the
DHS SBIR Program Office necessary and
sufficient information to determine that
proposals submitted by the public to the
DHS SBIR Program meet criteria for
consideration under the program.
Failure to collect this information
would adversely affect the quality of
products and services DHS receives
from contractors. Potentially, contracts
would be awarded to firms without
sufficient experience and expertise,
thereby placing the Department’s
operations in jeopardy. Defective and
inadequate contractor deliverables
would adversely affect DHS’s
fulfillment of the mission requirements
in all areas. Additionally, the
Department would be unsuccessful in
identifying small businesses with
research and development (R&D)
capabilities, which would adversely
affect the mission requirements in this
area.
Many sources of the requested
information use automated word
processing systems, databases, emails,
and, in some cases, web portals to
facilitate preparation of material to be
submitted and to post and collect

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information. It is commonplace within
many of DHS’s Components for
submissions to be electronic as a result
of implementation of e-Government
initiatives.
DHS S&T uses information technology
(i.e., electronic web portals) in the
collection of information to reduce the
data gathering and records management
burden. DHS S&T uses a secure Web site
which the public can propose SBIR
research topics and submit proposals in
response to SBIR solicitations. In
addition, DHS uses a web portal to
review RFIs and register to submit a
white paper or proposal in response to
a specific BAA. The data collection
forms standardize the collection of
information that is necessary and
sufficient for the DHS SBIR Program
Office to meet its requirements under 15
U.S.C. 638.
According to Federal Procurement
Data System (FPDS) and Federal
Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps),
the number of competitive solicitations
and award actions has increased each
over the past three years, thereby
increasing the universe of possible
respondents to DHS and its
Components’ solicitations. However, an
increase in the information collection
burden associated with the gathering of
additional information to support the
evaluation of solicitation responses has
been offset, by the use of electronic web
portals, such as CCR, FAPIIS, those used
to submit SBIR research topics and
submit response to DHS SBIR
solicitations. Additionally, electronic
web portals are used to collect
unclassified white papers and proposals
to reduce the data gathering and records
management burden for BAAs.
In addition to issuance of solicitations
over the Internet or electronic systems;
increased use of oral presentations in
lieu of written proposals, permitted
under FAR 15.102; and increased use of
combined contract action notices/
requests for proposals, as encouraged by
FAR 12.603, are contributing to the
relative stability of DHS’s information
collection burden to the public. There is
no change in the information being
collected.
The Office of Management and Budget
is particularly interested in comments
which:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary
for the proper performance of the
functions of the agency, including
whether the information will have
practical utility;
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the
agency’s estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information,

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including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected; and
4. Minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who
are to respond, including through the
use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other
technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology,
e.g., permitting electronic submissions
of responses.
Analysis:
Agency: Office of the Chief
Procurement Officer, DHS.
Title: Solicitation of Proposal
Information for Award of Public
Contracts.
OMB Number: 1600–0005.
Frequency: On occasion.
Affected Public: Private sector.
Number of Respondents: 17,180.
Estimated Time per Respondent: 13
hours.
Total Burden Hours: 721,560.
Dated: August 22, 2011.
Richard Spires,
Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2011–22237 Filed 8–30–11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9110–9B–P

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
[Docket No. DHS–2011–0043]

Telecommunications Service Priority
System
AGENCY: National Protection and
Programs Directorate, DHS.
ACTION: 30-Day Notice and request for
comments; Extension, without change,
of a currently approved collection.
SUMMARY: The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), National Protection and
Programs Directorate (NPPD), Office of
Cybersecurity and Communications
(CS&C), National Communications
System (NCS) will submit the following
information collection request (ICR) to
the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) for review and clearance in
accordance with the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104–13,
44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). DHS is soliciting
comments concerning Extension,
without change, of a currently approved
collection: 1670–0005,
Telecommunications Service Priority
(TSP) System. DHS previously
published this information collection
request (ICR) in the Federal Register, 76
FR 2011–13953 (June 7, 2011), for a 60day public comment period. No

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