The American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 requires the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Information and Communications to develop and maintain a
comprehensive, interactive, and searchable nationwide inventory map
of existing broadband service capability and availability in the
United States that depicts the geographic extent to which broadband
service capability is deployed and available from a commercial or
public provider throughout each state. NTIA created the SBDD Grant
Program to achieve this objective. The awardees must submit reports
which update project milestones and key performance indicators that
allow NTIA to measure a project's progress and ensure proper
monitoring and compliance with program rules using the Performance
Progress Report (PPR) form. After reviewing recent PPRs, NTIA
identified a need to revise its existing PPRs by making changes to
existing questions to improve clarity, adding questions, reducing
the frequency with which some information is reported, and deleting
certain items that are not necessary for performance monitoring.
The revisions will improve recipients' responses and enable NTIA to
better monitor and assess how the recipients are meeting program
goals and milestones.
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.