TIFIA_OST_Supporting_Statement_20130807FINAL

INFORMATION COLLECTION

SUPPORTING STATEMENT – PART A

TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING AND INNOVATION ACT (TIFIA) COLLECTION ACTIVITY

1. CIRCUMSTANCES THAT MAKE THE COLLECTION NECESSARY. The collection of information is necessary in order to receive applications for credit assistance pursuant to Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act of 2012 (“MAP-21”). MAP-21 authorizes additional funding and makes significant changes to the Transportation Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act (“TIFIA”) program. The purpose of the TIFIA program is to provide Federal credit assistance in the form of direct loans, loan guarantees, and standby lines of credit to eligible surface transportation projects.

MAP-21 requires the Office of the Secretary (“OST”) to publish criteria for the TIFIA program. In order to satisfy these requirements, OST must collect an application from applicants seeking funding. The relevant section of MAP-21 is attached hereto as Exhibit A. OST is publishing this notice to give project sponsors an opportunity to submit letters of interest and applications for the newly authorized funding as soon as possible. This collection is necessary to determine whether each proposed project meets creditworthiness and other Federal requirements to receive TIFIA credit assistance.

2. HOW, BY WHOM, AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE THE INFORMATION IS TO BE USED AND CONSEQUENCES IF THE INFORMATION IS NOT COLLECTED. The letters of interest (attached hereto as Exhibit B) and applications (attached hereto as Exhibit C) collected through this solicitation will be used by OST and the TIFIA Joint Program Office, and an evaluation team to evaluate applications for credit assistance under the TIFIA eligibility requirements.

3. CONSIDERATION OF IMPROVED INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. The TIFIA Joint Program Office requires that applicants submit physical copies of their applications for TIFIA credit assistance. Historically, this is how the TIFIA Joint Program Office has received applications. Applicants may also submit electronic copies in addition to the physical copies of their applications.

4. DESCRIBE EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY DUPLICATION. The applications will generally be project specific and the information is not available elsewhere. However, to reduce duplication, OST indicates in the solicitation that at the applicant’s discretion, relevant materials provided previously to a Department agency in support of a different Department discretionary program may be referenced and described as unchanged.

4. METHODS USED TO MINIMIZE BURDEN ON SMALL BUSINESSES OR OTHER SMALL ENTITIES. Eligible applicants for TIFIA include state and local governments, transit agencies, railroad companies, special authorities, special districts, and private entities, not small businesses.

6. CONSEQUENCES IF INFORMATION WAS NOT COLLECTED OR COLLECTED LESS FREQUENTLY. OST will be unable to satisfy the statutory mandate to require the submission of applications if the collection is not conducted, which means that TIFIA credit assistance will not be available and OST would be required to distribute a portion of available funds as formula grants to the States. In order to provide credit assistance to eligible projects, which is the purpose of the program, OST must collect letters of interest and applications that respond to the eligibility requirements.

7. SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES THAT REQUIRE THE COLLECTION TO BE CONDUCTED IN A MANNER INCONSISTENT WITH 5 CFR 1320.6. This solicitation for letters of interest and applications will not require respondents to report information to OST more often than quarterly. Each letter of interest and application is a one-time submission from each applicant.

8. EFFORTS TO CONSULT WITH PERSONS OUTSIDE THE AGENCY TO OBTAIN THEIR VIEWS. Due to an emergency request for processing, but in order to provide the public at least a limited opportunity to comment on the proposed collection, OST has published Federal Register notice soliciting public comment with an abbreviated 15 day period to receive comments. OST published this 15-day notice (Exhibit D) on 07/19/2013 and when the comment period closed on 8/05/2013 OST had not received any comments. OST will again solicit public comments through the Federal Register through the normal PRA clearance process in anticipation of the expiration of an emergency approval.

9. EXPLAIN ANY DECISION TO PROVIDE ANY PAYMENT OR GIFT TO RESPONDENTS. OST will not provide any payment or gift to respondents, including remuneration of contractors or grantees.

10. DESCRIBE ANY ASSURANCE OF CONFIDENTIALITY PROVIDED RESPONDENTS. DOT cannot offer an assurance of confidentiality to any applicant. If an applicant desires that any information submitted in its letter of interest or application or any supplementary material not be released by the Department upon request from a member of the public or otherwise made publicly available, the applicant is directed to state so and directed to provide reasons why such information is confidential business information and should not be released, including particulars as to any competitive harm which would potentially result from the release of such information. The Department will handle requests from the public for release of information under its standard Freedom of Information Act procedures.

11. ADDITIONAL JUSTIFICATION FOR QUESTIONS OF A SENSITIVE NATURE. The evaluation process for potential TIFIA credit assistance requires that applicants submit some confidential, proprietary information to the TIFIA Joint Program Office. Evaluating an applicant’s financial condition and the creditworthiness of the project requires certain sensitive or non-public information.

12. ESTIMATE OF THE HOUR BURDEN OF THE COLLECTION AND ANNUALIZED COST TO RESPONDENTS. The Department does not have any directly relevant prior experience on which to base these estimates of the hour burden of the collection and the annualized cost to respondents. Nevertheless, based on the number and type of interested stakeholders that have contacted the Department about this program, OST estimates that it will receive 50 applications and letters of interest and that it will generally not take applicants more than 100 person-hours to assemble individual applications and 20 hours to assemble letters of interest. Therefore, the total annual hour burden of this collection of applications is 6,000 hours.

13. ESTIMATE OF TOTAL ANNUAL COST BURDEN TO RESPONDENTS. As noted above, the estimated total annual hour burden on respondents of this one time collection of applications and letters of interest is 6,000 hours. Various personnel are involved in the development of an application, but there are no additional direct cost burdens beyond the hourly estimate above.

14. ESTIMATE OF THE ANNUALIZED COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. The estimated cost to the Federal government of this request for letters of interest and applications is $312,675. This cost reflects the need to establish an evaluation team to review each of the letters of interest and applications and make recommendations about which projects to provide funding for. OST estimates that the evaluation team will include ten people from various agencies in the Department and that the evaluation process will take three months, which is the equivalent of two and one half job years. The estimated pay for the evaluation team members is approximately $125,000 per year, so the estimated annualized cost to the Federal government for the evaluation team is $312,500. OST does not expect to need any special equipment or support, other than printing. As noted above in item 12, OST expects 50 letters of interest and applications. If each letter of interest is 10 pages each application is 25 pages, as requested in the solicitation, OST may need to print as many as 1,750 pages for each of the ten members of the evaluation team, which adds up to a total of 17,500 pages of printing. (It’s likely that some of the members of the evaluation team will review electronic versions of the applications, but for the purpose of this estimate we assume that all members will review hard copies of all applications.) OST’s printing costs are approximately 1 cent per page, which adds up to a total printing cost of $175.

14. EXPLAIN REASONS FOR CHANGES IN BURDEN. This is a new information collection at the Department of Transportation.
    
    

15. PLANS FOR TABULATION AND PUBLICATION. The letters of interest and applications collected for the TIFIA program will not be published.

14. IF SEEKING APPROVAL NOT TO DISPLAY THE EXPIRATION DATE FOR OMB APPROVAL, EXPLAIN THE REASONS. OST is not seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection.

18. EXPLAIN ANY EXCEPTIONS TO THE CERTIFICATION STATEMENT

IDENTIFIED IN ITEM 19 OF OMB FORM 83-I. OST does not request any exceptions to the certification statement.