Supporting Statement 3_19_15

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION
Foreign Diplomatic Services Applications
OMB Number 1405-0105

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. The United States is host to hundreds of foreign embassies, consulates, with thousands of personnel, as well as public international organizations and their official missions and personnel who are entitled to a range of diplomatic or consular benefits, privileges, and immunities. This group (collectively referred to as “foreign missions”) and their eligible personnel (including certain dependents) are hereinafter referred to as “respondents” or “applicants.”

The U.S. Department of State seeks to ensure that the benefits, privileges, and immunities of such entities and persons assigned to duty in the United States are properly extended and respected.

Legal supporting authorities for the Office of Foreign Missions and the Office of Protocol’s documents for this collection include, but are not limited to: the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations, the Foreign Missions Act of 1982, the Diplomatic Relations Act of 1978 (22 USC 254a-e), as well as the International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA) (22 USC 288).

2. Instruments dealing with information collections from the foreign mission community, to include the electronic data compilation (e-Gov), have been combined under one information collection request, the “Foreign Diplomatic Services Applications” (FDSA). These instruments provide the Department of State with the information necessary to provide and efficiently administer the extension of benefits, privileges and immunities to foreign missions and their eligible members in the United States.

FDSA are necessary in order for the Department of State to be able to perform functions vital to the conduct of diplomatic and consular relations and to fulfill the requirements of law integral to such principles.

3. Respondents may submit their requests to the Department using the approved paper information collection instruments via personal delivery, mail, email, fax, or the Office of Foreign Mission’s (OFM) e-Gov system (where applicable).

OFM’s e-Gov system is an electronic data submission system used to submit automated service requests to the U.S. State Department by foreign missions and their members in the United States.

OFM continues to develop its e-Gov system by adding new means through which information can be transmitted electronically to the Department of State. The majority of the individual components of the FDSA are available for electronic submission, either via e-Gov or by using a Portable Document Format (PDF), which provides a data-input and print feature for clean and legible paper copies. Once filled out, the forms will either be emailed, faxed, or hand delivered to the Department for processing.

If the electronic submission were not available the paperwork burden would be the same or greater and would require foreign mission submission via Post Office mail, hand delivery, or in some instances facsimile. This in turn would mean a slower delivery process in the requested service, or the service would not be available.  Nonetheless, reciprocity is a key component of the VCDR, VCCR and FMA. Because the provision of benefits to foreign mission personnel is generally subject to reciprocity, the Office of Foreign Missions may affirmatively decide to burden a specific foreign government with additional paperwork to respond when such measures are implemented against our own diplomats abroad, with the aim of encouraging that government to alleviate the burden on our diplomats. While purposeful paperwork burdens run counter to the general purpose of the PRA, recourse to reciprocal measures are statutorily authorized in the context of foreign missions and their personnel. OFM hopes to have all forms automated by the next renewal cycle.

4. This information is not available elsewhere. The Department of State is the only federal agency that maintains comprehensive information concerning foreign missions and their personnel and determines and provides benefits and immunities to this population. The FDSA collection instruments are for specific purposes, used at different times for discrete services (benefits) and safety, each of which is necessary to ensure the United States honors its international legal obligations and protects its missions and personnel abroad.

5. This collection of information does not involve or have impact on small businesses or other small entities.

6. If the necessary information were not collected it would hamper the Department of State’s efforts to permit automated service requests, fulfilling its obligations to extend privileges and immunities to foreign missions and respondents under international and domestic law, or to comply with the requirements of the FMA. Furthermore, non-collection of the information would impede other Department’s operations, most significantly, its ability to advise other branches of the United States government as well as state and local authorities, regarding the status of foreign mission personnel.

7. No special circumstances exist regarding the information collection conducted for this set of FDSA collection instruments.

8. The Department published a 60-day notice in the Federal Register on September 12, 2014 (79 FR 54773). The Department received no comments from the public.

9. The Department of State does not provide any payment or gifts to respondents.

10. No specific assurance of confidentiality is provided to respondents. The majority of respondents to the FDSA collection are neither citizens of the United States nor aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence.

11. The information collection requests for the respondent to provide a Social Security Number on some forms because it is required by the White House for vetting tour participants.

12. The estimated annual average number of respondents is 933.82. The estimated annual average number of responses is 1,109.69. The estimated annual average burden hours are 588.26. The estimated annual total number of all responses is 76,569 per year. The estimated annual total number of respondents is 1,121. The average time per response is 12 minutes. The total estimated annual burden time is 13,536 hours. The estimated average wage rate for the respondents is $23.198/hr. The average wage of $23.198 x a weighted wage multiplier of 1.4 x 13,530 hours = a monetized burden of $439,417. Please see chart below.

Information Collection Form No.	Respondents	Paper Responses	Automated Responses	eGov Responses	Estimated Time per Response in minutes	Total Annual Burden Hours	Total Annual Cost
DS-98	1042	0	0	3226	5	268.83	$6,236.40
DS-99	1042	0	0	1857	5	154.75	$3,589.89
DS-100	1029	786	0	0	15	196.5	$4,558.41
DS-101	1029	3726	0	0	15	931.5	$21,608.94
DS-102	1029	4544	0	0	15	1136	$26,352.93
DS-104	1029	161	0	0	15	40.25	$933.72
DS-1504	1121	0	1833	0	15	458.25	$10,630.48
DS-1972	1042	0	0	0	10	0	$0
DS-1972D	1029	0	0	9001	10	1500.16	$34,800.86
DS-1972T	1042	0	0	8512	5	709.33	$16,455.11
DS-2003	1108	0	0	2088	25	870	$20,182.26
DS-2004	1108	0	0	5157	20	1719	$39,877.36
DS-2005	185	0	0	65	20	21.66	$502.47
DS-2006	1108	0	0	6203	5	516.91	$11,991.43
DS-2007	1108	0	0	200	10	33.33	$773.26
DS-2008	1108	0	0	6353	10	1058.83	$24,562.82
DS-4138	453	0	3285	0	10	547.5	$12,700.91
DS-4139	1121	0	0	7245	5	603.75	$14,005.79
DS-4140	1121	500	0	0	10	83.33	$1,933.17
DS-4155	8	0	0	10	20	3.33	$77
DS-7675	1121	20	0	0	15	5	$30.93
DS-4284	453	0	0	3285	10	547.5	$12,700.91
DS-4285	1042	0	0	8512	15	2128	$49,365.34
						13533.7	$313,870.72

13. The total additional cost or “above and beyond normal business practices” cost to the respondent is minimal. There are no obligations or other fees associated with the completion of these forms.

14. Please find chart attached outlining the processing costs to the federal government which total an estimated $392,680.36 annually. In addition, this collection costs the Federal Government roughly $2,919,579.17 annually to develop, maintain, and manage The Office of Foreign Mission’s Information System (TOMIS) for the 2013 fiscal year. TOMIS is an integrated information system designed to provide information support to OFM’s business processes and houses over 215,000 records for diplomatic staff, personnel, and their dependents to roughly 190 accredited missions and international organizations. Therefore, the total cost estimated cost to the federal government is $392,680.36 + $2,919,579.17 = $3,312,259.53 annually.

Information Collection Form No.	Respondents	Paper Responses	Automated Responses	eGov Responses	Estimated Time per Response to Process	Total Annual Burden Hours	Total Annual Processing Costs
DS-98	1042	0	0	3226	5mins	268.83	$8,731.60
DS-99	1042	0	0	1857	5mins	154.75	$5,026.28
DS-100	1029	786	0	0	15mins	196.5	$6,382.32
DS-101	1029	3726	0	0	15mins	931.5	$30,255.12
DS-102	1029	4544	0	0	5mins	378.66	$12,299.09
DS-104	1029	161	0	0	5mins	13.41	$435.77
DS-1504	1121	0	1833	0	5mins	152.75	$4,961.32
DS-1972	1042	0	0	0	10mins	0	$0
DS-1972D	1029	0	0	9001	10mins	1500.16	$48,725.41
DS-1972T	1042	0	0	8512	5mins	709.33	$23,039.15
DS-2003	1108	0	0	2088	15mins	522	$16,954.56
DS-2004	1108	0	0	5157	15mins	1289.25	$41,874.84
DS-2005	185	0	0	65	10mins	10.83	$87.96
DS-2006	1108	0	0	6203	10mins	1033.83	$33,578.91
DS-2007	1108	0	0	200	10mins	33.33	$270.66
DS-2008	1108	0	0	6353	10mins	1058.83	$34,390.91
DS-4138	453	0	3285	0	10mins	547.5	$17,782.80
DS-4139	1121	0	0	7245	5mins	603.75	$19,609.80
DS-4140	1121	500	0	0	5mins	41.66	$1,353.33
DS-4155	8	0	0	10	5mins	0.83	$7
DS-7675	1121	20	0	0	5mins	1.66	$13.53
DS-4284	453	0	0	3285	10mins	547.5	$17,782.80
DS-4285	1042	0	0	8512	15mins	2128	$69,117.44
						12124.86	$392,680.36

15. Several fields/irrelevant instructions were deleted in order to reduce burden time and update categories that were no longer necessary to collect. No new fields were added. Further, two new forms (DS-4284 and DS-4285) have been added to this collection as a result of new program requirements and accounts for 1,256 hours. Discrepancies from the 2011 renewal of annual reporting and record keeping hour burdens is a result of a more current and accurate system in accounting for foreign mission personnel eligible for privileges and benefits.

16. Specific information collected via Collection Form Numbers DS-2003, DS-2005, and DS-2008 is used in the publication of the Department of State’s Diplomatic List (http://www.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/dpl/) and the Department of State’s Foreign Consular Offices in the United States (http://www.state.gov/s/cpr/rls/fco/). No plans exist to publish any additional information covered by the FDSA collection.

17. The OMB expiration date will be displayed.

18. The change to item (b) reflects the fact that although purposeful paperwork burdens run counter to the thrust of PRA, they are statutorily authorized in the context of foreign mission personnel. See item 3 above. The exception to item (g)(vi) is appropriate based on the Foreign Mission Act’s “notwithstanding” clause, which provides that benefits provided by the Office of Foreign Missions cannot be denied by any act of any agency contrary to the provisions of the Foreign Missions Act. See, 22 U.S.C. 4307.