Generic IC Justification

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for the Collection of Routine Customer Feedback” (OMB Control Number: 2010-0042)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION:

Structured Interviews with 22 Grantees on Grant Program Structure

PURPOSE:

Generic Clearance is needed to conduct a round of one-hour interviews with the lead staff at each of 22 grantees under the EPA Puget Sound Tribal Capacity Program (PSTCP). The PSTCP was established to provide financial assistance for Puget Sound Tribes to participate in implementation of the Puget Sound Action Agenda, a shared, collaborative, regional roadmap for protecting and restoring Puget Sound. The purpose of these interviews is to elicit feedback about grants management and overall experience with this program. These one-hour interviews are a component of a project that also draw from other existing sources of information (e.g., grant progress reports and workplans) to characterize the grantee community’s achievements and experience with the program to inform future efforts.

The interviews will be conducted by an EPA Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Intern. Relevant travel costs are expected to be covered as part of the ORISE travel budget and labor associated with conducting and transcribing the interviews will be performed by the Intern. No direct cost to EPA Region 10 are anticipated. A final project report will be prepared by the Intern. In addition, the Intern may seek to publish an article on the overall project, of which the interviews are just one component, in a peer-reviewed professional journal. Prior to any potential publications the information will be aggregated, and all identifiers will be removed.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS:

The respondents for this Generic Clearance Request are grantee staff that manage the work described in the grantee’s Puget Sound Tribal Capacity Program cooperative agreement workplans. The respondents are individuals that are responsible for overall grant management and reporting as listed in the grant terms and conditions. The Tribal Capacity grantee staff have a working relationship with their designated EPA project officer to manage grant tasks and receive feedback on reporting obligations.

TYPE OF COLLECTION: (Check one)

[ ] Customer Comment Card/Complaint Form [ ] Customer Satisfaction Survey

[ ] Usability Testing (e.g., Website or Software) [ ] Small Discussion Group

[ ] Focus Group [X] Other: Interviews_______

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is voluntary.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. The results are not intended to be disseminated to the public. The interviews themselves will not be disseminated to the public. However, overall project findings may be reported in one or more peer-reviewed journal articles.

5. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

6. The collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions from respondents who have experience with the program or may have experience with the program in the future.

Name : Noelani Villa_____________________________________________

To assist review, please provide answers to the following question:

Personally Identifiable Information:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

2. If Yes, is the information that will be collected included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Applicable, has a System or Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Gifts or Payments:

Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants? [ ] Yes [ X ] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
1	22	60 minutes	22 hours
Totals		60	22 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal government is _______0______

If you are conducting a focus group, survey, or plan to employ statistical methods, please provide answers to the following questions:

The selection of your targeted respondents

1. Do you have a customer list or something similar that defines the universe of potential respondents and do you have a sampling plan for selecting from this universe? [ X] Yes [ ] No

If the answer is yes, please provide a description of both below (or attach the sampling plan)? If the answer is no, please provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential group of respondents and how you will select them?

The entire population consists of 22 grantees. The sampling plan requires interviewing 100 percent of the population. The justification for the population size is that the population is relatively small, and participation is a low burden. In addition, the project has an overall interest in being thorough and capturing customer responses which is why 100% coverage was selected.

Administration of the Instrument

1. How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based or other forms of Social Media

[ ] Telephone

[X] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] Other, Explain

2. Will interviewers or facilitators be used? [X] Yes [ ] No

The interviews will be conducted by one interviewer and that will be the ORISE Intern.

Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts are submitted with the request.

We are submitting 3 items in support of this request:

• Draft interview questions

• Draft “Interview Participant Disclosure” form, to be provided to each prospective interviewee prior to a request to schedule an interview with them

• Interview participant consent form, “Defining Outcomes of the Puget Sound Tribal Capacity Program”

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