Section 1701(e) of the National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, Pub. L. 115-91,
authorizes State Governors to petition the SBA Administrator to
designate specific covered areas as qualified HUBZone areas. SBA
will evaluate the information provided by the Governors to
determine whether the petition meets the criteria necessary for an
area to be designated as a HUBZone
This is to request
emergency clearance of an information collection. This information
collection is mandated by section 1701(e) of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, Pub. L. 115-91 (2018 NDAA),
which authorizes State Governors to petition the SBA Administrator
to designate specific covered areas as qualified HUBZone areas.
Pursuant to section 1701(j) of the 2018 NDAA, this authority is to
become effective on January 1, 2020. Emergency clearance will allow
SBA to implement the authority in accordance with this statutory
deadline and begin accepting petitions for Governor-designated
covered areas without delay. Accordingly, SBA requests that OMB
approve the information collection immediately. SBA helps Americans
start, build, and grow businesses. This collection is essential to
the Agency’s mission because if SBA designates an area as a
Governor-designated covered area, based on the information provided
by the State Governor, additional small businesses may become
eligible for certification as HUBZone small business concerns,
which in turn will provide them with more contracting
opportunities. These additional contracting opportunities create
incentives for individuals to start small businesses and allow
existing small businesses to grow. Emergency clearance is necessary
because use of normal clearance procedures will delay the
collection of these statutorily mandated petitions. In addition,
use of normal clearance procedures is likely to cause the statutory
deadline to begin receiving petitions (January 1, 2020) to be
missed. Delaying SBA’s ability to accept these petitions would have
a negative impact on small businesses because SBA would not be able
to designate additional HUBZones under this authority, which would
prevent some small businesses from being certified as HUBZone small
business concerns and could cause others to lose their status as
certified HUBZone small business concerns. SBA has taken all
practicable steps to consult with interested agencies and members
of the public to minimize the burden of this information
collection. SBA intends to make available on its website a list of
the areas within each State that meet the statutory definition of
“covered area” according to the most recent Bureau of the Census
data. This will minimize the burden on State governments by
eliminating the need to gather this data and do the necessary
analysis to determine which areas may meet the definition of
“covered area.” Finally, pursuant to 5 C.F.R. § 1320.13(d), SBA
also requests a waiver from the requirement to publish a 60-day
notice in the Federal Register requesting comments on this
information collection. SBA will publish the required notice as
part of the standard submission process before the emergency
approval expires.
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.