30 Day Notice

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 178 / Friday, September 17, 2021 / Notices
IV. Solicitation of Comments
Interested persons are invited to
submit written data, views, and
arguments concerning the foregoing,
including whether the proposed rule
change is consistent with the Act.
Comments may be submitted by any of
the following methods:
Electronic Comments
• Use the Commission’s internet
comment form (http://www.sec.gov/
rules/sro.shtml); or
• Send an email to rule-comments@
sec.gov. Please include File Number SR–
CboeBZX–2021–058 on the subject line.
Paper Comments
• Send paper comments in triplicate
to Secretary, Securities and Exchange
Commission, 100 F Street NE,
Washington, DC 20549–1090.
All submissions should refer to File
Number SR–CboeBZX–2021–058. This
file number should be included on the
subject line if email is used. To help the
Commission process and review your
comments more efficiently, please use
only one method. The Commission will
post all comments on the Commission’s
internet website (http://www.sec.gov/
rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the
submission, all subsequent
amendments, all written statements
with respect to the proposed rule
change that are filed with the
Commission, and all written
communications relating to the
proposed rule change between the
Commission and any person, other than
those that may be withheld from the
public in accordance with the
provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be
available for website viewing and
printing in the Commission’s Public
Reference Room, 100 F Street NE,
Washington, DC 20549 on official
business days between the hours of
10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of the
filing also will be available for
inspection and copying at the principal
office of the Exchange. All comments
received will be posted without change.
Persons submitting comments are
cautioned that we do not redact or edit
personal identifying information from
comment submissions. You should
submit only information that you wish
to make available publicly. All
submissions should refer to File
Number SR–CboeBZX–2021–058 and
should be submitted on or before
October 8, 2021.

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For the Commission, by the Division of
Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated
authority.9
J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2021–20080 Filed 9–16–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
[SEC File No. 270–666; OMB Control No.
3235–0725]

Submission for OMB Review;
Comment Request
Upon Written Request Copies Available
From: U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission, Office of FOIA Services,
100 F Street NE, Washington, DC
20549–2736
Extension:
OWMI Contract Standard for Contractor
Workforce Inclusion

Notice is hereby given that, pursuant
to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
(44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Securities
and Exchange Commission
(‘‘Commission’’) has submitted to the
Office of Management and Budget
(‘‘OMB’’) a request for extension of the
previously approved collection of
information discussed below.
Section 342 of the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act of 2010 (the Dodd-Frank Act)
provided that certain agencies,
including the Commission, establish an
Office of Minority and Women
Inclusion (OMWI).1 Section 342(c)(2) of
the Dodd-Frank Act requires the OMWI
Director to include in the Commission’s
procedures for evaluating contract
proposals and hiring service providers a
written statement that the contractor
shall ensure, to the maximum extent
possible, the fair inclusion of women
and minorities in the workforce of the
contractor and, as applicable,
subcontractors.
In addition, section 342(c)(3)(A) of the
Dodd-Frank Act requires the OMWI
Director to establish standards and
procedures for determining whether an
agency contractor or subcontractor ‘‘has
failed to make a good faith effort to
include minorities and women’’ in its
workforce. Section 342(c)(3)(B)(i)
provides that if the OMWI Director
determines that a contractor has failed
to make good faith efforts, the Director
shall recommend to the agency
administrator that the contract be
terminated. Upon receipt of such a
recommendation, section 342(c)(3)(B)(ii)
CFR 200.30–3(a)(12).
1 12 U.S.C. 5452.

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provides that the agency administrator
may terminate the contract, make a
referral to the Office of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs of the Department
of Labor, or take other appropriate
action. To implement the acquisitionspecific requirements of Section 342(c)
of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Commission
adopted a Contract Standard for
Contractor Workforce Inclusion
(Contract Standard).
The Contract Standard, which is
included in the Commission’s
solicitations and resulting contracts for
services with a dollar value of $100,000
or more, contains a ‘‘collection of
information’’ within the meaning of the
Paperwork Reduction Act. The Contract
Standard requires that a Commission
contractor provide documentation, upon
request from the OMWI Director, to
demonstrate that it has made good faith
efforts to ensure the fair inclusion of
minorities in its workforce and, as
applicable, to demonstrate its covered
subcontractors have made such good
faith efforts. The documentation
requested may include, but is not
limited to: (1) The total number of
employees in the contractor’s workforce,
and the number of employees by race,
ethnicity, gender, and job title or EEO–
1 job category (e.g., EEO–1 Report(s));
(2) a list of covered subcontract awards
under the contract that includes the
dollar amount of each subcontract, date
of award, and the subcontractor’s race,
ethnicity, and/or gender ownership
status; (3) the contractor’s plan to ensure
the fair inclusion of minorities and
women in its workforce, including
outreach efforts; and (4) for each
covered subcontractor, the information
requested in items 1 and 3 above. The
OMWI Director will consider the
information submitted in evaluating
whether the contractor or subcontractor
has complied with its obligations under
the Contract Standard.
The information collection is
mandatory.
Estimated number of respondents:
Based on a review of the last two fiscal
years since the most recent approval of
this information collection, the
Commission estimates that 175
contractors would be subject to the
Contract Standard.2 Approximately 102
of these contractors have 50 or more
employees, while 73 have fewer than 50
employees.
Estimate of recordkeeping burden:
The information collection under the
Contract Standard imposes no new
recordkeeping burden on the estimated
2 Unless otherwise specified, the term
‘‘contractors’’ refers to contractors and
subcontractors.

9 17

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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 178 / Friday, September 17, 2021 / Notices

102 contractors that have 50 or more
employees. Such contractors are
generally subject to recordkeeping and
reporting requirements under the
regulations implementing Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act 3 and Executive
Order 11246 (‘‘E.O. 11246’’).4 Their
contracts and subcontracts must include
the clause implementing E.O. 11246—
FAR 52.222–26, Equal Opportunity. In
addition, contractors that have 50 or
more employees (and a contract or
subcontract of $50,000 or more) are
required to maintain records on the
race, ethnicity, gender, and EEO–1 job
category of each employee under
Department of Labor regulations
implementing E.O. 11246.5 The
regulations implementing E.O. 11246
also require contractors that have 50 or
more employees (and a contract or
subcontract of $50,000 or more) to
demonstrate that they have made good
faith efforts to remove identified
barriers, expand employment
opportunities, and produce measurable
results,6 and to develop and maintain a
written program, which describes the
policies, practices, and procedures that
the contractor uses to ensure that
applicants and employees receive equal
opportunities for employment and
advancement.7 In lieu of developing a
separate plan for workforce inclusion, a
contractor may submit its existing
written program prescribed by the E.O.
11246 regulations as part of the
documentation that demonstrates the
contractor’s good faith efforts to ensure
the fair inclusion of minorities and
women in its workforce. Thus,
approximately 102 contractors are
already required to maintain the
information that may be requested
under the Contract Standard.
The estimated 73 contractors that
employ fewer than 50 employees are
required under the regulations
implementing E.O. 11246 to maintain
records showing the race, ethnicity and
gender of each employee. We believe
that these contractors also keep job title
information during the normal course of
business. However, contractors that
have fewer than 50 employees may not
have the written program prescribed by
the E.O. 11246 regulations or similar
plan that could be submitted as part of
the documentation to demonstrate their
good faith efforts to ensure the fair
inclusion of women and minorities in
their workforces. Accordingly,
3 42

U.S.C. 2000e, et seq.
Order 11246, 30 FR 12,319 (Sept. 24,

4 Executive

1965).
5 See 41 CFR 60–1.7.
6 See 41 CFR 60–2.17(c).
7 See 41 CFR part 60–2.

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contractors with fewer than 50
employees may have to develop a plan
to ensure workforce inclusion of
minorities and women.
In order to estimate the burden on
contractors associated with developing a
plan for ensuring the inclusion of
minorities and women in their
workforces, we considered the burden
estimates for developing the written
programs required under the regulations
implementing E.O. 11246.8 Based on
OMWI’s review of the plans and other
documentation submitted by contractors
with fewer than 50 employees to
demonstrate compliance with the
Contract Standard, we believe such
contractors would require
approximately 25 percent of the hours
that contractors of similar size spend on
developing the written programs
required under the E.O. 11246
regulations. Accordingly, we estimate
that contractors would spend about 18
hours of employee resources to develop
a plan for workforce inclusion of
minorities and women. This one-time
implementation burden annualized
would be 438 hours. After the initial
development, we estimate that each
contractor with fewer than 50
employees would spend approximately
8 hours each year updating and
maintaining its plan for workforce
inclusion of minorities and women. The
Commission estimates that the
annualized recurring burden associated
with the information collection would
be 365 hours. Thus, the Commission
estimates the annual recordkeeping
burden for such contractors would total
803 hours.
The Contract Standard requires
contractors to maintain information
about covered subcontractors’
ownership status, workforce
demographics, and workforce inclusion
plans. Contractors would request this
information from their covered
subcontractors, who would have an
obligation to keep workforce
demographic data and maintain plans
for workforce inclusion of minorities
and women because the Contract
8 According to the Supporting Statement for the
OFCCP Recordkeeping and Requirements-Supply
Service, OMB Control No. 1250–0003 (‘‘Supporting
Statement’’), it takes approximately 73 burden
hours for contractors with 1–100 employees to
develop the initial written program required under
the regulations implementing E.O. 11246. We
understand the quantitative analyses prescribed by
the Executive Order regulations at 41 CFR part 60–
2 are a time-consuming aspect of the written
program development. As there is no requirement
to perform these types of quantitative analyses in
connection with the plan for workforce inclusion of
minorities and women under the Contract Standard,
we believe the plan for workforce inclusion will
take substantially fewer hours to develop. The
Supporting Statement is available at reginfo.gov.

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Standard is included in their
subcontracts. Based on data describing
recent Commission subcontractor
activity, we believe that few
subcontractors will have subcontracts
for services with a dollar value of
$100,000 or more under Commission
service contracts.9 These subcontractors
may already be subject to similar
recordkeeping requirements as principal
contractors. Consequently, we believe
that any additional requirements
imposed on subcontractors would not
significantly add to the burden
estimates discussed above.
Estimate of Reporting Burden: With
respect to the reporting burden, we
estimate that it would take all
contractors on average approximately
one hour to retrieve and submit to the
OMWI Director the documentation
specified in the proposed Contract
Standard. We expect to request
documentation from up to 50
contractors each year and therefore we
estimate the total annual reporting
burden to be 50 hours.
On July 8, 2021, the Commission
published a notice in the Federal
Register (86 FR 36167) of its intention
to request an extension of this currently
approved collection of information, and
allowed the public 60 days to submit
comments. The Commission received no
comments.
Written comments continue to be
invited on: (a) Whether this collection of
information is necessary for the proper
performance of the functions of the
agency, including whether the
information will have practical utility;
(b) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate
of the burden imposed by the collection
of information; (c) ways to enhance the
quality, utility, and clarity of the
information collected; and (d) ways to
minimize the burden of the collection of
information on respondents, including
through the use of automated collection
techniques or other forms of information
technology.
The public may view the background
documentation for this information
collection at the following website,
www.reginfo.gov. This information
collection can be found by selecting
‘‘Currently under 30-day Review—Open
for Public Comments’’ or by using the
search function. Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be sent to:
(i) www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain
and (ii) David Bottom, Director/Chief
9 A search of subcontract awards on the
usaspending.gov website showed that three
subcontractors in FY 2016 and six subcontractors in
FY 2017 had subcontracts of $100,000 or more. See
data on subcontract awards available at http://
usaspending.gov.

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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 178 / Friday, September 17, 2021 / Notices
Information Officer, Securities and
Exchange Commission, c/o Cynthia
Roscoe, 100 F Street NE, Washington,
DC 20549 or by sending an email to:
[email protected]. Comments
must be submitted to OMB within 30
days of this notice.
Dated: September 14, 2021.
J. Matthew DeLesDernier,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2021–20117 Filed 9–16–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8011–01–P

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
[Docket No. SSA–2021–0025]

Request for Information on Potential
Disability Insurance and Supplemental
Security Income Demonstrations
Social Security Administration.
Notice; request for information.

AGENCY:
ACTION:

We administer the Disability
Insurance (DI) and Supplemental
Security Income (SSI) programs to
provide income support to people with
disabilities. The Commissioner of Social
Security is authorized to test new
program rules to promote attachment to
the labor force and increase the
employment and self-sufficiency of
individuals receiving or applying for DI
or SSI benefits, including children and
youth; and to coordinate planning
between private and public welfare
agencies to improve the administration
and effectiveness of the DI, SSI, and
related programs. This request for
information (RFI) seeks public input on
potential services, supports, or DI and
SSI policy changes that could achieve
these goals. The input we receive will
inform our deliberations about possible
future demonstrations and tests. We will
also use the responses as reference
material as we provide Congress
technical advice regarding any potential
renewal of the section 234
authorization.

SUMMARY:

To ensure that your comments
are considered, we must receive them
no later than November 16, 2021.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments
by any one of three methods—internet,
fax, or mail. Do not submit the same
comments multiple times or by more
than one method. Regardless of which
method you choose, please state that
your comments refer to Docket No.
SSA–2021–0025 so that we may
associate your comments with the
correct Federal Register notice.
Caution: You should be careful to
include in your comments only
information that you wish to make
DATES:

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publicly available. We strongly urge you
not to include in your comments any
personal information, such as Social
Security numbers or medical
information.
1. Internet: We strongly recommend
that you submit your comments via the
internet. Please visit the Federal
eRulemaking portal at http://
www.regulations.gov. Use the Search
function to find docket number SSA–
2021–0025 and then submit your
comments. The system will issue you a
tracking number to confirm your
submission. You will not be able to
view your comments immediately
because we must post each submission
manually. It may take up to a week for
your comments to be viewable.
2. Fax: Fax comments to (410) 966–
2830.
3. Mail: Mail your comments to the
Office of Regulations and Reports
Clearance, Social Security
Administration, 3100 West High Rise
Building, 6401 Security Boulevard,
Baltimore, Maryland, 21235–6401.
Comments are available for public
viewing on the Federal eRulemaking
portal at http://www.regulations.gov or
in person, during regular business
hours, by arranging with the contact
person identified below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jeffrey Hemmeter, Acting Deputy
Associate Commissioner for Research,
Demonstration, and Employment
Support, Office of Retirement and
Disability Policy, Social Security
Administration, 6401 Security
Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235–6401,
(410) 597–1815, for information about
this notice. For information on
eligibility or filing for benefits, call our
national toll-free number, 1–800–772–
1213 or TTY 1–800–325–0778, or visit
our internet site, Social Security Online,
at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose
Social Security pays benefits to more
than 12 million adults ages 18 to 64 who
are unable to work due to a disability 1
and to more than 1 million children
with limited income and assets who
have marked and severe functional
limitations.2 The Commissioner of
Social Security is authorized to test new
program rules to promote the labor force
and increase the employment and selfsufficiency of individuals receiving or
applying for DI or SSI benefits,
including children and youth, and to
1 https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_
asr/2019/sect03.html.
2 https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_
asr/2019/sect04.html#table17.

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coordinate planning between private
and public welfare agencies to improve
the administration and effectiveness of
the DI, SSI, and related programs. This
RFI offers interested parties, including
States, community-based and other nonprofit organizations, philanthropic
organizations, researchers, and members
of the public, the opportunity to provide
information and recommendations on
effective approaches for achieving these
goals.
Background
We conduct demonstration projects
under two authorities. Section 234 of
the Social Security Act (Act) allows the
Commissioner to test changes to the DI
program designed to promote
attachment to the labor force.3 Section
234(d)(2) of the Act provides that the
authority to initiate projects under
section 234 terminates on December 31,
2021, and the authority to carry out
such projects terminates on December
31, 2022, Second, Section 1110(a) of the
Act allows us to enter into contracts,
grants, and agreements to study a
variety of topics related to reducing
dependency on SSI, coordinating of
social services, or improving the
administration of our programs, while
section 1110(b) of the Act allows us to
waive SSI program rules to carry out
such demonstrations in the course of
conducting projects that are likely to
assist in promoting the objectives or
facilitate the administration of title XVI
of the Act.4 Participants in
demonstrations conducted under
section 234 or section 1110(b) must be
volunteers who provide informed
written consent and are capable of
withdrawing their agreement to
participate at any time.5 In addition, SSI
demonstrations cannot result in a
substantial reduction in any
individual’s income because he or she
participated in a demonstration. These
authorities also include additional
reporting and scope restrictions. We
produce an annual report to Congress on
current and recently completed
demonstrations 6 and maintain public
web pages with demonstration
reports.7 8
3 Section 234 of the Act, 42 U.S.C. 434. https://
www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title02/0234.htm.
4 Section 1110(a) and (b) of the Act, 42 U.S.C.
1310(a) and (b). https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/
ssact/title11/1110.htm.
5 Section 234(e)(1) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. 434(e)(1).
6 https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/
documents/
Section%20234%20Report%202020.pdf.
7 https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/
demos.htm.
8 https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/
projects.htm.

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