60 day FRN

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Employee as defined in section 202(a) of
Title 18, U.S.C. Applicants for
appointment as a Special Government
Employee are required to complete a
Confidential Financial Disclosure
Report (OGE Form 450). The U.S. Coast
Guard may not release the reports or the
information in them to the public except
under an order issued by a federal court
or as otherwise provided under the
Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a). Only the
Designated U.S. Coast Guard Ethics
Official or his or her designee may
release a Confidential Financial
Disclosure Report. Applicants can
obtain this form by going to the website
of the Office of Government Ethics
(www.oge.gov) or by contacting the
individual listed above in FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT. Applications for a
member drawn from the general public
that are not accompanied by a
completed OGE Form 450 will not be
considered. All other members serve as
representatives and stand for the
viewpoints of the roles as identified
above.
Registered lobbyists are not eligible to
serve on federal advisory committees in
an individual capacity. See ‘‘Revised
Guidance on Appointment of Lobbyists
to Federal Advisory Committees, Boards
and Commissions’’ (79 FR 47482,
August 13, 2014). The position we list
for a member from the general public
would be someone appointed in their
individual capacity and would be
designated as a Special Government
Employee as defined in Section 202(a),
Title 18, U.S.C. Registered lobbyists are
lobbyists as defined in Title 2 U.S.C.
1602 who are required by Title 2 U.S.C.
1603 to register with the Secretary of the
Senate and the Clerk of the House
Representatives.
The Department of Homeland
Security does not discriminate in
selection of Committee members on the
basis of race, color, religion, sex,
national origin, political affiliation,
sexual orientation, gender identity,
marital status, disabilities and genetic
information, age, membership in an
employee organization, or any other
non-merit factor. The Department of
Homeland Security strives to achieve a
widely diverse candidate pool for all of
its recruitment actions.
If you are interested in applying to
become a member of the Committee,
send your cover letter and resume to Mr.
Davis J. Breyer, Alternate Federal
Officer of the Merchant Marine
Personnel Advisory Committee via one
of the transmittal methods in the
ADDRESSES section by the deadline in
the DATES section of this notice. All
email submittals will receive email
receipt confirmation.

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Dated: December 20, 2017.
Jeffrey G. Lantz,
Director of Commercial Regulations and
Standards.
[FR Doc. 2017–27858 Filed 12–26–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9110–04–P

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
[Docket No. DHS–2017–0037]

Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism
Standards Personnel Surety Program
National Protection and
Programs Directorate (NPPD),
Department of Homeland Security
(DHS).
ACTION: 60-Day notice and request for
comments; revision of information
collection request: 1670–0029.
AGENCY:

The DHS NPPD Office of
Infrastructure Protection (IP),
Infrastructure Security Compliance
Division (ISCD) will submit the
following Information Collection
Request to the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) for review and
clearance in accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The
purpose of this notice is to solicit
comments during a 60-day public
comment period prior to the submission
of this ICR to OMB. The submission
describes the nature of the information
collection, the categories of
respondents, the estimated burden (in
hours), and the estimated burden cost
necessary to implement the Chemical
Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards
(CFATS) Personnel Surety Program. In
this notice, DHS is updating the burden
estimate and expanding the collection to
include Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk
chemical facilities.
DATES: Comments are encouraged and
will be accepted until February 26,
2018.
SUMMARY:

You may submit comments,
identified by docket number DHS–
2017–0037, by one of the following
methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov. Please follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
• Email: [email protected]. Please
include docket number DHS–2017–0037
in the subject line of the message.
• Mail: Written comments and
questions about this Information
Collection Request should be forwarded
to DHS/NPPD/IP/ISCD, ATTN: 1670–
0029, 245 Murray Lane SW, Mail Stop
0610, Arlington, VA 20528–0610.
Instructions: All submissions received
must include the words ‘‘Department of

ADDRESSES:

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Homeland Security’’ and docket number
DHS–2017–0059. Comments received
will be posted without alteration at
http://www.regulations.gov, including
any personal information provided.
Comments that include trade secrets,
confidential commercial or financial
information, Chemical-terrorism
Vulnerability Information (CVI),1
Sensitive Security Information (SSI),2 or
Protected Critical Infrastructure
Information (PCII) 3 should not be
submitted to the public regulatory
docket. Please submit such comments
separately from other comments in
response to this notice. Comments
containing trade secrets, confidential
commercial or financial information,
CVI, SSI, or PCII should be
appropriately marked and packaged in
accordance with applicable
requirements and submitted by mail to
the DHS/NPPD/IP/ISCD CFATS
Program Manager at the Department of
Homeland Security, 245 Murray Lane
SW, Mail Stop 0610, Arlington, VA
20528–0610. Comments must be
identified by docket number DHS–
2017–0037.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For
specific questions related to collection
activities, please contact Amy Graydon
at (866)323–2957 or at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On
December 18, 2014, the President signed
into law the Protecting and Securing
Chemical Facilities from Terrorist
Attacks Act of 2014 (‘‘CFATS Act of
2014’’) providing long-term
authorization for the CFATS program.
The CFATS Act of 2014 codified the
DHS authority to implement the CFATS
program into the Homeland Security
Act of 2002. See 6 U.S.C. 621 et seq.
Section 550 of the Department of
Homeland Security Appropriations Act
of 2007, Public Law 109–295 (2006)
(‘‘Section 550’’), provided (and the
CFATS Act of 2014 continues to
provide) the Department with the
authority to identify and regulate the
security of high-risk chemical facilities
using a risk-based approach. On April 9,
2007, the Department issued the CFATS
Interim Final Rule (IFR), implementing
this statutory mandate. See 72 FR
17688.
Section 550 required (and the CFATS
Act of 2014 continues to require) that
the Department establish risk-based
1 For more information about CVI see 6 CFR
27.400 and the CVI Procedural Manual at
www.dhs.gov/publication/safeguarding-cvi-manual.
2 For more information about SSI see 49 CFR part
1520 and the SSI Program web page at www.tsa.gov/
for-industry/sensitive-security-information.
3 For more information about PCII see 6 CFR part
29 and the PCII Program web page at www.dhs.gov/
pcii-program.

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performance standards (RBPS) for highrisk chemical facilities. Through the
CFATS regulations, the Department
promulgated 18 RBPS. Each chemical
facility that has been finally determined
by the Department to be high-risk must
submit, for Department approval, a Site
Security Plan (SSP) or an Alternative
Security Program (ASP), whichever the
high-risk chemical facility so chooses,
that satisfies each applicable RBPS.
RBPS 12 requires high-risk chemical
facilities to perform appropriate
background checks on and ensure
appropriate credentials for facility
personnel, and, as appropriate,
unescorted visitors with access to
restricted areas or critical assets. RBPS
12(iv) specifically requires high-risk
chemical facility to implement measures
designed to identify people with
terrorist ties. For the purposes of the
CFATS Personnel Surety Program,
‘people’ in RBPS 12(iv) is in reference
to affected individuals (i.e., facility
personnel or unescorted visitors with or
seeking access to restricted areas or
critical assets at high-risk chemical
facilities).
Identifying affected individuals who
have terrorist ties is an inherently
governmental function and requires the
use of information held in governmentmaintained databases that are
unavailable to high-risk chemical
facilities. See 72 FR 17688, 17709 (April
9, 2007). Thus, under RBPS 12(iv), the
Department and high-risk chemical
facilities must work together to satisfy
the ‘‘terrorist ties’’ aspect of the
Personnel Surety performance standard.
In accordance with the Homeland
Security Act of 2002 as amended by the
Protecting and Securing Chemical
Facilities from Terrorist Attacks Act of
2014, Public Law 113–254, the
following options are available to enable
high-risk chemical facilities to facilitate
the vetting of affected individuals for
terrorist ties:
Option 1. High-risk chemical facilities
may submit certain information about
affected individuals, which the
Department will use to vet those
individuals for terrorist ties.
Specifically, the identifying information
about affected individuals will be
compared against identifying
information of known or suspected
terrorists contained in the Federal
Government’s consolidated and
integrated terrorist watch list, the
Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB),
which is maintained by the Department
of Justice (DOJ) Federal Bureau of

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Investigation (FBI) in the Terrorist
Screening Center (TSC).4
Option 2. High-risk chemical facilities
may submit information about affected
individuals who already possess certain
credentials or documentation that rely
on security threat assessments
conducted by the Department. This will
enable the Department to verify the
continuing validity of these credentials
or documentation.
Option 3. High-risk chemical facilities
may comply with RBPS 12(iv) without
submitting to the Department
information about affected individuals
who possess Transportation Worker
Identification Credentials (TWICs), if a
high-risk chemical facility electronically
verifies and validates the affected
individual’s TWICs through the use of
TWIC readers (or other technology that
is periodically updated using the
Canceled Card List).
Option 4. High-risk chemical facilities
may visually verify certain credentials
or documents that are issued by a
Federal screening program that
periodically vets enrolled individuals
against the TSDB. The Department
continues to believe that visual
verification has significant security
limitations and, accordingly, encourages
high-risk chemical facilities choosing
this option to identify in their SSPs the
means by which they plan to address
these limitations.
In addition to the options described
above for satisfying RBPS 12(iv), a highrisk chemical facility is welcome to
propose alternative or supplemental
options in its SSP that are not described
in this document. The Department will
assess the adequacy of such alternative
or supplemental options on a facilityby-facility basis in the course of
evaluating each facility’s SSP.
Under Option 3 and Option 4, a highrisk chemical facility would not need to
submit information about an affected
individual to the Department. These
Options are only mentioned in this
notice for informational purposes, and
there will be no analysis of Option 3
and Option 4 in this information
collection request.
This information collection request
does not propose changes to who
qualifies as an affected individual.
There are certain groups of persons that
the Department does not consider to be
affected individuals, such as (1) Federal
officials that gain unescorted access to
restricted areas or critical assets as part
of their official duties; (2) State and
local law enforcement officials that gain
4 For

more information about the TSDB, see DOJ/
FBI–019 Terrorist Screening Records System, last
published in full as 77 FR 26580 (May 25, 2017).

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61313

unescorted access to restricted areas or
critical assets as part of their official
duties; and (3) emergency responders at
the State or local level that gain
unescorted access to restricted areas or
critical assets during emergency
situations.
The current information collection for
CFATS Personnel Surety Program (IC
1670–0029) will expire on August 31,
2018.5
Summary of Proposed Revisions to the
Information Collection
The Department is seeking a revision
to the CFATS Personnel Surety Program
Information Collection to: (1) Obtain
approval to collect information about
affected individuals from all high-risk
chemical facilities rather than only Tier
1 and Tier 2 high-risk chemical
facilities; (2) update the estimated
number of annual respondents from
195,000 to 72,607 based on historical
information collected since the
Department implemented the CFATS
Personnel Surety Program; and (3)
update the estimated time per
respondent from 0.58 hours to 0.1667
hours based upon historical data
collected by the Department since the
implantation of the CFATS Personnel
Surety Program.
Collection at all High-Risk Chemical
Facilities
In response to multiple comments on
the current ICR, the Department agreed
to a ‘‘phased implementation’’ of the
CFATS Personnel Surety Program to
Tier 1 and Tier 2 high-risk chemical
facilities. Based on lessons learned and
the near completion of the
implementation at Tier 1 and Tier 2
high-risk chemical facilities, the
Department now seeks to close the last
security gap by implementing CFATS
Personnel Surety Program at all highrisk chemical facilities. As implemented
at Tier 1 and Tier 2 high-risk chemical
facilities, the Department will roll out
the CFATS Personnel Surety Program in
a ‘‘phased implementation’’ to Tier 3
and Tier 4 high-risk chemical facilities.
Updates to Burden Estimate Based on
Historical Information
The Department implemented the
CFATS Personnel Surety Program in
December 2015. Since implementation,
the Department has evaluated many of
the assumptions it used when
estimating the burden estimate of this
Information Collection. As a result,
several of the assumptions can be
5 The current information collection for CFATS
Personnel Surety Program may be found at https://
www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_
nbr=201312-1670-001.

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revised using actual data rather than
assumptions. The burden methodology
and revised estimates are described in,
‘‘The Department’s Methodology in
Estimating the Burden for CFATS
Personnel Surety Program Information
Collection.’’
Information Collected About Affected
Individuals
This information collection request
does not propose changes to the
information collected on affected
individuals.
Option 1: Collecting Information To
Conduct Direct vetting
If high-risk chemical facilities select
Option 1 to satisfy RBPS 12(iv) for an
affected individual, the following

information about the affected
individual would be submitted to the
Department:
• For U.S. Persons (U.S. citizens and
nationals, as well as U.S. lawful
permanent residents):
Æ Full Name;
Æ Date of Birth; and
Æ Citizenship or Gender.
• For Non-U.S. Persons:
Æ Full Name;
Æ Date of Birth;
Æ Citizenship; and
Æ Passport information and/or alien
registration number.
To reduce the likelihood of false
positives in matching against records in
the Federal Government’s consolidated
and integrated terrorist watch list, highrisk chemical facilities would also be

able to submit the following optional
information about an affected individual
to the Department:
• Aliases;
• Gender (for Non-U.S. Persons);
• Place of Birth; and/or
• Redress Number.6
High-risk chemical facilities have the
option to create and use the following
field(s) to collect and store additional
information to assist with the
management of an affected individual’s
records. Any information collected in
this field will not be used to support
vetting activities.
• User Defined Field(s)
Table 1 summarizes the biographic
data that would be submitted to the
Department under Option 1.

TABLE 1—REQUIRED AND OPTIONAL DATA FOR AN AFFECTED INDIVIDUAL UNDER OPTION 1

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Data elements submitted to the department

For a U.S. person

For a non-U.S. person

Full Name ..........................................................
Date of Birth ......................................................

Required.
Required.

Gender ...............................................................
Citizenship .........................................................
Passport Information and/or Alien Registration
Number.

Must provide Citizenship or Gender ................
...........................................................................
N/A ....................................................................

Aliases ...............................................................
Place of Birth .....................................................
Redress number ................................................
User Defined Field(s) ........................................

Optional.
Optional.
Optional.
Optional (Not used for vetting purposes).

Option 2: Collecting Information To Use
Vetting Conducted Under Other DHS
Programs

To reduce the likelihood of false
positives, high-risk chemical facilities
may also submit the following optional
information about an affected individual
to the Department:
• Aliases;
• Gender;
• Place of Birth; and/or
• Citizenship.
High-risk chemical facilities have the
option to create and use the following
field(s) to collect and store additional
information to assist with the
management of an affected individual’s
records. Any information collected in
this field will not be used to support
vetting activities.

In lieu of submitting information to
the Department under Option 1 for
vetting of terrorist ties, high-risk
chemical facilities also have the option,
where appropriate, to submit
information to the Department to
electronically verify that an affected
individual is currently enrolled in
another DHS program that vets for
terrorist ties.
To verify an affected individual’s
enrollment in one of these programs
under Option 2, the Department would
collect the following information about
the affected individual:
• Full Name;
• Date of Birth; and
• Program-specific information or
credential information, such as
expiration date, unique number or
issuing entity (e.g., State for Commercial
Driver’s License [CDL] associated with a
Hazardous Materials Endorsement
[HME]).

• User Defined Field(s)
Table 2 summarizes the biographic
data that would be submitted to the
Department under Option 2.

Optional.
Required.
Required.

TABLE 2—REQUIRED AND OPTIONAL
DATA FOR AN AFFECTED INDIVIDUAL
UNDER OPTION 2
Data Elements Submitted to the
Department
Full Name ..................
Date of Birth ..............
Program-specific information or credential information,
such as expiration
date, unique number, or issuing entity.
Aliases .......................
Gender ......................
Place of Birth ............
Citizenship .................
User Defined Field(s)

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Optional.
Optional.
Optional.
Optional.
Optional (Not used
for vetting purposes).

Other Information Collected
The Department may also contact a
high-risk chemical facility or its
designees to request additional

6 For more information about Redress Numbers,
please go to http://www.dhs.gov/one-stop-travelersredress-process#1.

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Required.
Required.
Required.

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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 247 / Wednesday, December 27, 2017 / Notices
information (e.g., visa information)
pertaining to an affected individual in
order to clarify suspected data errors or
resolve potential matches (e.g., an
affected individual has a common
name). Such requests will not imply,
and should not be construed to indicate,
that an affected individual’s information
has been confirmed as a match to a
record of an individual with terrorist
ties.
The Department may also collect
information provided by individuals or
high-risk chemical facilities in support
of any adjudication requests under
Subpart C of the CFATS regulation,7 or
in support of any other redress
requests.8
Request For Exception To The
Requirement Under 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3)
The Department is requesting from
OMB an exception for the CFATS
Personnel Surety Program to the
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) notice
requirement contained in 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3), which requires Federal
agencies to ensure that their information
collections provide certain reasonable
notices under the PRA to affected
individuals. If this exception is granted,
the Department will be relieved of the
potential obligation to require high-risk
chemical facilities to collect signatures
or other positive affirmations of these
notices from affected individuals, which
would increase burdens.
Whether or not this exception is
granted, high-risk chemical facilities
must affirm the required privacy notice
regarding the collection of personal
information has been provided to
affected individuals before personal
information is submitted to the
Department.

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The Department’s Methodology in
Estimating the Burden for CFATS
Personnel Surety Program Information
Collection Number of Respondents
For the purpose of this collection, the
number of respondents is broken down
into two groups: ‘‘initial respondents’’
and ‘‘annual respondents.’’
The ‘‘initial respondents’’ are those
affected individuals with existing access
at a high-risk chemical facility and will
be submitted by the facility after
receiving authorization or approval of
an SSP requiring the facility to
implement measures to comply with
7 See

6 CFR 27.300 et seq.
information about access, correction, and
redress requests under the Freedom of Information
Act and the Privacy Act can be found in Section
7.0 of the Privacy Impact Assessment for the CFATS
Personnel Surety Program, dated May 4, 2011,
available at https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/
publications/privacy-pia-nppd-cfats-2011.pdf.
8 More

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RBPS 12(iv). All new burdens
associated with initial respondents
under this collection will be for Tier 3
and Tier 4 facilities as discussed later in
this notice under ‘‘(A) Initial
Respondents,’’ Tier 1 and Tier 2
facilities have already submitted initial
respondents to the CFATS Personnel
Surety Program under the current
collection. The burden for ‘‘initial
respondents’’ is estimated in this notice
under ‘‘Total Burden Cost (Capital/
Startup)’’ because the burden imposed
by initial respondent submission on
high-risk chemical facilities is a onetime cost.
‘‘Annual respondents’’ are the number
of respondents the Department
estimates will be submitted each year by
high-risk chemical facilities that have
completed the initial respondent’s
submission and are now in the
maintenance phase (e.g., adding new
affected individuals due to employee
hires).
(A) Initial Respondents
The estimated number of high-risk
chemical facilities and the average
number of respondents is based on
historical data collected by the
Department since the implementation of
the CFATS Personnel Surety Program.
The Department estimates that under
this collection there are (a) 200 Tier 1
and Tier 2 high-risk chemical facilities
that will have to submit information
about affected individuals under the
current ICR, and (b) 3,700 Tier 3 and
Tier 4 high-risk chemical facilities that
will submit for the first time under this
new collection. Historically, each
Authorizer submitted, on average, 180
initial respondents, with each
Authorizer responsible for 1.7 high-risk
chemical facilities. Dividing 180
affected individuals per Authorizer by
1.7 high-risk chemical facilities results
in an average of 106 initial respondents
submitted per high-risk chemical
facility.
Additionally, the Department
recognizes that high-risk chemical
facilities that are high risk for a release
security issue may take a facility-wide
approach rather than an asset-based
approach in defining their restricted
areas, which may result in a higher
number of affected individuals.
Therefore, the Department reviewed the
number of release sites to ensure the
estimated number of respondents for the
Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk chemical
facilities were comparable to the
historical data received by the
Department since the implementation of
the CFATS Personnel Surety Program.
The Department found that the release
security issues for Tier 1 and Tier 2

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high-risk chemical facilities made up
38% of the total Tier 1 and Tier 2 highrisk chemical facility population. For
the Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk chemical
facilities, the release security issue
made up 25% of the total Tier 3 and
Tier 4 high-risk chemical facility
population. Based on these findings, the
Department was satisfied that the Tier 1
and Tier 2 high-risk chemical facility
historical data provided a valid
representation of what the Department
can expect from the Tier 3 and Tier 4
high-risk chemical facilities.
Under the current collection,
approximately 21,200 initial
respondents for Tier 1 and Tier 2 highrisk chemical facilities (200 high-risk
Tier 1 and Tier 2 high-risk chemical
facilities with an average of 106 initial
respondents per high-risk chemical
facility) will or have been submitted to
the CFATS Personnel Surety Program.
The Department assumes that there are
no additional burdens associated with
initial respondents for Tier 1 and Tier
2 high-risk chemical facilities under this
collection because they have already
submitted the initial respondents under
the current collection.
As described above, the Department
intends to implement the CFATS
Personnel Surety Program at all highrisk chemical facilities, which will
require Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk
chemical facilities to submit
information about affected individuals
under the CFATS Personnel Surety
Program or to select Option 3 or 4 for
CFATS Personnel Surety Program
participation that do not involve
submission of information to the
Department. However, for burden
estimates, the Department assumes all
Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk chemical
facilities will select option 1 and/or
option 2, which both require
information submission. As these highrisk chemical facilities have not
previously submitted, all 3,700 Tier 3
and Tier 4 high-risk chemical facilities
would be required to submit initial
respondents to the CFATS Personnel
Surety Program.
The Department intends to implement
the CFATS Personnel Surety Program at
Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk chemical
facilities in a phased implementation so
that the estimated 3,700 Tier 3 and Tier
4 high-risk chemical facilities are evenly
distributed over three years (i.e., 1,233
high-risk chemical facilities each year
for three years). This results in an
estimated 130,698 initial respondents
each year (1,233 high-risk chemical
facilities multiplied by 106 submissions
per high-risk chemical facility) from
Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk chemical
facilities.

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(B) Annual Respondents
The Department estimates the annual
respondents based on the annual hires
rates of 47.8% for total private industry,
as estimated from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS).9 Annual hires are used
to account for the replacement of
employee separations as well as new
hires. In the first year of this collection,
the Department applies the hires rate to
the initial submission of affected
individuals submitted from Tier 1 and
Tier 2 high-risk chemical facilities
under the current collection for the
CFATS Personnel Surety Program. In
the second and third year of this
collection, the Department applies the

hires rate to the subsequent total
population of affected individuals
submitted under the CFATS Personnel
Surety Program (i.e., the Tier 1 and Tier
2 high-risk chemical facilities’ initial
submissions plus the initial submissions
received from Tier 3 and Tier 4 highrisk chemical facilities).
The breakdown of the annual hires for
each year of the information collection
request is as follows:
• In year one, the number of hires is
10,134 respondents (i.e., 21,200 Tier 1
and Tier 2 initial respondents
multiplied by the hires rate of 47.8%).10
• In year two, the number of hires is
72,607 respondents (i.e., 72,607 Tier 1

and Tier 2 initial respondents plus the
number of initial respondents submitted
by Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk chemical
facilities in year one [130,698 affected
individuals] multiplied by the hires rate
of 47.8%).
• In year three, the number of hires is
135,081 respondents (i.e., 21,200 Tier 1
and Tier 2 initial respondents plus the
number of initial respondents submitted
by Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk chemical
facilities in years one and two [261,396
affected individuals] multiplied by the
hires rate of 47.8%).
Table 3 presents the annual
submissions for the three years.

TABLE 3—ANNUAL SUBMISSIONS FOR THREE YEARS
Initial
respondents
(Tier 3 and
Tier 4)
Year 1 ...........................................................................

130,698

Year 2 ...........................................................................

130,698

Year 3 ...........................................................................

130,698

Average ........................................................................

130,698

The number of respondents for the
three years was then averaged to come
up with the revised annual respondent
rate of 72,607 respondents per year (i.e.,
the sum of 10,134 annual respondents
in year one, plus 72,607 annual
respondents in year two, plus 135,081
annual respondents in year three,
divided by the three years this
information collection request covers).

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Estimated Time per Respondent
Based on industry feedback and
historical data collected on their use of
the CFATS Personnel Surety Program
application, the Department has
estimated the time per respondent to be
5 minutes per submission of a record
about an affected individual rather than
30 minutes previously estimated in the
current collection. The proposed
estimated time per respondent includes
the time to edit or remove a record if a
high-risk chemical facility opts to
subsequently notify the Department that
an affected individual no longer has
access. Since this estimate is based on
current submissions from Tier 1 and
9 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/jolts_
03162017.pdf Table 14

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Existing population of affected individuals

21,200 ...........................................................................
(Initial Respondents Tier 1 and Tier 2 from current
collection).
151,898 .........................................................................
(Tier 1 and Tier 2 initial respondents plus year 1 Tier
3 and Tier 4 initial respondents).
282,596 .........................................................................
(Tier 1 and Tier 2 initial respondents plus year 1 and
year 2 Tier 3 and Tier 4 initial respondents.
.......................................................................................

Tier 2 high-risk chemical facilities, the
Department has chosen an estimate of
10 minutes (0.1667 hours) per record to
provide a more conservative estimate.
Annual Burden Hours
To estimate the annual burden hours
for this collection, the Department
multiplies the number of annual
respondents by the estimated time
burden of 0.1667 hours (10 minutes), for
an estimated annual burden of 12,101
hours (i.e., 0.1667 hours multiplied by
72,607 annual respondents). The onetime burden associated with the
submission of initial respondents is
considered below under startup costs.
Total Burden Cost (Capital/Startup)
The Department provides access to
the CFATS Personnel Surety Program
application free of charge and assumes
that each high-risk chemical facility
already has access to the internet for
basic business needs. In addition to the
Tier 1 and Tier 2 high-risk chemical
facilities at which the CFATS Personnel
Surety Program has already been
implemented, the Department expects to
10 Numbers may not total due to rounding of
estimates in the text.

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Hires
(existing population of affected individuals multiplied
by 47.8%)

Sfmt 4703

10,134
72,607
135,081
72,607

implement the CFATS Personnel Surety
Program at Tier 3 and Tier 4 high-risk
chemical facilities upon approval of this
collection request. Tier 3 and Tier 4
high-risk chemical facilities will have a
one-time requirement to submit
information about initial respondents
with existing access to the restricted
areas or critical assets at the high-risk
chemical facility. This one-time cost is
estimated here as a startup cost. The
Department estimates that under this
collection there will be 3,700 Tier 3 and
Tier 4 high-risk chemical facilities that
will submit initial respondents. To
estimate initial startup cost, the
Department multiples the number of
high-risk chemical facilities by the
estimated number of affected
individuals per high-risk chemical
facility to obtain the total number of
initial respondents submitted. The
estimated number of initial respondents
is 392,094 (i.e., 3,700 Tier 3 and Tier 4
high-risk chemical facilities multiplied
by 106 affected individuals per high-risk
chemical facility).11 The startup burden
of 65,349 hours is subsequently
11 Values

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Federal Register / Vol. 82, No. 247 / Wednesday, December 27, 2017 / Notices
estimated by multiplying the number of
initial respondents by the estimated
time per respondent (i.e., 392,094
affected individuals multiplied by
0.1667 hours).
The one-time startup cost is estimated
by multiplying the startup burden by
the wage rate of the employee type
expected to submit the information
about affected individuals to the CFATS
Personnel Surety Program. The site
security officer’s average hourly wage
rate of $78.93 was based on an average
hourly wage rate of $53.92 12 with a
benefits multiplier of 1.4639.13
Therefore the Department estimates the
one-time startup cost of this information
request to be $5,158,226 (i.e., 65,349
hours multiplied by $78.93 per hour).14
Consideration of Other Capital Costs

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This information collection request
maintains the existing assumptions
found in the current information
collection request with regard to
activities listed in 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(1).
Specifically, that 5 CFR 1320.3(b)(1) and
5 CFR 1320.8 require the Department to
estimate the total time, effort, or
financial resources expended by persons
to generate, maintain, retain, disclose, or
provide information to or for a Federal
agency. Therefore, many costs (e.g.,
physical modification of the facility
layout) a high-risk chemical facility may
choose to incur to develop or implement
its SSP or ASP should not be accounted
for when estimating the capital costs
associated with this information
collection.
Furthermore, the Department
maintains the same assumptions found
in the current information collection
request with regards to estimating
certain high-risk chemical facility
capital costs, such as: (1) Capital costs
for computer, telecommunications
equipment, software, and storage to
manage the data collection,
submissions, and tracking; (2) capital
and ongoing costs for designing,
deploying, and operating information
technology (IT) systems necessary to
maintain the data collection,
submissions, and tracking; (3) cost of
training high-risk chemical facility
personnel to maintain the data
collection, submissions, and tracking;
and (4) site security officer time to
12 The wage used for an SSO equals that of
Managers, All (11–9199), with a load factor of
1.4639 to account for benefits in addition to wages
https://www.bls.gov/oes/2016/may/oes119199.htm.
13 Load factor based on BLS Employer Cost for
Employee Compensation, as of June 9, 2017. Load
factor = Employer cost for employee compensation
($35.28)/wages and salaries ($24.10) = 1.4639
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm.
14 Numbers may not total due to rounding.

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manage the data collection,
submissions, and tracking. The
Department continues to exclude these
costs in accordance with 5 CFR
1320.3(b)(2), which directs Federal
agencies to not count the costs
associated with the time, effort, and
financial resources incurred in the
normal course of their activities (e.g., in
compiling and maintaining business
records) if the reporting, recordkeeping,
or disclosure activities are usual and
customary.
The Department continues to exclude
these usual and customary costs because
the time, effort, and financial resources
are costs that high-risk chemical
facilities incur to conduct background
checks for identity, criminal history,
and legal authorization to work under 6
CFR 27.230(a)(12)(i)–(iii), and also
under various other Federal, State, or
local laws or regulations.
Recordkeeping Burden
The recordkeeping costs, if any, to
create, keep, or retain records pertaining
to background checks as part of a highrisk chemical facility’s SSP or ASP, are
properly estimated in the recordkeeping
estimates associated with the SSP
Instrument under Information
Collection 1670–0007.
Total Annual Burden Cost
The 2007 CFATS Regulatory
Evaluation assumed that Site Security
Officers are responsible for submitting
information to the Department. For the
purpose of this notice, the Department
maintains this assumption.
Therefore, to estimate the total annual
burden, the Department multiplied the
annual burden of 12,101 hours by the
average hourly wage rate of Site
Security Officers of $78.93 and then
added the one-time startup cost
associated with the initial respondents.
Therefore, the total annual burden cost
for the CFATS Personnel Surety
Program is $955,191 (12,101 total
annual burden hours multiplied by
$78.93 per hour). For the three year
period for which this collection will be
approved, the total cost burden would
be $8,023,798 ($955,191 annual cost
multiplied by 3 + $5,158,226 startup
cost). The annual burden for this
collection over the three year period is
estimated at $2,674,599 ($8,023,798
total cost/3 years).15
Solicitation of Comments
OMB is particularly interested in
comments that:
1. Evaluate whether the proposed
collection of information is necessary
15 All

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61317

for the proper performance of the
functions of the agency, including
whether the information will have
practical utility;
2. Evaluate the accuracy of the
agency’s estimate of the burden of the
proposed collection of information,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used;
3. Enhance the quality, utility, and
clarity of the information to be
collected; and
4. Minimize the burden of the
collection of information on those who
are to respond, including through the
use of appropriate automated,
electronic, mechanical, or other
technological collection techniques or
other forms of information technology
(e.g., permitting electronic submissions
of responses).
Title of Collection: Chemical Facility
Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS)
Personnel Surety Program.
OMB Control Number: 1670–0029.
Instrument: CFATS Personnel Surety
Program.
Frequency: ‘‘Other’’.
Affected Public: Business or other forprofit.
Number of Annual Respondents:
72,607 respondents (estimate).
Estimated Time per Respondent:
0.1667 hours (10 minutes).
Total Annual Burden Hours: 12,101
hours.
Total Annual Burden Cost (Capital/
Startup): $1,719,409.
Total Annual Burden Cost: $955,191.
Total Recordkeeping Burden: $0.
David Epperson,
Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2017–27519 Filed 12–26–17; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 910–9P–P

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services
[OMB Control Number 1615–0121]

Agency Information Collection
Activities; Extension, Without Change,
of a Currently Approved Collection;
Generic Clearance for the Collection of
Qualitative Feedback on Agency
Service Delivery
U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, Department of
Homeland Security.
ACTION: 30-Day notice.
AGENCY:

The Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS) will be

SUMMARY:

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27DEN1