Change Request Memo

January 28, 2022

TO:

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

FROM:

Judith Arroyo, PhD
Special Advisor to the Director, NIMHD

SUBJECT:

Question Modification of sub-study “Health Disparities Research Institute (HDRI)”
under “Conference, Meeting, Workshop, and Poster Session Registration Generic
Clearance (OD)” (OMB#: 0925-0740 Expiration Date: 07/31/2022)

This is a request for OMB to approve a modification of a sub-study entitled “Health Disparities Research
Institute (HDRI)” program application previously approved under the “Conference, Meeting, Workshop,
and Poster Session Registration Generic Clearance (OD)”. In efforts to meet Privacy guidelines and
response clarity for the applicants, we request the following edits to the application form:
1. Race question: delete “Select all that apply” phrase as an answer option.
2. Remove the sentence in the instructions of the form that says: “Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are
mandatory” as well as delete all asterisks from the form.
Your full consideration is appreciated.
An agency may not substantially or materially modify a collection of information previously approved by OMB without OMB
approval of the modification. A substantive or material modification may arise if the agency adds or deletes questions, changes
the scope of inquiry or the population actually or potentially subject to inquiry, revises the method of collection or the procedure
for sample selection, reinterprets compliance directives or other policy guidance, or meaningfully alters ant aspect of the
collection of information from that previously approved by OMB. The “public protection” provisions of the PRA and the OMB
regulations apply to all collections that have been modified without OMB approval. While deleting questions or reducing the
number of respondents would serve to reduce respondent burden, a goal basic to the PRA, deleting questions could nonetheless
constitute a substantive or material modification by weakening the underlying structure or focus of the existing questionnaire and
reducing the number of respondents could undermine the statistical validity of the questionnaire.

Judith A Arroyo
Senior Advisor to
Director NIMHD