Justification for non-substantive change request

Federal Communications Commission

Explanation of Non-Substantive Changes to OMB Control Numbers: 3060-0917 and 3060-0918

• FCC rule 47 CFR § 1.8002(b); FCC Forms 160 and 161

Purpose of this Submission: This submission is being made for a proposed non-substantive change to an existing information collection pursuant to 44 U.S.C. § 3507. This submission seeks to make a non-substantive change to reflect a change in burden hours for this information collection as a result of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) June 22, 2021 Order adopting changes to requirements for the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES). See Amendment of Part 1 of the Commission’s Rules, Concerning Practice and Procedure, Amendment of CORES Registration System, Report and Order, FCC 21-79; https://www.fcc.gov/document/2021-cores-modification-order.

Background: Section 1.8002 of the FCC’s rules require an FCC Registration Number (FRN) to be supplied by anyone doing business with the FCC, including, but not limited to, remitting payments, applying for licenses, participating in auctions, and filing certain applications. Registrants use the FCC’s system called CORES to obtain FRNs with the associated passwords necessary to enter into a variety of transactions with the FCC and for participating in FCC programs. As of 2016, the FCC has maintained a legacy online version of CORES that does not require email address information and a new version of CORES that does require email address information.

Section 1.8002(b)(1) of the Commission’s rules lists the information currently required from entities seeking to register for an FRN. The rule is amended by the June 2021 Report and Order to require email address information as part of the registration information and will allow the FCC to retire the legacy version of CORES. Section 1.8002(b)(2) requires that the information used to register for an FRN be kept current by the registrants. Registrants that obtained their FRN through legacy CORES and have not associated a valid e-mail address with their FRN, may continue to use that FRN without an associated valid e-mail address for a limited period but will be gradually transitioned to the new system and will be required provide email address information at some point over the next (approximately) 1 to 3 years.

The Report and Order adopts a new information collection requirement subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) that had been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under section 3507(d) of the PRA and pre-approved on March 15, 2011. See Notice of Office of Management and Budget Action, FCC Form 160, OMB Control Number 3060-0917, Mar. 15, 2011; Notice of Office of Management and Budget Action, FCC Form 161, OMB Control Number 3060-0918, Mar. 15, 2011.

In addition to the new version of online CORES, the current version of the paper forms for obtaining or updating an FRN, FCC Forms 160 and 161, require filers to provide a contact e-mail address as part of the registration process. See Notice of Office of Management and Budget Action, FCC Form 160, OMB Control Number 3060-0917, Dec. 12, 2018; Notice of Office of Management and Budget Action, FCC Form 161, OMB Control Number 3060-0918, Dec. 12, 2018. See Federal Communications Commission, Justification for Nonsubstantive Change Request, FCC Form 160, OMB Control Number 3060-0917 and FCC Form 161, OMB Control Number 3060-0918, Nov.19, 2018 (date uploaded to Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget at https://www.reginfo.gov/public/).

Summary of Proposed Changes to the FCC Forms 160 (OMB 3060-0917) and 161 (OMB 3060-0918):

The FCC requests a change to the burden hours due to expected impacts from the June 2021 Report and Order. In particular, the numbers in the current version of the Supporting Statements for this collection understates the estimate of responses and respondents that on an annual basis may be required to use CORES to update their registration information to include email address information and keep it current.

Due to the changes to the FCC’s rules adopted in the Report and Order, for the FCC Form 160 (OMB 3060-0917), we estimate there to be 116,100 responses annually; and for the FCC Form 161 (OMB 3060-0918) we estimate there to be 101,200 responses annually. The rules and procedures adopted in the Report and Order will be effective 30 days after the date of publication of the summary of the Report and Order in the Federal Register. The FCC will publish the Report and Order in the Federal Register announcing the rule changes after OMB approves this non-substantive change request.

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