3060-0917 Form 160_SS_11.15.21

CORES Registration Form, FCC Form 160 3060-0917 December 2021

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A. Justification:

1. Explain in detail the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary. Identify any legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. Provide a copy of the appropriate section of each statue and regulation mandating or authorizing the information collection.

Respondents use FCC Form 160 to register in the FCC’s Commission Registration System (CORES). Entities must register in CORES to do regulatory transactions with FCC, including receiving licenses, paying fees, participating in auctions, etc. Without this collection of information, FCC would not have a database of the identity and contact information of the entities it does regulatory business with.

The non-substantive changes requested here are necessary to assist the Commission in fulfilling requirements under the Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act.  In this legislation, Congress directed the FCC to “develop a process through which the Commission can collect verified data for use in [its] coverage maps from [ ] State, local, and Tribal governmental entities that are primarily responsible for mapping or tracking broadband internet access service coverage for a State, unit of local government, or Indian Tribe, as applicable.”  47 U.S.C. § 642(a)(2)(A).  The Commission must therefore authenticate that a filer purporting to submit availability data as a state, local or Tribal governmental entity is, in fact, such an entity and that the filer is authorized to act on behalf of the entity, state, unit of local government or Indian Tribe. 

The Commission will use CORES to authenticate that a particular user and FCC Registration Number (FRN) is an authorized representative of a state, local, and or Tribal governmental entities that files data under section 642(a)(2)(A). The form currently includes four categories of “Entity Type”: (1) Federal Agency; (2) Foreign Entity; (3) Private Sector; and (4) State or Local Agency. The Commission is adding a new, fifth Entity Type listed on the form for “Tribal Govt Agency.” This fifth category of Entity Type is needed to authenticate Tribal governmental entities seeking to submit information to the FCC pursuant to the Broadband DATA Act. We therefore intend to add a “Tribal Govt Agency” Entity Type to FCC Form 160 (OMB 3060-0917) and to the online version of the form.

Statutory authority for this collection of information is the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA), Public Law 104-134, Chapter 10, Section 31001.

This information collection does affect Individuals or Households. The FCC is updating the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for CORES that is covered by FCC/OMD-25, Financial Operations Information System (FOIS), Systems of Records Notice (SORN).

2. Indicate how, by whom and for what purpose the information is to be used. Except for a new collection, indicate the actual use the agency has made of the information received from the current collection.

(1) to ensure that the applicant receives any refunds due;
(2) to service public inquiries;

(3) to authenticate certain governmental entities (state, local, and Tribal agencies) seeking to submit information in other FCC systems;
(4) to comply with the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996; and
(5) to communicate with applicants for administrative matters related to their CORES account, including the confirmation of the respondent’s initial registration, and confirmation of subsequent changes to account data.

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical or other technological techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submissions of responses, and the basis for the decision for adopting this means of collection.

Most respondents complete Form 160 on line through https://appsint.fcc.gov/cores/userLogin.do Respondents may instead file the paper form downloaded from https://www.fcc.gov/file/14721/download

4. Describe efforts to identify duplication.

This information collection avoids duplication by serving as a central record of identity and contact information for regulated entities. Without it, FCC would need to collect duplicative information regarding the same entity for systems that perform licensing, fee collection, etc.

5. If the collection of information will have significant economic impacts on small businesses, organizations or other small entities, describe any methods used to minimize the burden on these entities.

The collection of information will not have significant economic impacts on small businesses, organizations or other small entities.

6. Describe the consequences to Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently, as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing the burden.

This is a one-time reporting requirement collection of information. If the collection was not conducted, then FCC would need to collect an entity’s identity and contact information separately for each regulatory interaction, such as license applications and fee payments.

7. Explain any special circumstances that would cause an information collected in a manner inconsistent with OMB’s guidelines which are stated in 5 C.F.R. § 1320.5(d)(2).

There are no special circumstances associated with this information collection that would make it inconsistent with OMB’s guidelines in 5 C.F.R. § 1320.5(d)(2).

8. Identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency’s Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) 60-day notice, required by 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8(d), soliciting comments on the information collection requirement(s) prior to submission to OMB.

The notice required by 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8(d) was published in the Federal Register on February 4, 2020 [85 FR 6179].

9. Explain any decision to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than the remuneration of contractors or grantees.

FCC will not provide any payment or gift to respondents, although the information collection is required to obtain benefits for which the respondent is qualified.

10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for the assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.

This information collection includes personally identifiable information on individuals (PII). FCC maintains a system of records notice (SORN), FCC/OMD-25, Financial Operations Information System (FOIS) to cover the collection, purposes(s), storage, safeguards, and disposal of the PII that individual respondents may submit on FCC Form 160. https://www.fcc.gov/file/11760/download

11. Provide additional justification for any questions of a sensitive nature.

There are no questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Provide estimates of the burden hours for the collection of information.

The frequency of filing is one-time reporting requirement. There are 116,100 respondents per year and 116,100 responses per year.

The average burden on respondents is approximately ten minutes (0.167 hours) based on FCC staff's knowledge and familiarity with the data that respondents are required to have to file Form 160. The annual hourly burden is calculated as follow:

116,100 responses x 0.167 hours (10 minutes) = 19,388 hours

Total Number of Respondents: 116,100

Total Number of Responses: 116,100

Total Annual Hourly Burden: 19,388 hours

The Commission estimates that respondents will use the equivalent of a senior staff person at the GS-13/Step 5 ($56.31 per hour) to complete and file FCC Form 160:

116,100 responses x 0.167 hours (ten minutes) x $56.31/hour = $1,091,738

Total “In House” Costs: $1,091,738

13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to respondents or record keepers resulting from the collection of information. Do not include the cost of any burden hours shown in items 12 and 14.

FCC projects there will be no cost burden to respondents beyond the cost of burden hours reported in Question 12. FCC has designed this information collection to be completed by respondents’ in-house staff without need for external consultants. The respondents will not need any specialized equipment to complete this information collection. The information being collected is information which the respondents already need to maintain in the normal course of their business.

14. Provide estimates of annualized costs to the Federal government.

FCC is required to operate the CORES system and maintain records of the entities it deals with regardless of whether it conducts this information collection. There is no separable annual cost to the Federal government of conducting this information collection.

15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported.

The Commission is not reporting any new adjustments/increases to this information collection. Recently, the FCC reported increases to both the total number of respondents/total annual responses from 79,922 to 116,100 (+36,178) and the total annual burden hours from 13,347 to 19,388 (+6,041) from the last substantive submission to OMB. This information was based on the total annual responses averaged over the past three years. As a result of this non-substantive change request, the Commission is not reporting any changes to the burdens and there are no costs associated with this information collection.

16. For collections of information whose results will be published, outline plans for tabulation and publication.

FCC does not plan to publish the results of this information collection.

17. If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reason that a display would be inappropriate.

The Commission seeks an exemption from the requirement to display the OMB expiration date on the form related to this information collection. The Commission will use an edition date on the form in lieu of the OMB expiration date. This will prevent the Commission from having to constantly update the expiration date on the form each time this collection is submitted to OMB for review and approval. The Commission publishes a list of all OMB-approved information collections in 47 C.F.R. 0.408 of the Commission’s rules.

18. Explain any exceptions to the statement certifying compliance with 5 C.F.R. §1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 C.F.R. § 1320.8(b)(3).

There are no exceptions to the Certification Statement.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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