1620-NEW Citizen Academy SS_Part_A_

SUPPORTING STATEMENT – PART A

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. Need for the Information Collection

The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) has initiated a Citizens Academy, focused on participation from local community leaders. The academy will take place in local USSS field offices. Prior to participating, applicants will need to provide information as their community leadership role and provide PII so that a background investigation can be conducted to check for criminal history, open warrants, etc. The application allows for the USSS to gather the information necessary for each applicant to determine if they are eligible for participation. Authority to collect the information sought on this form is derived from Title 28 U.S.C. § 599A, 28 CFR § 0.130, and 18 U.S.C. 3056.

2. Use of the Information

This will be a new collection of information. The USSS has initiated a Citizens Academy for local community members, who will need to fill out an application to express interest and to provide PII for the USSS to initiate a background investigation for the applicants prior to participating in the class. The information will be gathered by electronic submission of the USSS Citizens Academy application to local USSS Field Offices. Applicant information will also be used to contact any applicants placed on a wait list to join future classes.

3. Use of Information Technology

All information collected will be via electronic submission. The applicant will receive a PDF form via email to complete and submit to the agency.

USSS completed a usability study on the Citizens Academy Application form. All participants were employees of the USSS Dallas Field Office in various roles assigned to the field office. Participants found the form to be easy to understand and navigate. They were confident in using the form as it was self-explanatory. Participants provided comments for improvement, recommending changing the logo at the top of the form to the modern USSS star; making all boxes capable of tabbing to the next box; to align all headings to the left; removing unnecessary white spaces; and adding the OMB control number at the top right as well as the Paperwork Reduction Act statement at the bottom of the form. USSS examined the recommendations, agreed with the changes, and updated the application. All recommendations were included in the updated application form.

4. Non-duplication

No similar data are gathered or maintained by the Agency or are available from other sources known to the Agency because the Citizens Academy is a new initiative for the USSS.

5. Burden on Small Business

All respondents are individuals, not small businesses/entities.

6. Less Frequent Collection

Collection will only occur one time per year upon initial application to the USSS requesting to participate in the USSS Citizens Academy. There would be no way to reduce the frequency or else community members would not be able to apply for the class.

7. Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines

There are no special circumstances. The information collected will be voluntary and will not be used for statistical purposes.

8. Consultation and Public Comments

In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d), a 60-day notice for public comment was published in the Federal Register on 11/17/2023 at 88 FR 80326. One comment was received during the 60-day period. The comment questioned the transparency of the federal government and the language used shows that the individual is suspicious of government activities. The comment was outside of the scope of the information collection and unrelated to the information provided in the Federal Register Notice. Additionally, a 30-day notice for public comment was published in the Federal Register on 01/30/2024 at 89 FR 5921. No comments were received during the 30-day period.

9. Gifts or Payment

The Agency will not provide payment or other forms of remuneration to respondents of its various forms of collecting feedback.

10. Confidentiality

While USSS does not provide any assurance of confidentiality, information provided by the respondents will be protected from disclosure to the extent appropriate under the applicable provisions of the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974. Personally identifying information will be collected and transmitted in accordance with the Privacy Act. However, to the extent that the information collected is Sensitive Security Information (SSI) as defined in 49 CFR part 1520, Protection of Sensitive Security Information, such information is protected from public disclosure.

The application provides a Privacy Act Statement and requests signed Consent to collect the information. Further, this collection is covered under DHS/ALL-023 – Department of Homeland Security Personnel Security Management, which is the baseline system for personnel security activities to ensure that all DHS components follow the same privacy rules for collecting and handling personnel security management records (74 FR 3084, January 16, 2009).

11. Sensitive Questions

Sensitive information such as DOB, SSN and race will be collected to allow the Secret Service to be able to complete a background investigation for each respondent requesting to participate in the Citizens Academy.

12. Respondent Burden, and its Labor Costs

1. Estimation of Respondent Burden

Each respondent will fill out one application form to show their interest in applying for the USSS Citizens Academy and to provide PII so that the Secret Service can conduct a background check on each applicant. USSS estimates that there will be 80 annual respondents that will complete the form, which will take less than 15 minutes.

There is only one application for the respondent to fill out.

Estimated Annual Reporting Burden
Type of Collection	No. of Respondents	Annual Frequency per Response	Hours per Response	Total Hours
New Information Collection	80	1	15 minutes	20

2. Labor Cost of Respondent Burden

There are no labor costs on the respondent.

13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs

No costs are anticipated.

14. Cost to the Federal Government

A class size for the Citizens Academy will be 24 participants. Upon receipt of the applications, a government employee will complete a background check on the participants of the expected class. If an average administrative employee (making $70,000) conducts background checks at the rate of 10 minutes per applicant, one employee will spend 4 hours total to process the information. Therefore, the annual costs for the Secret Service to process the information collected will be approximately $136 total.

15. Reasons for Change in Burden

This is a new collection.

16. Publication of Results

None of the information collected will be published. The information collected will only be used for security purposes and not distributed or published to the public. The information does not yield data that can be generalized to the overall population.

17. Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date

We are requesting no exemption.

18. Exceptions to "Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions"

These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.

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