30_day notice

48364

Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 110 / Thursday, June 6, 2024 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau

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Agency Information Collection
Activities; Submission to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Quarterly Financial Report
(QFR) Program
The Department of Commerce 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, on or after the date of publication
of this notice. We invite the general
public and other Federal agencies to
comment on proposed, and continuing
information collections, which helps us
assess the impact of our information
collection requirements and minimize
the public’s reporting burden. Public
comments were previously requested
via the Federal Register on January 26,
2024 during a 60-day comment period.
This notice allows for an additional 30
days for public comments.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau,
Department of Commerce.
Title: Quarterly Financial Report
(QFR) Program.
OMB Control Number: 0607–0432.
Form Number(s): QFR 200 (MT), QFR
201 (MG), and QFR 300 (S).
Type of Request: Regular submission,
Request for an Extension, without
Change, of a Currently Approved
Collection.
Number of Respondents:
Form QFR 200 (MT)—4,311 per quarter
= 17,244 annually
Form QFR 201 (MG)—2,773 per quarter
= 11,092 annually
Form QFR 300 (S)—1,488 per quarter =
5,952 annually
Total 34,288 annually
Average Hours per Response:
Form QFR 200 (MT)—Average hours 3.0
Form QFR 201 (MG)—Average hours 1.2
Form QFR 300 (S)—Average hours 3.0
Burden Hours: 82,898.
Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census
Bureau requests an extension, without
change, of the Quarterly Financial
Report (QFR). The QFR program has
published up-to-date aggregate statistics
on the financial results and position of
U.S. corporations since 1947. The
program currently collects and
publishes financial data for the
manufacturing, mining, wholesale trade,
retail trade, information, and
professional and technical services
(except legal) sectors. The survey is a
principal economic indicator that
provides financial data essential to

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calculation of key U.S. government
measures of national economic
performance. The importance of this
data collection is reflected by the
granting of specific authority to conduct
the program in title 13 of the United
States Code, section 91, which requires
that financial statistics of business
operations be collected and published
quarterly. Public Law 114–72, section 2
extended the authority of the Secretary
of Commerce to conduct the QFR
program through September 30, 2030.
The survey forms used to conduct the
QFR are: QFR–200 (MT) Long Form
(manufacturing, mining, wholesale
trade, and retail trade); QFR–201 (MG)
Short Form (manufacturing); and the
QFR–300 (S) Long Form (services).
The primary purpose of the QFR is to
provide timely, accurate data on
business financial conditions for use by
Government and private-sector
organizations and individuals. The
primary public users are listed below.
These same organizations play a major
role in providing guidance, advice, and
support to the QFR program. The
primary private-sector data users are a
diverse group including universities,
financial analysts, unions, trade
associations, public libraries, banking
institutions, and U.S. and foreign
corporations.
The following is a listing of key
governmental users and short
descriptions of their respective uses of
the QFR data:
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
The BEA uses QFR data as a primary
source for current estimates of corporate
profits, taxes, and dividends for the
quarterly estimates of the Gross
Domestic Income (GDI), a component of
the National Income and Product
Accounts (NIPA). Reports emanating
from these measures are used widely by
the public and private sectors. The GDI
estimate, which must balance with the
estimate of GDP, is critical to economic
policymaking. In addition, QFR data are
merged into BEA’s database and used as
a business cycle indicator in the
‘‘Survey of Current Business.’’
Federal Reserve Board (FRB)
The FRB uses QFR data as a major
building block of the FRB’s Flow of
Funds accounts and its sole source of
consolidated nonfinancial corporate
data. The FRB uses QFR data in
briefings on conditions of financial
markets in various sectors of the
economy; to provide current insight into
sector borrowing changes; and as a
primary input to econometrics models
for industry and size analysis of
corporate finance. FRB reports are used

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widely by the Executive and Legislative
Branches for economic policymaking. In
addition, the FRB ‘‘Bulletin’’ regularly
publishes data derived from the QFR.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
The FTC uses QFR data to study the
impact and extent of ownership
concentration in the manufacturing
sector.
Small Business Administration (SBA)
The SBA uses QFR data to trace the
financial performance of small
businesses, and analyze and prepare
reports for use in loan policy,
Congressional testimony, and advice to
the administration on small versus large
company performance.
U.S. Treasury—Office of Tax Analysis
The Treasury Department’s Office of
Tax Analysis uses QFR data to
extrapolate tax-based income, on a
current basis, by industry, in order to
estimate the effect of existing and
contemplated tax law on the corporate
sector. The data are also used as a
reference source to respond to
questions, usually Congressional,
concerning industry profitability and
financial position.
Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT)
The JCT uses QFR data to respond to
congressional inquiries regarding
corporate sales, profits, financial
position, and rate of return by industry
and asset size for the purpose of drafting
or responding to proposed legislation.
Private Sector Users:
D ProQuest and Haver Analytics
D Natural Resources Defense Council
D National Retail Federation
D American Forest & Paper Association
D Oxford Information Technology
D Newspapers, trade magazines, and
researchers
Frequency: Quarterly.
Respondent’s Obligation: Mandatory.
Legal Authority: Title 13 of the United
States Code, Section 91; Public Law
114–72, Section 2.
This information collection request
may be viewed at www.reginfo.gov.
Follow the instructions to view the
Department of Commerce collections
currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be
submitted within 30 days of the
publication of this notice on the
following website www.reginfo.gov/
public/do/PRAMain. Find this
particular information collection by
selecting ‘‘Currently under 30-day
Review—Open for Public Comments’’ or
by using the search function and

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Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 110 / Thursday, June 6, 2024 / Notices
entering either the title of the collection
or the OMB Control Number 0607–0432.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of
the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs,
Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2024–12452 Filed 6–5–24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–07–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Submission to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Quarterly Survey of Public
Pensions
Census Bureau, Department of
Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of information collection,
request for comment.
AGENCY:

The Department of
Commerce, in accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of
1995, invites the general public and
other Federal agencies to comment on
proposed, and continuing information
collections, which helps us assess the
impact of our information collection
requirements and minimize the public’s
reporting burden. The purpose of this
notice is to allow for 60 days of public
comment on the proposed extension of
the Quarterly Survey of Public Pensions
prior to the submission of the
information collection request (ICR) to
OMB for approval.
DATES: To ensure consideration,
comments regarding this proposed
information collection must be received
on or before August 5, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are
invited to submit written comments by
email to [email protected].
Please reference Quarterly Survey of
Public Pensions in the subject line of
your comments. You may also submit
comments, identified by Docket Number
USBC–2024–0015, to the Federal
e-Rulemaking Portal: http://
www.regulations.gov. All comments
received are part of the public record.
No comments will be posted to http://
www.regulations.gov for public viewing
until after the comment period has
closed. Comments will generally be
posted without change. All Personally
Identifiable Information (for example,
name and address) voluntarily
submitted by the commenter may be
publicly accessible. Do not submit
Confidential Business Information or
otherwise sensitive or protected
information. You may submit

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SUMMARY:

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attachments to electronic comments in
Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF
file formats.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for additional information or
specific questions related to collection
activities should be directed to Phillip
Vidal, Chief, Pensions Statistics Branch,
Economy-Wide Statistics Division, U.S.
Census Bureau, Headquarters,
Washington, DC 20233; email:
[email protected];
301.763.1749.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract
The Census Bureau plans to request
clearance for the form necessary to
conduct the Quarterly Survey of Public
Pensions. The quarterly survey was
initiated by the Census Bureau in 1968
at the request of both the Council of
Economic Advisers and the Federal
Reserve Board.
The Quarterly Survey of Public
Pensions currently provides national
summary data on the asset holdings of
the largest pension systems of state and
local governments.
These data are used by the Federal
Reserve Board to track the public sector
portion of the Flow of Funds Accounts.
Economists and public policy analysts
use these data to assess general
economic conditions and state and local
government financial activities.
Data are collected from a panel of
defined benefit plans of the 100 largest
state and local government pension
systems as determined by their total
cash and security holdings reported in
the 2012 Census of Governments. The
defined benefit plans of these 100
largest pension systems comprise 87.2
percent of financial activity among such
entities, based on the 2012 Census of
Governments.
II. Method of Collection
Survey data are collected through the
Census Bureau’s web collection system
that enables public entities to respond
to the questionnaire via the internet.
The questionnaire is available online for
respondents to print when they choose
to mail or fax. Most respondents choose
to report their data online. In addition
to reporting current quarter data,
respondents may provide initial data for
the previous seven quarters or submit
revisions to their data submitted in the
previous seven quarters.
Data are received each quarter from 70
to 80 percent of the systems canvassed.
In those instances when we are not able
to obtain a response, we conduct followup operations using email and phone
calls. Imputations are developed for

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each of the remaining nonresponse
systems in the panel from the latest
available data.
III. Data
OMB Control Number: 0607–0143.
Form Number(s): F–10.
Type of Review: Regular submission,
Request for an Extension, without
Change, of a Currently Approved
Collection.
Affected Public: State and locally
administered public pension plans.
Estimated Number of Respondents:
100.
Estimated Time per Response: 45
minutes.
Estimated Total Annual Burden
Hours: 300.
Estimated Total Annual Cost to
Public: $0. (This is not the cost of
respondents’ time, but the indirect costs
respondents may incur for such things
as purchases of specialized software or
hardware needed to report, or
expenditures for accounting or records
maintenance services required
specifically by the collection.)
Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C. 161
and 182.
IV. Request for Comments
We are soliciting public comments to
permit the Department/Bureau to: (a)
Evaluate whether the proposed
information collection is necessary for
the proper functions of the Department,
including whether the information will
have practical utility; (b) Evaluate the
accuracy of our estimate of the time and
cost burden for this proposed collection,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (c)
Evaluate ways to enhance the quality,
utility, and clarity of the information to
be collected; and (d) Minimize the
reporting burden on those who are to
respond, including the use of automated
collection techniques or other forms of
information technology.
Comments that you submit in
response to this notice are a matter of
public record. We will include, or
summarize, each comment in our
request to OMB to approve this ICR.
Before including your address, phone
number, email address, or other
personal identifying information in your
comment, you should be aware that
your entire comment—including your
personal identifying information—may
be made publicly available at any time.
While you may ask us in your comment
to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we

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