Supporting Statement A- NSBP

Department of Transportation

Federal Highway Administration

National Scenic Byway Program (NSBP).

The Supporting Statement A

OMB Control No. 2125-XXXX

Introduction:

This is a new request. The National Scenic Byway Program was established in Title 23, Section 162 of the United States Code (U.S.C.), the NSBP is a grass-roots collaborative effort to help recognize, preserve, and enhance selected roads throughout the United States. Per 23 U.S.C. 162(b), grants and technical assistance are available to State departments of transportation (State DOT) and Indian Tribes to implement eligible projects on highways designated as National Scenic Byways, All-American Roads (collectively America’s Byways®), State scenic byways, or Indian Tribe scenic byways; and to plan, design, and develop a State or Indian Tribe scenic byway program. The purpose of the NSBP is to help recognize, preserve, and enhance selected roads throughout the United States. Eligible projects include access to recreation, byway facilities, construction, corridor management plans, highway improvements, interpretive information, marketing programs, resource protection, safety improvements, State and Indian Tribe scenic byway programs, and tourist information. Eligible projects are listed at 23 U.S.C. 162(c).

Between 1992 and 2012, FHWA awarded over $505 million in NSBP grants. In 2022, FHWA awarded approximately $21.8 million in grants to 33 projects.

Part A. Justification.

1. Circumstances that make collection of information necessary:

This information collection request would require State Departments of Transportation and Federally Recognized Indian Tribe(s) on an annual basis, to develop applications in response to the National Scenic Byway Program (NSBP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) published on grants.gov. The purpose of the information collection is to determine if the applicants’ eligibility requirements per 23 U.S.C. 162(b), have been met to further evaluate the application for award under Section E (1)-Criteria on page 26 of the NOFO. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) seeks to fund projects that advance DOT priorities outlined in the Strategic Plan. FHWA will evaluate the extent to which projects will advance at least one of the four NSBP goals of: Safety, Climate and Sustainability, Equity, and Workforce Development, Job Quality, and Wealth Creation.

2. How, by whom, and for what purpose is the information used:

This information collection request would require State Departments of Transportation and Federally Recognized Indian Tribe(s) on an annual basis, to develop applications in response to the National Scenic Byway Program (NSBP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) published on grants.gov. The information requested will be collected upon applicant submissions on grants.gov. The purpose of the collection is to determine if the applicants’ eligibility requirements have been met to further evaluate the application for award under Section E (1)-Criteria on page 26 of the NOFO.

3. Extent of automated information collection:

The information requested will be collected upon applicant submission on grants.gov. This will ease the burden on applicants emailing scanned documents or mailing documents to FHWA.

4. Efforts to identify duplication:

To the extent effort has been made to mitigate duplicate request but similar information submitted for a previous program or NOFO may not include the exact information being requested. Each grant program is different.

5. Efforts to minimize the burden on small businesses:

Not Applicable.

6. Impact of less frequent collection of information:

This information collection request would require State Departments of Transportation and Federally Recognized Indian Tribe(s) on an annual basis, to develop applications in response to the National Scenic Byway Program (NSBP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) published on grants.gov. The purpose of the information collection is to determine if the applicants’ eligibility requirements per 23 U.S.C. 162(b), have been met to further evaluate the application for award under Section E (1)-Criteria on page 26 of the NOFO. Applicants that do not submit the information requested will not be evaluated.

7. Special circumstances:

Not Applicable.

8. Compliance with 5 CFR 1320.8:

FHWA has submitted the 60-day notice to solicit comments from the public and was posted in the Federal Register on October 21, 2024, at [89 FR 84240]. There were no comments received.

FHWA published the 30-day notice into the Federal Register on December 30, 2024, at [89 FR 106728], to notify the public of FHWA’s response to any comments and submission to OMB.

9. Payments or gifts to respondents:

Not Applicable.

10. Assurance of confidentiality:

The purpose of the information collection is to determine if the applicants’ eligibility requirements per 23 U.S.C. 162(b), have been met to further evaluate the application for award under Section E (1)-Criteria on page 26 of the NOFO. The application information collected will only be used during evaluations by FHWA staff and filed on the servers.

11. Justification for collection of sensitive information:

Not Applicable.

12. Estimate of burden hours for information requested:

There is not a minimum or maximum number of applications, but historically, it is expected that the respondents will complete approximately 200 applications for an estimated total of 600 annual burden hours, at 3 hours per respondent per applicant.

Respondent	Task	No. of Respondents	Frequency of Responses	Annual Hour Burden	Average Time (hours) per Response	Total Annual Hour Burden
State Agencies, and District of Columbia	Narrative attachment to be uploaded to Grants.gov	200	Annually	300	3	600
TOTAL		200				600

13. Estimate of total annual costs to respondents:

Other than the salaries associated with the number of burden hours described in Question 12, there are no annual costs to respondents.

14. Estimate of cost to the Federal government:

Labor Group	# of Hours Each	Hourly Rate	Cost
Three (3) FHWA HQ Staff	120	$ 105.981	$ 38,152.80
Five (5) FHWA HQ Support Staff	60	$ 105.98	$ 31,794.00
Total			$ 69,946.80

It is estimated that FHWA will receive roughly 200 applications, in response to the NOFO. The hours dedicated to the labor groups will be used to reviewed for statutory eligibility requirements, by headquarters staff and headquarters support staff. Headquarters staff and support staff will also use the hours assigned to evaluate application merit criteria, attend, and support consensus meetings and, develop and support projects selection briefings.

15. Explanation of program changes or adjustments:

This is a new information collection. There are no program changes or adjustments due to the new submission.

16. Publication of results of data collection:

Applicants that have been selected for funding, will be published on the NSBP website. The information that will be published are the state the selected project is in, project name & number, brief project abstract, year it was funded, eligible project category, byway name, project sponsor(s), federal funding amount, partnering entities, and the congressional district(s).

No other information collected will be published.

17. Approval for not displaying the expiration date of OMB approval:

N/A

18. Exceptions to certification statement:

No exceptions.

1 Source: OPM Salary Table 2024. GS-14 at Step 5 x 1.4 (to assume total compensation) @ https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2024/DCB_h.pdf.