Justification for EO 14168

Non-Substantive Change Request

OMB Control Number: 2127-0006

Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS)

Date Submitted: March 25, 2025

Summary of Request

The Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is requesting a non-substantive change request to revise information collected to align with Executive Order (EO) 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. There is no change to the burden.

Description of Changes Requested

Background

NHTSA is authorized by 49 U.S.C. 30182 and 23 U.S.C. 403 to collect data on motor vehicle traffic crashes to aid in the identification of issues and the development, implementation, and evaluation of motor vehicle and highway safety countermeasures to support efforts to reduce injuries and fatalities caused by motor vehicle crashes. The FARS is a voluntary information collection of fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes. The FARS data collection started 1975 and is a census of all defined crashes involving fatalities in the country. The FARS collects data from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico under cooperative agreements. State employees extract and transcribe information from existing State files including police crash reports as well as driver license, vehicle registration, roadway classification, death certificates, toxicology, and emergency medical service reports.

Starting 2022, the element “Sex” was updated to “Sex/Gender”. This change reflected the difficulty in understanding if the crash report or other official State documents capture sex or gender. A new attribute Other (e.g., “X,” Non-Binary, Not Specified, etc.) was used when it is known the information provided refers to Gender, but a specific binary gender was not provided. There were Special Instructions added to the FARS/CRSS Coding and Validation Manual to discern the hierarchy of two or more information sources.

Revisions and Justifications

Executive Order 14168 “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” was published 1/20/25 with OIRA releasing additional guidance 2/11/25, generally specifying that a “Sex” data element should have only two attributes, “male” and “female.”

To comply with the EO, NHTSA seeks the following approvals for FARS:

• Rename data element: Change the data element from "Sex/Gender" to "Sex".

• Change "Other (e.g. "X", Non-Binary, Not Specified, etc.)" to “Not Reported”: Under the “Sex” data element, FARS removes "Other (e.g. "X", Non-Binary, Not Specified, etc.)" from files and forms. Since the data attribute "Other (e.g. "X", Non-Binary, Not Specified, etc.)" are collected at State level, to protect the data accuracy and integrity FARS is seeking permission to code it as “Not Reported”.

• Retain “Reported as Unknown”: In addition, there are also circumstances in which sex data is not available to States, in which case FARS is seeking permission to retain the “Reported as Unknown” attribute.

Once approved, FARS will collect the data element "Sex" which includes "Male", "Female", "Not Reported", and "Reported as Unknown".

Description of Changes to Burden

There is no change to the burden.

Table 1. Description of Changes

Form(s)	Type of Change	Question/Item	Requested Change
Supporting Statements: Part A	None	N/A	N/A
FARS Data Entry Form	Non-Substantive		Non-Substantive Change. Changed from "Sex/Gender" to "Sex". Removed "Other (e.g. "X", Non-Binary, Not Specified, etc.)" from files and forms. Now collect: "Sex" which includes "Male", "Female", "Not Reported", and "Reported as Unknown".