SUPPORTING STATEMENT
U.S. Department of Commerce
Economic Development Administration
EDA Regional Economic Development Collection Instrument
OMB Control Number: None (new information collection)
The Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program (“Recompete”), EDA seeks to address deep economic distress across the U.S. through place-based investments in communities where the prime-age (25-54 years old) employment rate significantly trails the national average. In Phase 2 of the two-phase competition, EDA selected six “Recompete Awardees” to receive implementation funding which ranged from $20 million – $40 million per community.
The information collection proposed for the six Phase 2 Awardees is to ensure Recompete investments are evidence-based, data-driven, and accountable to participants and the public. The six Recompete Awardees will submit identified program metrics and qualitative information to help assess specific program objectives. A recurring questionnaire will be sent to each Recompete coalition lead every six months for a total of five years to gather relevant data from each of the six Recompete Awardees, resulting in community impact evaluation, resources, and tools for place-based economic development decisionmakers. The six Recompete Awardees will provide information on the following areas related to Recompete objectives:
1) Employment among prime-age individuals who interact with Recompete programming.
2) Economic distress in Recompete service areas.
3) Effectiveness of workforce development programming.
4) Effectiveness of entrepreneurship and small business supports.
5) Local economic development capacity.
JUSTIFICATION
This Supporting Statement is for a new information collection.
Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.
To effectively administer and monitor its economic development assistance programs, EDA collects certain information from recipients of EDA investment assistance. Under Recompete, award recipients are required to submit identified program metrics and information to ensure that EDA investments are evidence-based and data-driven, and accountable to participants and the public.
EDA will require information from the six Phase 2 Recompete Awardees, also known as the coalition leads. This collection instrument will provide more granular, primarily quantitative information on the current status of Recompete projects.
A recurring questionnaire and data collection tool developed with U.S. Census Bureau will be sent to each Recompete coalition lead every six months for a total of five years to gather relevant data from each of the six Recompete Awardees, resulting in community impact evaluation, resources, and tools for place-based economic development decisionmakers. The data collected, and the tools created will help evaluate the program, inform economic development practices at EDA, and pave the way for future programming. Legal authority for Recompete is provided by the Stevenson Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980, Section 29 (15 U.S.C. § 3722b).
Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used.
The information will be used by EDA to monitor and assess the current status and progress made by Recompete Awardees. The outputs will include tools, resources, and recommendations that will help inform economic development policy, economic decision-making, and best practices. In doing so, EDA will ensure that the agency’s regional investments are evidence-based and data-driven, and accountable to participants and the public.
Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
EDA plans to collect the information via electronic submissions.
Describe efforts to identify duplication.
EDA reviews new and existing information collections to ensure that there is no duplication. The information requested is unique to the information collection and is not collected elsewhere.
If the collection of information involves small businesses or other small entities, describe the methods used to minimize burden.
Pursuant to EDA’s authorizing legislation and regulations, eligible applicants and eligible recipients of EDA investment assistance include “small entities” as defined by the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C 601(6)). Accordingly, this information collection potentially involves small entities. As part of this process, EDA has conducted a thorough review of its forms and other information collections to minimize respondent burden. EDA collects only the minimum amount of information to effectively administer its programs and to monitor compliance with Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 “Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program” (15 U.S.C. 3722b) and EDA regulations.
Describe the consequences to the Federal program or policy activities if the collection is not conducted or is conducted less frequently.
EDA serves as the lead bureau for the Department of Commerce’s Strategic Objective 2.1 (“Drive equitable, resilient, place-based economic development and job growth”). If the collection is not conducted, EDA will limit its ability to monitor grant program impacts that play an important role in continuously improving EDA’s investment strategy for programs. This data collection will provide EDA with the necessary data to facilitate sound evidence-based decision making.
Explain any special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.
There are no special circumstances that would require the information collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with OMB guidelines.
Provide a copy of the PRA Federal Register Notice that solicited public comments on the information collection prior to this submission. Summarize the public comments received in response to the notice and describe the actions taken by the agency in response to those comments. Describe the efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.
On November 14, 2024, EDA published a Federal Register notice (FRN) that solicited public comments on this information collection (89 FR 89947). No public comments were received in response to the FRN that solicited public comments on this information collection.
In particular, EDA solicited reviews from persons outside the agency including from independent researchers, Department of Commerce and other Federal agency staff, and OMB staff on topics including but not limited to: (a) whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency’s estimate of the burden (including hours and cost) of the proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
Explain any decisions to provide payments or gifts to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.
No gifts or payments are made to any respondent, other than disbursements of award funds to financial assistance recipients.
Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents and the basis for assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.
While information submitted by a respondent to EDA generally is subject to public disclosure, EDA does not publicly release confidential personal or business information, including trade secrets and confidential commercial or financial information, to the extent that such information is exempt from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). See 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4). Additionally, EDA does not release information that would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. See 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6).
Provide additional justification for any question of a sensitive nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.
This information collection requests aggregated financial information regarding funds raised or received but does not collect private information. Personally identifiable information on workforce development program participants is collected securely by the U.S. Census Bureau using a tool they developed to aggregate and anonymize information with their data practices. This information is necessary to assess whether recipients of Recompete investments are producing positive outcomes for their service areas as pursuant with EDA’s Investment Priorities.
Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information.
Type
of Metric |
Number of Respondents |
Hours per Response |
Number of Responses per Year |
Total Estimated Time |
Lead Coalition Members/ Recompete Coalition |
6 |
7 |
2 |
84 hours |
Multiplying the expected number of responses by the average time to complete a response, EDA estimates the above total respondent burden.
Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to the respondents or record keepers resulting from the collection of information (excluding the value of the burden hours in Question 12 above).
Apart from the value of the burden hours, there is no additional cost to respondents associated with this information collection.
Provide estimates of annualized cost to the Federal government.
EDA estimates the total annual cost burden to the federal government to be $6,452.16 (cost assumes application of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics second quarter 2022 mean hourly employer costs for employee compensation for professional and related occupations of $62.04).
Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments.
This is a new information collection, thus there are no changes or adjustments to a prior information collection.
For collections whose collections will be published, outline the plans for tabulation and publication.
Specific details of information collected from respondents will generally not be published.
However, information collected from respondents may be published in aggregate form as part of EDA’s annual report, GPRA reporting, progress reports to the DOC and/or its OIG, or other summary reports.
If seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain the reasons that the display would be inappropriate.
EDA is not seeking approval to not display the expiration date of OMB approval for the information collections.
Explain each exception to the certification statement.
There are no exceptions to the certification statement.
COLLECTIONS OF INFORMATION EMPLOYING STATISTICAL METHODS
EDA does not employ statistical methods to collect data for this information collection.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | Supporting Statement for the Economic Development Administration’s |
| Author | jvertman |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2025-07-01 |