Attached is the final version with some differences with RPD about the costs defiend in A12 and not included in A13

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Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps)
Education Award Transfer Forms
OMB Control Number 3045-0136
Justification – Part A Supporting Statement 
 
This is a request for renewal of an information collection. The current information collection expires on August 31, 2026.

1. Need & Method for the Information Collection  

The National and Community Service Act as amended by the Edward M Kennedy Serve America Act, 25 U.S.C. 12501 et seq., (NCSA) establishes the National Service Trust, which is an account from which AmeriCorps pays education awards to eligible AmeriCorps participants (i.e., members) and interest on qualified student loans for AmeriCorps members during their terms of service in approved national service positions. The NCSA authorizes AmeriCorps members to transfer all or part of an education award, with limitations on who can transfer the award and who can receive the transferred award.  Respondents include AmeriCorps members who want to transfer or revoke the transfer of their education awards and transfer recipients who want to accept or rescind acceptance of the transferred education award. 

This information collection is necessary to identify when AmeriCorps members would like to transfer or revoke the transfer of their education awards, determine their eligibility to transfer the awards, determine whether the designated recipient is eligible to receive the transferred award and whether the recipient accepts the award and if they later rescind their acceptance.  

This information collection implements provisions of 42 U.S.C. 12604(f) concerning award transfers. The forms used for this information collection are the following, but only the first two are affected by the changing regulation:  
        ◦ Transfer Application Form, 
        ◦ Award Transfer Acceptance Form, 
        ◦ Award Transfer Rescind Form, and 
        ◦ Award Transfer Revoke Form.  

2. Use of the Information 

AmeriCorps uses these forms to verify members’ eligibility to request a transfer of an education award and the eligibility of the person designated to receive the transferred award, and to determine whether the person designated to receive the award accepts the award. AmeriCorps uses the information from the Award Transfer Acceptance Form to establish a Trust account for the transfer recipient. AmeriCorps uses the Award Transfer Revoke Form and Award Transfer Rescind Form to carry out members’ directions in situations where the members would like to revoke or rescind transfer of their education award.  
 
 3.  Use of Information Technology 

AmeriCorps accepts members’ and award transfer recipients’ responses electronically via the My AmeriCorps portal, AmeriCorps’ secure online member account management system. If members or award transfer recipients are unable to apply or respond on-line, they can use the hard copy forms and instructions to submit their application. 

4.  Non-Duplication

There are no other sources of information by which AmeriCorps can meet the purposes described in response to Question 2 (above).  
 
5.  Minimizing Burden on Small Businesses

This collection of information does not impact small businesses because they are not eligible to apply for or receive award transfers.  

6.  Less Frequent Collection 
 
The information is collected only at the initiation of AmeriCorps members or recipients. If this information collection were conducted less frequently, AmeriCorps would be unable to identify members who desire to and are qualified to transfer their awards or those who desire to and are qualified to accept transfer of the award in accordance with the provisions of 42 U.S.C 12604(f). 

  7.  Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines

This collection does not involve any special circumstances that would require respondents to submit multiple copies of the document, retain records, or be conducted in any other of the listed manners.  

8.  Consultation and Public Comments

AmeriCorps requested comments on this information collection as part of the proposed rule publication, at 91 Fed. Reg. 27309 (May 14, 2026), but received no comments in response. AmeriCorps also accepts input on an ongoing basis from any individual filling in the forms who would like to comment on any aspect of the form.
 
9.  Gifts or Payments

The agency is not proposing to provide any incentive (monetary or non-monetary) to potential respondents to obtain their information or to encourage respondents to provide the requested information.  

10.  Privacy and Confidentiality

Information provided by this collection will be held solely by AmeriCorps member, award transfer recipients, and AmeriCorps staff.  Confidentiality of information supplied by respondents is ensured by the Privacy Act.  A Privacy Act notice appears on the forms. 

11.  Sensitive Questions

The information collection does not include questions of a sensitive nature.

12.  Burden Estimate

The total number of respondents is 900 and includes AmeriCorps members and recipients of transferred education awards. 

The estimated respondent burdens and labor costs are shown in the following table.

Estimation of Respondent Burden
Number of respondents 
900
Responses per respondent (annually)
1
Number of responses 
900
Hours per response 
0.083333 
(5 minutes)
Total estimated hours (number of responses multiplied by hours per response)
75
Cost per hour (hourly wage) 
$66.23
Annual public burden (estimated hours multiplied by cost per hour)
$4,967

Note: The cost per hour is based on the Office of Personnel Management(OPM) General Schedule (GS) hourly rate of $48.61 for a GS-12, step 5, employee (for calendar year 2026 for the rest of the U.S.) plus the 36.25% civilian personnel full fringe benefit rate from OMB memorandum M-08-13 ($48.61 + $17.62 = $66.23, rounded to the nearest dollar).  

Annual Responses and Burden with Changes: 
  
Requested 
Program Change Due to New Statute 
Program Change Due to Agency Discretion 
Change Due to Adjustment in Agency Estimate 
Change Due to Potential Violation of the PRA 
Previously Approved 
Annual Number of Responses for this IC 
900
N/A
N/A
N/A

N/A

900
Annual IC Time Burden (Hour) 
75
N/A

N/A
N/A

N/A

75
Annual IC Cost Burden (Dollars) 
4967
N/A

N/A
4967
N/A

0


Burden per Response: 
  
Time Per Response 
Hours 
Cost Per Response 
Reporting 
5 minutes
0.0833333
5.519167
Record Keeping 
0
0
0
Third Party Disclosure 
0
0
0
Total 
5 minutes
0.08
5.52



Annual Burden: 
  
Annual Time Burden (Hours) 
Annual Cost Burden (Dollars) 
Reporting 
75
4,967.25
Record Keeping 
0
0 
Third Party Disclosure 
0 
0 
Total 
75
4,967


13. Estimated Nonrecurring Costs.

This information collection does not impose any annual cost burden on respondents, as the respondents are members and recipients of transferred education awards that may complete the forms either online or by hard copy.  No capital and start-up costs are expected. 

14. Estimated Cost to the Government

The annual cost of this information collection to AmeriCorps is $4,182.  This annual cost is salary expense for the AmeriCorps staff who assist respondents and process the requests for transfers, revocations of transfers, acceptances of transfers, and rescissions of accepted transfers. We estimate that approximately 3 staff will assist with these efforts.  We are using an average GS-12 salary, Step 10 (similar to average of NY-4/NY-3) at $55.76/hour, and average of 25 hours/staff member.  

The federal government employee salary information was obtained from OPM’s 2022 Salary Table for the Rest of the U.S. (RUS) at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2022/RUS_h.pdf and includes a 1.5 multiplier to account for the costs of benefits.  

15. Reasons for Changes

There is a change due to adjustment in agency estimate for annual cost burden because AmeriCorps had not previously accounted for the hourly cost to respondents. 

16. Publicizing Results

AmeriCorps will not publish responses to this information collection.  

17. OMB Not to Display Approval

AmeriCorps will display the expiration date of OMB’s approval. 

18. Exceptions to “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions”

There are no exceptions to the certification statement for this information collection. 

19. Surveys, Censuses, and Other Collections that Employ Statistical Methods

This request does not include surveys or censuses and does not use statistical methods.