Microsoft Word - Emergency Review Request Memo - 2026 Ebola Attestation

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Service
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC)
Atlanta GA 30341-3724

October 21, 2026

Dominic Mancini
Deputy Director
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, DC
Subject: Request for Emergency Review and Clearance

Dear Mr. Mancini:
Pursuant to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) procedures established at 5 CFR Part 1320,
Controlling Paperwork Burdens on the Public, I request that the proposed information collection project,
2026 Ebola Attestation, be processed in accordance with section 1320.13, Emergency Processing.
I have determined that this information must be collected prior to the expiration of time periods
established under Part 1320, and that this information collection is essential to reduce the risk of
importation of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the United States.
EVD is a severe illness in humans with extremely high case fatality rates. The scale of this EVD outbreak
may continue to worsen. The best strategy to control the spread of the virus to the United States is to stop
it at the source with core public health interventions, including case finding, contact tracing, and exit
screening of travelers. As part of a layered intervention strategy, the U.S. government is requiring
travelers to complete an attestation confirming they have not been present in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC) in the past 21 days before arrival in the United States.
This information collection request is asking all travelers coming to the United States from any country if
they have been in the DRC in the past 21 days. CDC’s information collection under 0920-1469 (in
support of CDC’s Order Suspending the Right to Introduce Certain Persons from Countries Where a
Quarantinable Communicable Disease Exists) is related to questions around health risk assessments and
only for travelers coming from DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan. CDC is submitting a separate information
collection package for this request because the targeted audience for these populations is very different
(i.e. travelers from DRC, South Sudan, or Uganda versus all travelers flying to the United States from
any country in the world), as are the burden estimates and the fact that the information in this request is
collected by airlines while the information collected in 0920-1469 is collected by CDC and it’s U.S.
government partners.
CDC cannot reasonably comply with the normal clearance due to the public harm that will result if
routine processing of this request is required. CDC requests authorization to use information collection
instruments for 180 days to mitigate the risk of the importation and spread of EVD in the U.S. If an
emergency approval is not granted, then the spread of Ebola to the U.S. is more likely.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
Public Health Service
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC)
Atlanta GA 30341-3724

Please provide an approval/disapproval determination of this request to collect information under an
emergency clearance by close of business October 21, 2026.
Respectfully,

Christopher Braden, M.D.
Acting Director
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious
Diseases (NCEZID)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)