81 FR 39251 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 116 (June 16, 2016)

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 116 (Thursday, June 16, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39251-39252]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-14233]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 
U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: 2017 Economic Census--Commodity Flow Survey.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0932.
    Form Number(s): CFS-1000.
    Type of Request: Reinstatement, with change, of an expired 
collection.
    Number of Respondents: 100,000.
    Average Hours per Response: 2.5.
    Burden Hours: 1,000,000.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau plans to conduct the 2017 
Commodity Flow Survey (CFS), a component of the 2017 Economic Census, 
as it is the only comprehensive source of multi-modal, system-wide data 
on the volume and pattern of goods movement in the United States. The 
CFS is conducted in partnership with the Bureau of Transportation 
Statistics (BTS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and 
Technology, U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
    The survey provides a crucial set of statistics on the value, 
weight, mode, and distance of commodities shipped by mining, 
manufacturing, wholesale, and selected retail and services 
establishments, as well as auxiliary establishments that support these 
industries. The Census Bureau will publish these shipment 
characteristics for the nation, census regions and divisions, states, 
and CFS defined geographic areas. As with the 2012 Commodity Flow 
Survey, this survey also identifies export, hazardous material, and 
temperature controlled shipments.
    The DOT views updated information on freight flows as critical to 
understanding the use, performance, and condition of the nation's 
transportation system, as well as informing transportation investments. 
Data on the movement of freight also are important for effective 
analyses of changes in regional and local economic development, safety 
issues, and environmental concerns. They also provide the private 
sector with valuable data needed for critical decision-making on a 
variety of issues including market trends, analysis, and segmentation. 
Each day, governments, businesses, and consumers make countless 
decisions about where to go, how to get there, what to ship and which 
transportation modes to use. Transportation constantly responds to 
external forces such as shifting markets, changing demographics, safety 
concerns, weather conditions, energy and environmental constraints, and 
national defense requirements. Good decisions require having the right 
information in the right form at the right time.
    The CFS provides critical data to federal, state and local 
government agencies to make a wide range of transportation investment 
decisions for developing and maintaining an efficient transportation 
infrastructure that supports economic growth and competitiveness.
    Transportation planners require the periodic benchmarks provided by 
a continuing CFS to evaluate and respond to ongoing geographic shifts 
in production and distribution centers, as well as policies such as 
``just in time delivery.''
    The 2017 CFS will be a mail-out/mail-back or electronic reporting 
sample survey of approximately 100,000 business establishments in the 
mining, manufacturing, wholesale, and selected retail and services 
industries, as well as auxiliary establishments that support these 
industries.
    The CFS is co-sponsored by the BTS and the Census Bureau, with a 
majority of funding (80 percent) provided by the BTS. In addition to 
their funding support, the BTS also provides additional technical and 
planning guidance in the development and implementation of the program.
    The CFS is the primary source of information about freight movement 
in the United States. Estimates of shipment characteristics are 
published at different levels of aggregation. The CFS produces summary 
statistics and a public use microdata file. No confidential data are 
released. The survey covers shipments from establishments in the 
mining, manufacturing, wholesale, and selected retail industries, as 
well as auxiliary establishments that support these industries. Federal 
agencies, state and local transportation planners and policy makers, 
and private sector transportation managers, analysts, and

[[Page 39252]]

researchers strongly support the conduct of the CFS.
    At the federal level, the data from the CFS are required by a 
variety of agencies to help accomplish their missions. Results from the 
CFS help promote economic development and provide for an efficient U.S. 
transportation system. The CFS enables better informed infrastructure 
investment decisions, and policies promoting public safety and 
protecting the natural environment affected by transportation.
    Users and supporters of CFS data at the federal level include:

 Federal Highway Administration
 Federal Railroad Administration
 Maritime Administration
 Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration
 Bureau of Transportation Statistics
 Bureau of Economic Analysis
 Bureau of Labor Statistics
 Federal Emergency Management Administration
 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

    One of the major uses of the CFS is by the Federal Highway 
Administration and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to incorporate the 
CFS into the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF). The CFS acts as the 
foundation of the FAF and represents almost 70% of the data used to 
construct the FAF. The FAF is used extensively by the states and 
localities to conduct freight planning.
    At the state and local levels, the information from the CFS is 
extremely valuable for economic development and transportation 
planning. The CFS data are used by many localities in responding to 
requirements contained in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st 
Century.
    Transportation planners and policy makers in special interest areas 
have also identified CFS data as critical to their decision making. For 
example, CFS data on the types and magnitude of hazardous materials 
shipped in various geographic regions are critical in evaluating and 
setting policies on the movement of hazardous materials.
    CFS data are also crucial to transportation managers, analysts, and 
researchers in the private sector. These data are used to identify 
trends in shipping activities, strength of market segments, and 
existing and potential transportation related issues requiring 
additional resources.
    The CFS has received support from a wide range of users expressing 
the need for the unique data produced by the survey.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit, Not-for-profit 
institutions.
    Frequency: Respondents provide quarterly reports over a one year 
period.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13, U.S.C., Sections 8(b), 131 and, 193; 49 
U.S.C., Section 6302.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202) 395-5806.

    Dated: June 13, 2016.
Glenna Mickelson,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-14233 Filed 6-15-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-07-P