81 FR 75405 - Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 210 (October 31, 2016)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed information collection entitled ``Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health (UNCOVER EH).'' The purpose of the data collection is to collect information from the health department environmental health (EH) workforce to determine demographics, education/training, experience, areas of practice, and current and future needs to address emerging environmental issues.

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 210 (Monday, October 31, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 75405-75406]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-26248]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[60Day-17-17BX; Docket No. CDC-2016-0103]


Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and 
Recommendations

AGENCY: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Notice with comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part 
of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the 
utility of government information, invites the general public and other 
Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or 
continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on a proposed 
information collection entitled ``Understanding the Needs, Challenges, 
Opportunities, Vision and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health 
(UNCOVER EH).'' The purpose of the data collection is to collect 
information from the health department environmental health (EH) 
workforce to determine demographics, education/training, experience, 
areas of practice, and current and future needs to address emerging 
environmental issues.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before December 30, 
2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2016-
0103 by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
     Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review 
Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road 
NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted 
without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information 
provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to Regulations.gov.
    Please note: All public comment should be submitted through the 
Federal eRulemaking portal (Regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the 
address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To request more information on the 
proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan 
and instruments, contact the Information Collection Review Office, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-
D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of 
information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires 
Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register 
concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new 
proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of 
information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information 
collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To 
comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a 
proposed data collection as described below.
    Comments are invited on: (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 of the 
proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (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

[[Page 75406]]

technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of 
operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide 
information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial 
resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose 
or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the 
time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and 
utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, 
validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining 
information, and disclosing and providing information; to train 
personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to 
search data sources, to complete and review the collection of 
information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

Proposed Project

    Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision and 
Emerging Roles in Environmental Health (UNCOVER EH)--NEW--National 
Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    The environmental health (EH) workforce is an essential component 
of the public health workforce. According to recent health department 
surveys, EH professionals are employed at approximately 85% of local 
health departments, 81% of state health departments, and 30% of tribal 
health departments. Describing and characterizing the EH workforce is 
essential to identifying gaps in staffing, training, and ultimately 
ensuring EH professionals are prepared to meet future challenges.
    CDC seeks OMB approval for a one-time, one-year information 
collection designed to thoroughly describe the health department EH 
workforce on: (1) The current supply of EH professionals; (2) EH 
workforce demographics and professional roles; (3) gaps in current EH 
education and competencies and training needs; and (4) critical skills 
and resources needed to meet the evolving and emerging EH issues and 
challenges. This information will benefit the government and other 
entities by providing essential data to inform and support workforce 
development activities and initiatives and understand areas of practice 
and where gaps may exist in capacity to address current EH issues and 
future challenges.
    The respondent universe will be the estimated 20,000 EH 
professionals working within health departments. They will be 
enumerated and recruited by identifying a point of contact in each 
state, local, tribal, and territorial health department from whom a 
roster of EH professionals will be requested. A list of respondents and 
their business email addresses will be generated and used for 
recruitment and survey administration. Any contact information 
collected will be related to the respondents' role in the organization. 
Participation will be voluntary.
    Data will be collected one time from a census of members of the 
public health department EH workforce using a web-based survey 
instrument. The UNCOVER EH Survey will take approximately 30 minutes to 
complete per respondent, and it will take approximately 5 minutes for 
health department administrative staff to compile EH workforce names 
and email addresses into the Health Department Roster.
    There will be no cost to respondents other than their time. The 
requested time burden is 10,269 hours.

                                                            Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                                                              Average
                                                                                             Number of       Number of      burden  per    Total  burden
              Type of respondents                               Form name                   respondents   responses  per   response  (in     (in hrs.)
                                                                                                             respondent        hrs.)
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Health Department EH Administrative Staff......  Health Department Roster...............           3,231               1            5/60             269
Health Department EH Professionals.............  UNCOVER EH Survey......................          20,000               1           30/60          10,000
                                                                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Total......................................  .......................................  ..............  ..............  ..............          10,269
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Leroy A. Richardson,
Chief, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of the Associate Director for Science, Office of the 
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2016-26248 Filed 10-28-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-18-P