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Submission of Information Collection for OMB Review; Comment Request; Disclosure of Termination Information

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is requesting that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act of a collection of...

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Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

AGENCY:

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

ACTION:

Notice of request for extension of OMB approval of an information collection.

SUMMARY:

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is requesting that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act of a collection of information on the disclosure of termination information under its regulations for distress terminations and for PBGC-initiated terminations. This notice informs the public of PBGC's intent and solicits public comment on the collection of information.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before February 8, 2024.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function.

All comments received will be posted without change to PBGC's website, http://www.pbgc.gov, including any personal information provided. Do not submit comments that include any personally identifiable information or confidential business information.

( printed page 1132)

A copy of the request will be posted on PBGC's website at https://www.pbgc.gov/prac/laws-and-regulation/federal-register-notices-open-for-comment. It may also be obtained without charge by writing to the Disclosure Division ( disclosure@pbgc.gov), Office of the General Counsel of PBGC, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024-2101; or, calling 202-229-4040 during normal business hours. If you are deaf or hard of hearing or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Monica O'Donnell ( odonnell.monica@pbgc.gov), Attorney, Regulatory Affairs Division, Office of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 445 12th Street SW, Washington, DC 20024-2101, 202-229-8706. If you are deaf or hard of hearing or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1 to access telecommunications relay services.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Sections 4041 and 4042 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. 13019-1461, govern the termination of single-employer defined benefit pension plans that are subject to title IV of ERISA. A plan administrator may initiate a distress termination pursuant to section 4041(c), and PBGC may itself initiate proceedings to terminate a pension plan under section 4042 if PBGC determines that certain conditions are present. Under sections 4041 and 4042 of ERISA, upon a request by an affected party, a plan administrator must disclose information it has submitted to PBGC in connection with a distress termination filing, and a plan administrator or plan sponsor must disclose information it has submitted to PBGC in connection with a PBGC-initiated termination. The provisions also require PBGC to disclose the administrative record relating to a PBGC-initiated termination upon request by an affected party.

The existing collection of information was approved under OMB control number 1212-0065 (expires April 30, 2024). On October 27, 2023, PBGC published in the Federal Register (at 88 FR 73887) a notice informing the public of its intent to request an extension of this collection of information. No comments were received. PBGC is requesting that OMB extend approval of the collection for three years. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

PBGC estimates that approximately 30 plans will terminate as distress or PBGC-initiated terminations each year and that two participants or other affected parties of every nine distress terminations or PBGC-initiated terminations filed will annually make requests for termination information, or 2/9 of 30 (approximately 7 per year). PBGC estimates that the hour burden for each request will be about 20 hours. PBGC expects that the staff of plan administrators and sponsors will perform the work in-house and that no work will be contracted to third parties. The total annual hour burden is estimated to be 140 hours (7 plans × 20 hours), and the total annual cost burden is estimated to be $0.

Issued in Washington, DC.

Hilary Duke,

Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

[FR Doc. 2024-00188 Filed 1-8-24; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 7709-02-P

Legal Citation

Federal Register Citation

Use this for formal legal and research references to the published document.

89 FR 1131

Web Citation

Suggested Web Citation

Use this when citing the archival web version of the document.

“Submission of Information Collection for OMB Review; Comment Request; Disclosure of Termination Information,” thefederalregister.org (January 9, 2024), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2024-00188/submission-of-information-collection-for-omb-review-comment-request-disclosure-of-termination-information.