Information Collections Submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for Approval Under the Paperwork Reduction Act

The OMB regulations at 5 CFR part 1320, which implement provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13), require that interested members of the public and affected agencies have an opportunity to comment on information collection and recordkeeping activities (see 5 CFR 1320.8(d)). We are seeking clearance from the OMB to collect information in conjunction with implementation of an Evaluation Grants Pilot Program to be conducted under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (Pub. L. 101-233, as amended; December 13, 1989). The Act, Section 19 (Assessment of Progress in Wetlands Conservation), requires the Secretary of the Interior, in cooperation with the North American Wetlands Conservation Council, to: (1) Develop and implement a strategy to assist in the implementation of the Act in conserving the full complement of North American wetlands systems and species dependent on those systems, that incorporates information existing on the date of the issuance of the strategy in final form on types of wetlands habitats and species dependent on the habitats; and (2) develop and implement procedures to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of wetlands conservation projects completed under this Act. To meet this requirement, we are embarking upon an Evaluation Grants Pilot Program initative that requires the submitting, by prospective grantees, of pre-proposals and proposals that are geared specifically to project approaches that will readily provide monitoring and evaluation as an integral aspect. Current programs do not and cannot provide the data and information necessary to meet the monitoring and evaluation requirements of Section 19. Thus, we are developing a unique evaluation grants instructional handbook, which provides the basis for information collection and this request, to meet the separate needs of the initiative. At this time, we do have available for review and comment the ``Strategy For Implementing and Evaluating the Effectiveness of Wetland Conservation Projects Completed Under the NAWCA'' (Sect. 19, part 1) and the ``NAWCA Evaluation Grant Proposal Development and Review'' outline (Sect. 19, part 2), both approved by the NAWCA Council and the documents upon which the handbook will be based. The Service is requesting a three year term of approval for this information collection activity. 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. We invite your comments on: (1) Whether the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents. Title: Information Collection In Support of Grant Programs Authorized by the North American Wetlands Conservation Act of 1989 (NAWCA). Approval Number: New. Service Form Number(s): N/A. Description and Use: The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), first signed in 1986, is a tripartite agreement among Canada, Mexico and the United States to enhance, restore and otherwise protect continental wetlands to benefit waterfowl and other wetland associated wildlife through partnerships between and among the private and public sectors. Because the 1986 NAWMP did not carry with it a mechanism to provide for broadly-based and sustained financial support for wetland conservation activities, Congress passed and the President signed into law the NAWCA to fill that funding need. The purpose of NAWCA, as amended, is to use partnerships to promote long-term conservation of North American wetland ecosystems and the waterfowl and other migratory birds, fish and wildlife that depend upon such habitat. Principal conservation actions supported by NAWCA are acquisition, enhancement and restoration of wetlands and wetlands-associated habitat. As well as providing for a continuing and stable funding base, NAWCA establishes an administrative body, made up of a State representative from each of the four Flyways, three representatives from wetlands conservation organizations, the Secretary of the Board of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Director of the Service. This administrative body is chartered, under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, by the U.S. Department of the Interior as the North American Wetlands Conservation Council (Council). As such, the purpose of the Council is to recommend wetlands conservation project proposals to the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission (MBCC) for funding. Subsection (c) of Section 5 (Council Procedures) provides that the ``* * *Council shall establish practices and procedures for the carrying out of its functions under subsections (a) and (b) of this section* * *,'' which are consideration of projects and recommendations to the MBCC, respectively. The means by which the Council decides which project

proposals are important to recommend to the MBCC is through grants programs that are coordinated through the Council Coordinator's office (NAWWO) within the Service. Competing for grant funds involves applications from partnerships that describe in substantial detail project locations and other characteristics, to meet the standards established by the Council and the requirements of NAWCA. The Evaluation Grants Pilot Program will differ in the respect that it will be a two-stage process wherein successful applicants will have submitted both a pre-proposal and a proposal. Pre-proposals are intended to allow screening such that only the projects that have the greatest potential for contributing to the evaluation program will be asked to continue into the proposal stage. The Council Coordinator's office currently publishes and distributes Standard and Small Grants instructional booklets that assist the applicants in formulating project proposals for Council consideration. The handbook for this new grants evaluation initiative is an additional information collection document. The instructional booklets and other instruments, e.g., Federal Register notices on request for proposals, are the basis for this information collection request for OMB clearance. Information collected under this program is used to respond to such needs as: audits, program planning and management, program evaluation, Government Performance and Results Act reporting, Standard Form 424 (Application For Federal Assistance), grant agreements, budget reports and justifications, public and private requests for information, data provided to other programs for databases on similar programs, Congressional inquiries and reports required by NAWCA, etc. In the case of the additional Evaluation Grants Pilot Program handbook, it responds also to the statutory requirements of the Act. In summary, information collection under these programs is required to obtain a benefit, i.e., a cash reimbursable grant that is given competitively to some applicants based on eligibility and relative scale of resource values involved in the projects. The information collection is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act requirements for such activity, which includes soliciting comments from the general public regarding the nature and burden imposed by the collection. Frequency of Collection: Occasional. We intend the Evaluation Grant Pilot Program to have one project proposal submissions window per year. Description of Respondents: Households and/or individuals; business and/or other for-profit; not-for-profit institutions; farms; Federal Government; and State, local and/or Tribal governments. Estimated Completion Time: We estimate the reporting burden, or time involved in writing project submissions, to be 8 hours for a pre- proposal and 40 hours for a proposal. Number of Respondents: We estimate that 30 pre-proposals and 10 proposals will be submitted each year for the grants evaluation pilot program.

Dated: February 2, 1999. Jamie Rappaport Clark, Director, Fish and Wildlife Service. [FR Doc. 99-3419 Filed 2-10-99; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4310-55-P