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

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Fish and Wildlife Service

Information Collections Submitted to the Office of Management and

Budget for Approval Under the Paperwork Reduction Act

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has sent the

collection of information described below to the Office of Management

and Budget (OMB) for approval under the provisions of the Paperwork

Reduction

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Act of 1995. The public may obtain copies of the specific information

collection requirements, related guidelines and explanatory material by

contacting the Service Information Collection Clearance Officer at the

address provided below.

DATES: We will consider all comments received on or before September

13, 1999. OMB has up to 60 days to approve or disapprove the

information collection but may respond after 30 days. Therefore, to

ensure maximum consideration, you must send your comments to OMB by the

above referenced date.

ADDRESSES: Send your comments and suggestions on the requirement to

Rebecca A. Mullin, Service Information Collection Clearance Officer,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MS 222--ARLSQ, 1849 C Street, NW,

Washington, DC 20240.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: To receive a copy of the information

collection request, explanatory information and related forms, contact

Rebecca A. Mullin at 703/358-2287, or electronically to

[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 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 a new

Evaluation Grants Pilot Program to be conducted under the North

American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) (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 this 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 selected prospective grantees to submit pre-proposals and

proposals that are geared specifically to project approaches that will

readily provide data for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Current

NAWCA projects do not, and cannot, provide the data and information

necessary to meet the monitoring and evaluation requirements of Section

19. We are developing a unique set of evaluation grants guidelines, or

instructions, that will provide the basis for information collection

and this request. 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 of these documents are approved by the

NAWCA Council and will be used to develop the guidelines. The Service

is requesting a 3-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.

The Service previously published a 60-day notice on the information

collections associated with this evaluation grants program (64 FR 6908)

on Thursday, February 11, 1999. The comment period expired April 12,

1999. The Service, in this notice, is requesting comment for the 30-day

period following its date of publication in the Federal Register. No

comments were provided to the Service Information Collection Officer as

a result of the February 11 notice.

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: 1018-0104. OMB emergency approval granted June 4,

1999.

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 partially fill that funding need. The purpose of NAWCA

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 periodically 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.

Applications from partnerships competing for grant funds must

describe in substantial detail project locations and other

characteristics that will meet standards established by the Council and

requirements of NAWCA. The Evaluation Grants Pilot Program will differ

in 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

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only the projects that have the greatest potential for contributing to

the evaluation program will be continued into the proposal stage. The

Council Coordinator's office currently publishes and distributes

Standard and Small Grants instructional booklets that assist applicants

in formulating project proposals for Council consideration. The

guidelines for this new grants evaluation initiative, to be contained

in the request for proposal, is an additional information collection

instrument. The guidelines and instructions 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 guidelines, the

request responds also to the statutory requirements of the Act.

In summary, information collection under this program is required

to obtain a benefit, i.e., a cash reimbursable grant that will be given

competitively to selected applicants based on eligibility and the

relative value of their projects to contribute to meaningful technical

evaluation of the success of the grants programs. 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: May 25, 1999.

Jamie Rappaport Clark,

Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.

[FR Doc. 99-20962 Filed 8-12-99; 8:45 am]

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