Att_Erma Byrd PRA Supporting Statement

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Erma Byrd Scholarship Program

1. Justification

1. Title III of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 authorizes the Secretary to award scholarships to individuals pursuing a course of study that will lead to a career in industrial health and safety occupations, including mine safety (See attachment 1).

Under the Erma Byrd Scholarship Program, individual students apply for scholarships. In order to judge all applications in a consistent manner and to reduce the time required for the review process, it is necessary to collect the appropriate information from all individual applicants by means of a uniform application form.

This is a new program; therefore, no application form currently exists.

2. The data requested is used by the Department of Education to determine eligibility for the Erma Byrd Scholarship Program. Failure to gather sufficient information on each individual applicant’s academic background would make it impossible to properly evaluate whether he or she meets the criteria that have been set for the program.

3. Applications for the Erma Byrd Scholarship Program will be submitted electronically by e-mailing the applicant information form contained in the application package to the program office. Electronic submission of applications will reduce the burden on applicants and expedite the processing of applications by the program office.

4. This information collection does not duplicate any other information collection at the Department of Education or elsewhere in the Federal government.

The legislative authorities, program regulations, and respondents covered by this information collection are unique to the Erma Byrd Scholarship Program. Because of the inherently unique programmatic characteristics, no other similar programs exist in the Department.

5. This information collection does not impact small businesses or other small entities.

6. If this information collection is not conducted, the program office will be unable to determine whether applicants meet the criteria for receiving an Erma Byrd Scholarship and will therefore be unable to award the funds as directed by legislation.

7. This information collection does not include any special circumstances.

8. A notice regarding this collection will be submitted for publication in the Federal Register. OMB will be apprised of public comments received, if any. In addition, we are consulting with other federal agencies with expertise in the area of industrial health and safety to determine eligible fields of study for scholarship support.

9. No payments or gifts are provided to respondents.

10. Each respondent is informed that his or her application is reviewed by Department of Education staff. Because this collection includes personally identifiable information, we are in the process of obtaining approval for a System of Records Notice (SORN), which will ensure the secure collection and storage of such information. Assurances of confidentiality related to this collection are covered under the SORN Privacy Act.

11. No questions of a sensitive nature are asked in this report.

12. It is estimated that the total reporting burden for this data collection is 110 hours. This includes approximately 220 respondents (110 applicants and 110 institutions), each with an estimated response time of .5 hour per respondent.

Estimated number of respondents…………………. 220

Estimated response time per respondent…………… .5 hour

Frequency of response…………………………… 1 annually

Total estimated burden hours……………………. 110 hours

The estimated annual cost burden to respondents is $1100. This includes

Approximately 110 total burden hours at a rate of $10 an hour per respondent.

13. There are no other costs to the respondent.

14. The largest portion of the Government’s cost is borne directly by the Department of Education in designing the application package, securing clearance of the package, and in collecting, aggregating, and disseminating the information. Estimated annualized cost to the Federal government is as follows:

Task	Cost	Hours	Number	Total Cost
Securing OMB approval	$40/hr	30		$1,200
Form design	$40/hr	10		$400
Logging in and review of applications by staff (.5 hour/application x 150 applications)	$40/hr	75		$3,000
Data entry and preparation of slate	$40/hr	10		$400
Staff to review and approve slate	$50/hr	5		$250
Staff to issue awards (1 hour/scholarship x 110 scholarships)	$40/hr	110		$4,400
OVERALL TOTAL				$9650

15. This is a new program. Consequently, all burden is new.

16. The Department is not planning to publish any information from this collection.

17. The application will display the expiration date for the OMB approval of the information collection as required.

18. There are no exceptions to the certification statement.

2. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Collection does not use statistical methods

Attachment 1: Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009

Provided further, That $1,000,000, to remain available until expended, shall be available to carry out a scholarship program for the purpose of increasing the skilled workforce for industrial health and safety occupations, including mine safety: Provided further, That the Secretary of Education shall identify these scholarships as ‘Erma Byrd Scholarships’: Provided further, That such scholarships shall be awarded without regard to an applicant’s prior work experience, but the Secretary shall, notwithstanding section 437 of the General Education Provisions Act and 5 U.S.C. 553, by notice in the Federal Register, establish the eligibility requirements, service obligations, payback requirements, and other program requirements similar to those specified in section 515 of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act as are necessary to implement such a program: Provided further, That such scholarship funds may be used to replace a student’s expected family contribution, but institutions accepting such scholarship funds may not use these funds to supplant existing institutional aid: Provided further, That the Secretary shall be authorized to accept contributions for such scholarships from private sources: Provided further, That these funds shall be used for scholarships for academic year 2009-2010 and may be available for scholarships in academic year 2010-2011

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