ICRPetitions09

SUPPORTING STATEMENT JUSTIFICATION FOR

PETITIONS FOR RULEMAKING

1. Circumstances Making Collection Of Information Necessary:

This is a request for a new information collection, which addresses the regulatory requirements governing the submission to FSIS of petitions for rulemaking.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has been delegated the authority to exercise the functions of the Secretary as provided in the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) (21 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) (21 U.S.C. 451 et seq.), and the Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA) (21 U.S.C. 1031 et seq.). These statutes mandate that FSIS protect the public by ensuring that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and properly labeled and packaged.

The Administrative Procedures Act requires that Federal agencies give interested persons the right to petition for issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule (5 U.S.C. 553 (e)).

FSIS is proposing policy and procedures for those who wish to petition the Agency to issue, amend, or repeal its regulations.

2. How, By Whom and Purpose Information Is To Be Used:

The following is a discussion of the required information collection and recordkeeping activities.

Petitions for Rulemaking

FSIS is issuing regulations to govern the submission to FSIS of petitions for rulemaking (9 CFR 392). FSIS will use the information associated with petitions to determine whether to issue, amend, or repeal its regulations.

FSIS is doing this action to supplement existing non-regulatory guidance on the submission of petitions to FSIS to consider requests to issue, amend, or repeal regulations administered by the Agency. FSIS will use the information provided to assess the merits of the petition.

There are 200 total burden hours for the information collection request relating to the development and submission of petitions for rulemaking.

3. Use Of Improved Information Technology:

Under the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, petitions and accompanying information may be submitted electronically to FSIS.

4. Efforts To Identify Duplication:

No FSIS office, USDA agency, or any other Government agency requires information relating to petitions for rulemaking with meat, poultry, and egg products regulations. There is no available information that can be used or modified.

5. Methods To Minimize Burden On Small Business Entities:

Data required of small businesses are the same as for large ones. The information collections must apply to all petitioners.

6. Consequences If Information Were Collected Less Frequently:

To conduct the information collections less frequently will reduce the effectiveness of the meat, poultry, and egg products inspection program.

7. Circumstances That Would Cause The Information Collection To Be Conducted In A Manner:

• requiring respondents to report informa­tion to the agency more often than quarterly;

• requiring respondents to prepare a writ­ten response to a collection of infor­ma­tion in fewer than 30 days after receipt of it;

• requiring respondents to submit more than an original and two copies of any docu­ment;

• requiring respondents to retain re­cords, other than health, medical, governm­ent contract, grant-in-aid, or tax records for more than three years;

• in connection with a statisti­cal sur­vey, that is not de­signed to produce valid and reli­able results that can be general­ized to the uni­verse of study;

• requiring the use of a statis­tical data classi­fication that has not been re­vie­wed and approved by OMB;

• that includes a pledge of confiden­tiali­ty that is not supported by au­thority estab­lished in statute or regu­la­tion, that is not sup­ported by dis­closure and data security policies that are consistent with the pledge, or which unneces­sarily impedes shar­ing of data with other agencies for com­patible confiden­tial use; or

• requiring respondents to submit propri­etary trade secret, or other confidential information unless the agency can demon­strate that it has instituted procedures to protect the information's confidentiality to the extent permit­ted by law.

All information collection and recordkeeping activities in this submission are consistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.6.

8. Consultation With Persons Outside The Agency:

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, FSIS embedded in its proposed rule a 60-day notice requesting comments regarding this information collection request (71 FR 11988; January 12, 2006). The Agency received no comments on the information collection request.

9. Payment or Gifts to Respondents:

Respondents will not receive any gifts or payments.

10. Confidentiality Provided To Respondents:

No assurances other than routine protection provided under the Freedom of Information Act have been provided to respondents.

11. Questions Of A Sensitive Nature:

The applicants are not asked to furnish any information of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Burden

The total burden estimate for the reporting and recordkeeping requirements associated with this information collection is 200 hours.

The Agency estimates that 5 petitioners will respond one time taking each petitioner 40 hours to develop and submit petitions for rulemaking for an annual total of 5 responses and 200 burden hours.

DEVELOPING & SUBMITTING PETITIONS FOR RULEMAKING

(9 CFR 392)

Type of Establish- Ment	No. of Respon-dents	No. of Responses per Respondent	Total Annual Responses	Time for Response in Mins.	Total Annual Time in Hours
Ests.	5	1	5	2,400	200

The cost to the respondents is estimated at $7,000 annually. The Agency estimates that it will cost respondents $35 an hour in fulfilling these paperwork and recordkeeping requirements. Respondents will spend an annual total of 200 hours and $7,000.

13. Capital and Start-up Cost and Subsequent Maintenance

There are no capital and start-up costs and subsequent maintenance burdens.

14. Annual Cost To Federal Government And Respondents:

The cost to the Federal Government for these information collection requirements is $7,000 annually. The costs arise primarily from the time spent by FSIS staff reviewing petitions. The Agency estimates a cost of $35 per hour.

15. Reasons For Changes In Burden:

There is a new information collection resulting in a program change of 200 burden hours.

16. Tabulation, Analyses And Publication Plans:

There are no plans to publish the data for statistical use.

17. OMB Approval Number Display:

FSIS will display the OMB approval number on any instructions it publishes relating to recordkeeping activities.

18. Exceptions to the Certification:

There are no exceptions to the certification. This information collection accords with the certification in item 19 of the OMB 83-I.

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