Letter to OMB Requesting Emergency Review

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Chief Information Officer
Washington . D.C. 20230

January 18, 2011
Mr. Alex Hunt
Chief, Information Policy Branch
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, DC 20503
Dear Mr. Hu nt:
The Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency (MBD A) requests an
emergency review of the information collection, "Minority Business Center Program:
Communication and Outreach"
One of the first executive actions President Barack Obama took upon entering office was to issue
a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government on January 21,2009 . The memorandum
elaborated on the role executive departments and agencies should play in implementing the principles
of transparency, participation, and collaboration including:

"Government should be participatory . . . Executive departments and agencies
should also solicit public input on how we can increase and improve
opportunities for public participation in Government.
Government should be collaborative. . . Executive departments and agencies
should solicit public feedback to assess and improve their level of collaboration
and to identify new opportunities for cooperation. "
In light of the President's Open Government Initiative, and the April 1,2011 , start date of the
Minority Business Center Program, MBDA proposes to undertake in-depth interviews and on­
line surveys with its stakeholders. These activities will be used to assess the quality and
effectiveness of the MBDA's collateral materials, outreach strategies, and business program
servIces.
In order to conduct the surveys and analyze the data, the survey results need to be processed and
incorporated into the launch of the new business centers. Emergency review, therefore, is
requested by January 26, 2011. Given the rapidly approaching time horizon for preparing new
program materials in support of the Minority Business Center program, it is critical that we
collect and analyze the information within the next two months . We appreciate your assistance
in this matter.

L ,f~
Diana H. Hynek
Department of Commerce
Information Collections Officer