1660-NEW65 Program Effectiveness Recovery Supporting Statement PART A 8-3-11

8-3-11

Supporting Statement for

Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

OMB Control Number: 1660 – NEW

Title: Federal Emergency Management Agency Individual Assistance Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey

Form Number(s):

Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey, FEMA Form 007-0-20, (Formerly FEMA Form 90-149)

General Instructions

A Supporting Statement, including the text of the notice to the public required by 5 CFR 1320.5(a)(i)(iv) and its actual or estimated date of publication in the Federal Register, must accompany each request for approval of a collection of information. The Supporting Statement must be prepared in the format described below, and must contain the information specified in Section A below. If an item is not applicable, provide a brief explanation. When Item 17 or the OMB Form 83-I is checked “Yes”, Section B of the Supporting Statement must be completed. OMB reserves the right to require the submission of additional information with respect to any request for approval.

Specific Instructions

A. Justification

1. Explain the circumstances that make the collection of information necessary.

Identify any legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. Attach a copy of the appropriate section of each statute and regulation mandating or authorizing the collection of information. Provide a detailed description of the nature and source of the information to be collected.

The September 11, 1993 Executive Order 12862, “Setting Customer Service Standards”, and its March 23, 1995 Memorandum addendum, “Improving Customer Service”, requires that all Federal agencies ask their customers what is most important to them, and survey their customers to determine the kind and quality of services the customers want and their level of satisfaction with existing services. The 1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requires agencies to set missions and goals, and measure performance against them.

Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Goal 5 of the Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2008-2013 emphasizes building public trust and confidence through performance and stewardship by instilling a culture that is focused both internally and externally on customer care. FEMA’s strategies include to seek out customer feedback using a variety of mechanisms such as questionnaires and surveys and take corrective action to address any problems identified, to ensure Disability populations receive a high level of customer care, and to focus increased quality of care for all customers that emphasizes reliability, responsiveness, customer value, empathy, and competency.

2. Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used. Except for a new collection, indicate the actual use the agency has made of the information received from the current collection. Provide a detailed description of: how the information will be shared, if applicable, and for what programmatic purpose.

Individual Assistance (IA) Program Effectiveness & Recovery Surveys are managed by the Recovery Directorate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA provides, coordinates or partners with State and Local Agencies, Voluntary Agencies and private industry for direct housing, financial assistance for temporary housing and/or to repair primary homes. FEMA coordinates other disaster assistance by registering disaster survivors and referring them for other services such as loans to repair homes or business or for economic loss, for unemployment assistance, crisis counseling, food stamps, and tax assistance. While FEMA does not pay 100% of the personal property losses, FEMA does take the application for the State for this type of loss and in most disasters, FEMA processes the request for the State.

The respondents are individuals who are disaster survivors living in the US territory and registering for federal assistance for each declared disaster. After the application is received for assistance, the applicants are contacted by FEMA over the telephone to rate the customer service they received. The survey is below.

Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey, FEMA Form 007-0-20- a survey intended to improve the quality of FEMA services that measures satisfaction with FEMA information, support, interactions with FEMA, assistance and timeliness, and help in correlation with expectations and recovery.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. FEMA uses the collected information to measure customer satisfaction, to meet objectives, gauge and make improvements to increase customer satisfaction. FEMA uses the results to report to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quarterly and annually on the percent of Americans affected by a disaster or other emergency who received assistance and indicate satisfaction with the Individual Assistance.

In the field, the Federal Coordinating Officers, Individual Assistance Officers, Human Services Branch Chief, External Affairs Officer and other Program Managers use results to measure satisfaction with FEMA assistance and processes and to gain an understanding of ways to improve their service through educating and informing the public about FEMA’s assistance.

3. Describe whether, and to what extent, the collection of information involves the use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses, and the basis for the decision for adopting this means of collection. Also describe any consideration of using information technology to reduce burden.

During the process of applying for recovery assistance applicants leave their telephone number as part of their application. They are later contacted for the survey in this collection and asked to rate their satisfaction depending on what type of FEMA recovery service they recently received. They are also asked for suggestions that will help FEMA to improve. Applicants apply by phone at 1-800-621-FEMA (1-800-621-3362), (TTY 1-800-462-7585) for the speech-or hearing-impaired or apply online at www.FEMA.gov. All contact for these surveys comes from a FEMA representative calling the number the respondent has left in the application for recovery assistance after receiving assistance so that they can rate the customer services they received.

Surveys are collected while interviewing the respondent over the phone and responses are stored in a database for easy retrieval for statistical analyses and reporting. All surveys in this collection are collected via the telephone. This is a 100% electronic collection. No paper forms are submitted or used. Data is stored in a desktop application, a database. Plans are being designed for programming an electronic survey to be completed on the internet and/or over the interactive voice response telephone data collection system once funding is approved.

4. Describe efforts to identify duplication. Show specifically why any similar information already available cannot be used or modified for use for the purposes described in Item 2 above.



The information gathered in these surveys is not available from any other source.

5. If the collection of information impacts small businesses or other small entities (Item 5 of OMB Form 83-I), describe any methods used to minimize.

There is no impact from this collection of information on small businesses or other small entities.

6. Describe the consequence to Federal/FEMA program or policy activities if the collection of information is not conducted, or is conducted less frequently as well as any technical or legal obstacles to reducing burden.

If FEMA’s surveys were not conducted, the consequences would be the absence of documentation on customer satisfaction about the quality of service and the timeliness of service. The survey results serve as a vital tool for customer satisfaction and are a requirement of the FEMA Strategic Plan, the Executive Order 12682 and resulting Memorandum dated March 23, 1995 “Improving Customer Service”, as well as GPRA.

7. Explain any special circumstances that would cause an information collection to be conducted in a manner:

1. Requiring respondents to report information to the agency more

often than quarterly.



 (b) Requiring respondents to prepare a written response to a

collection of information in fewer than 30 days after receipt of it.



3. Requiring respondents to submit more than an original and two

copies of any document.



3. Requiring respondents to retain records, other than health,

medical, government contract, grant-in-aid, or tax records for more than three years.



3. 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.



 (f) Requiring the use of a statistical data classification that has not

been reviewed and approved by OMB.

 (g) 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.



 (h) 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.



The special circumstances contained in item 7 of the supporting statement are not applicable to this information collection.

8. Federal Register Notice:



 a. Provide a copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the agency’s notice soliciting comments on the information collection prior to submission to OMB. Summarize public comments received in response to that notice and describe actions taken by the agency in response to these comments. Specifically address comments received on cost and hour burden.



A 60-day Federal Register Notice inviting public comments was published on July 14, 2010, 75 FR 40847. No comments were received. See attached copy of the published notice included in this package.

A 30-day Federal Register Notice inviting public comments was published on September 28, 2010, 75 FR 59733. No comments were received. See attached copy of the published notice included in this package.

 b. Describe efforts to consult with persons outside the agency to obtain their views on the availability of data, frequency of collection, the clarity of instructions and recordkeeping, disclosure, or reporting format (if any), and on the data elements to be recorded, disclosed, or reported.

During fiscal year 2010, FEMA Recovery Directorate contracted with a consultant, Coordination and Planning Partners, to review the current collection of information for the Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey including the sampling methodology and questionnaire provided to OMB and approved in 2007. Also, research articles have been studied in an attempt to implement industry standard guidelines for the frequency of collection and the reporting format.

c. Describe consultations with representatives of those from whom information is to be obtained or those who must compile records. Consultation should occur at least once every three years, even if the collection of information activities is the same as in prior periods. There may be circumstances that may preclude consultation in a specific situation. These circumstances should be explained.

During fiscal year 2010, FEMA Recovery Directorate contracted with a consultant, Coordination and Planning Partners, to conduct focus groups with the respondents from whom the data will be collected. The respondents were members of the public who had received assistance.

9. Explain any decision to provide any payment or gift to respondents, other than remuneration of contractors or grantees.

Nominal monetary incentives may be offered to potential focus group participants. This is a standard practice in the conduct of such groups. For Focus Groups held in person, a fee of $50-75 may be offered. For On-Line Interviews, a fee of $25 may be offered. For One-on-One Interviews performed by phone, no fee will be offered.

10. Describe any assurance of confidentiality provided to respondents. Present the basis for the assurance in statute, regulation, or agency policy.



The DHS Privacy Office approved the Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA) for this information collection on December 23, 2010. A Privacy Impact Analysis (PIA) was recommended and submitted to the FEMA Privacy Office on January 7, 2011. Attached is a drafted copy of the System of Records Notice (SORN) which is currently being reviewed by DHS Privacy Office for updates. The system is covered by the existing SORN: DHS/FEMA-008 (Disaster Recovery Assistance). Attached is a drafted copy of the Privacy Act Statement which is currently being reviewed by DHS Privacy Office for each form. The status of this information remains the same as of January 2011.

11. Provide additional justification for any question of a sensitive nature (such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs and other matters that are commonly considered private). This justification should include the reasons why the agency considers the questions necessary, the specific uses to be made of the information, the explanation to be given to persons from whom the information is requested, and any steps to be taken to obtain their consent.

There is no question of a sensitive nature such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs and other matters that are commonly considered private in the surveys.

12. Provide estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information. The statement should:



 a. Indicate the number of respondents, frequency of response, annual hour burden, and an explanation of how the burden was estimated for each collection instrument (separately list each instrument and describe information as requested). Unless directed to do so, agencies should not conduct special surveys to obtain information on which to base hour burden estimates. Consultation with a sample (fewer than 10) of potential respondents is desired. If the hour burden on respondents is expected to vary widely because of differences in activity, size, or complexity, show the range of estimated hour burden, and explain the reasons for the variance. Generally, estimates should not include burden hours for customary and usual business practices.

b. If this request for approval covers more than one form, provide separate hour burden estimates for each form and aggregate the hour burdens in Item 13 of OMB Form 83-I.

c. Provide an estimate of annualized cost to respondents for the hour burdens for collections of information, identifying and using appropriate wage rate categories. NOTE: The wage-rate category for each respondent must be multiplied by 1.4 and this total should be entered in the cell for “Avg. Hourly Wage Rate”. The cost to the respondents of contracting out or paying outside parties for information collection activities should not be included here. Instead this cost should be included in Item 13.

Annual Cost to Respondents for Hour Burden

Type of Respondent	Form Name / Form Number	No. of Respon-dents	No. of Respon-ses per Respon-dent	Avg. Burden per Response (in hours)	Total Annual Burden (in hours)	Avg. Hourly Wage Rate*	Total Annual Respondent Cost
Individuals and Households	Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey/ FEMA Form 007-0-20	12,000	1	.20 (12 min.)	2400	$29.26	$70,224.00
Total		12,000			2400		$70,224.00

• * Note: The “Avg. Hourly Wage Rate” for each respondent includes a 1.4 multiplier to reflect a fully-loaded wage rate.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics website (www.bls.gov) the 2009 wage rate category for all occupations is estimated to be $20.90 * 1.4 = $29.26 per hour including the wage rate multiplier. Therefore, the estimated burden hour cost to respondents is estimated to be $70,224.00 annually.

13. Provide an estimate of the total annual cost burden to respondents or record keepers resulting from the collection of information. The cost of purchasing or contracting out information collection services should be a part of this cost burden estimate. (Do not include the cost of any hour burden shown in Items 12 and 14.)

The cost estimates should be split into two components:

a. Operation and Maintenance and purchase of services component. These estimates should take into account cost associated with generating, maintaining, and disclosing or providing information. Include descriptions of methods used to estimate major cost factors including system and technology acquisition, expected useful life of capital equipment, the discount rate(s), and the time period over which costs will be incurred.

b. Capital and Start-up-Cost should include, among other items, preparations for collecting information such as purchasing computers and software, monitoring sampling, drilling and testing equipment, and record storage facilities.

Annual Cost Burden to Respondents or Record-keepers

Data Collection Activity/Instrument	*Annual Capital Start-Up Cost (investments in overhead, equipment and other one-time expenditures)	*Annual Operations and Maintenance Cost (such as recordkeeping, technical/professional services, etc.)	Annual Non-Labor Cost (expenditures on training, travel and other resources) * See Note below	Total Annual Cost to Respondents
Total	-0-	-0-	-0-	-0-

Annual Non-Labor Cost: -0-

14. Provide estimates of annualized cost to the federal government. Also, provide a description of the method used to estimate cost, which should include quantification of hours, operational expenses (such as equipment, overhead, printing and support staff), and any other expense that would have been incurred without this collection of information. You may also aggregate cost estimates for Items 12, 13, and 14 in a single table.

Annualized Cost to Federal Government
Design and Performance of Surveys, Analysis, Reporting, Recommendations for Improvement, Survey Tool Application and Maintenance.
	# of Staff	% of Time	2011 Salary	Salary Cost for PE&R	Fully Loaded Wage Rate at 1.4 multiplier	Total Cost for Salaries including Wage Rate Multiplier of 1.4
GS 11 Customer Service Specialist Analysis of results on a per disaster basis, on a regional basis, quarterly and annually. Administration of survey sample and data.	1	35%	$60,681	$21,238	1.4	$29,733.69
GS 7 Customer Service Specialists Perform survey interviews	2	100%	$41,002	$82,004	1.4	$114,805.60
GS 11 Supervisor Customer Service Specialist Supervisory duties	1	5%	$60,681	$3,034	1.4	$4,247.67
GS 11 Customer Service Specialist Survey Tool Application	1	20%	$50,154	$10,031	1.4	$14,043.12
Sub Total - Salaries						$162,830.08
Long Distance Phone Charges	$.019581 per minute x 12 minutes average x 12,000 completes					$2,819.66
Long Distance Phone Charges	$.019581 per minute x 1.25 minutes x 60,000 attempts (average 5 attempts per complete)					$1,468.58
Language Line	$1.40 per minute x 24 minutes x 20 completed responses for languages other than Spanish					$672.00
Facilities and Overhead	Based on the portions of time used: 94 sq ft @ $56.28 per sq.ft.					$5,290.32
Sub Total Other Expenses						$10,250.56
Total						$173,080.64

• * = Federal pay table from the following locality: Dallas-Ft Worth, TX

• **= The “Avg. Hourly Wage Rate” for each respondent includes a 1.4 multiplier to reflect a fully-loaded wage rate.

 15. Explain the reasons for any program changes or adjustments reported in Items 13 or 14 of the OMB Form 83-I in a narrative form. Present the itemized changes in hour burden and cost burden according to program changes or adjustments in Table 5. Denote a program increase as a positive number, and a program decrease as a negative number.

A "Program increase" is an additional burden resulting from an federal government regulatory action or directive. (e.g., an increase in sample size or coverage, amount of information, reporting frequency, or expanded use of an existing form). This also includes previously in-use and unapproved information collections discovered during the ICB process, or during the fiscal year, which will be in use during the next fiscal year.

A "Program decrease", is a reduction in burden because of: (1) the discontinuation of an information collection; or (2) a change in an existing information collection by a Federal agency (e.g., the use of sampling (or smaller samples), a decrease in the amount of information requested (fewer questions), or a decrease in reporting frequency).

"Adjustment" denotes a change in burden hours due to factors over which the government has no control, such as population growth, or in factors which do not affect what information the government collects or c changes in the methods used to estimate burden or correction of errors in burden estimates.

Itemized Change in Annual Hour Burden

Data collection Activity/Instrument

Program Change

Program Change (New)

Difference(Rounded)

Adjustment

Adjustment (New)

Difference

Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey/ FEMA Form 007-0-20

2,208

2,400

+192

Total

2,208

2,400

+192

For the Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey, the previously approved burden hours were 2208. The current estimated annual hour burden is 2400 hours, resulting in an increase (adjustment) of 192 hours. The prior collection activity was based on 23 disasters per year. The average of the last two years increased to 30 disasters, therefore the adjustment is due to increase in average number of disasters per year.

Itemized Change in Annual Cost Burden
Data collection Activity/Instrument	Program Change	Program Change (New)	Difference	Adjustment	Adjustment (New)	Difference
Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey/ FEMA Form 007-0-20				$31,243.20	$70,224.00	+$38,980.80
Total				$31,243.20	$70,224.00	$38,980.80

For the Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey, the previously approved cost burden was $31,243.20. The current estimated annual cost burden is $70,224.00, resulting in an increase (adjustment) of $38,980.80. The prior collection activity was based on 23 disasters per year. The average of the last two years increased to 30 disasters, therefore the adjustment is due to increase in average number of disasters per year. The total cost increase of $38,980.80 is due to increase in number of disasters per year for the Program Effectiveness & Recovery Survey.

16. For collections of information whose results will be published, outline plans for tabulation and publication. Address any complex analytical techniques that will be used. Provide the time schedule for the entire project, including beginning and ending dates of the collection of information, completion of report, publication dates, and other actions.



There are no outline plans for tabulation and publication of data for this information collection.

17. If seeking approval not to display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection, explain reasons that display would be inappropriate.

A valid OMB control number is recited to the respondent over the phone by the interviewer as follows: “The following questions have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget under number 1660-NEW”.

Specifically, the methodology for this collection is to speak directly to the respondent by phone. At that time the OMB control number is read and disclosure is made by asking: “Would you volunteer to take (X) minutes to answer some questions?” If respondent says yes: “The following questions are approved by the Office of Management and Budget under number 1660-NEW. Please be assured your responses will not affect the outcome of your application for FEMA assistance.” Gathering of this information takes place only with a current information collection.

18. Explain each exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19 “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions,” of OMB Form 83-I.

 This collection does not seek exception to “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions”.

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