License for the Use of Personally Identifiable Info Supporting Statement Part A non-substantive change

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Title: License for the Use of Personally Identifiable Information Protected Under the E- Government Act 2002, Title V and the Privacy Act of 1974

OMB Control #: 2528-0297

This is a request for a non-substantive change in the above approved collection. An additional one-page form for verifying data destruction is part of the package submitted herein, and is described under A12, Hour Burden Estimate.

A. Justification

A1. Circumstances that make the collection of information necessary

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has collected and maintains personally identifiable information on tenants in public and assisted housing, the confidentiality of which is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) and Title V, subtitle A of the E-Government Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 note). HUD has shared this information on many occasions with contractors and grantees, subject to stringent requirements to protect these households from unauthorized disclosure of information. The purpose of this sharing has been to further policy-relevant research on the effectiveness of HUD programs.

HUD may, under the terms of its Routine Use Inventory (77 FR 17361), share these data with parties whom the Department has awarded contracts, grants, or service agreements. It has often shared data with contractors and grantees, but it has not until now shared data under service agreements because it has not until now proposed a legal form for effectuating such an agreement. HUD does not wish to limit access to the information to parties that have received specific funding to carry out a study through a grant or contract. Instead, the Department proposes to share the data with legitimate research organizations that have conceived policy-relevant analyses and that are able and willing to protect the data from unauthorized disclosure. The legal form for the proposed service agreement is herein called a “license.”

The Department wishes to make the data available for statistical, research, or evaluation purposes to researchers qualified and capable of research and analysis consistent with the statistical, research, or evaluation purposes for which the data were provided or are maintained, but only if the data are used and protected in accordance with the terms and condition stated in the license, upon receipt of such assurance of qualification and capability, and it is agreed by the organization requesting such information and the Department.

All data containing personally identifiable information maintained by HUD that are provided the Licensee and all information derived from that data, and all data resulting from mergers, matches, or other uses of the data provided by HUD with other data are subject to the License and are referred to in this License as subject data.

Subject data under this License may be in the form of CD-ROMs, electronic data, hard copy, etc. The Licensee may only use the subject data in a manner and to purpose consistent with the statistical, research, or evaluation purpose for which the data are maintained. All subject data that include personally identifiable information are protected under the Privacy Act and may be used only for statistical, research, or evaluation purposes consistent with the purposes for which the data was collected and or is maintained.

A2. Purpose of the Information Collection

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has collected and maintains personally identifiable information, the confidentiality of which is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) and Title V, subtitle A of the E-Government Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 note), which it intends to make available to qualified researchers.

A3. Automated, Electronic, Mechanical Data Collection of Information

A4. Identification of Duplication

There is no other source of the required information.

A5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

There is no negative impact on small business or other small entities. In fact, they will benefit from Departmental collected and maintained statistical data that they otherwise would not have access to.

A6. Consequences if the Information is Not Collected / Obstacles to Burden Reduction

If the information is not collected, the Department would not be able to enter into an agreement with the applicant. The applicant would not be able to conduct the research, and the Department and the public would lose the results of the research.

A7. Special Circumstances

None

A8. Federal Register Notice

In accordance with 5 CFR 1208.8(d) notices were published in the Federal Register on March 20, 2013 and May 28, 2013, announcing HUD’s intention to request OMB review of this data collection effort and soliciting public comments.

A9. Gifts or Payment to Respondents

None

A10. Assurances of confidentiality

None

A11. Questions of a sensitive nature

None

A12. Hour Burden Estimate

	Number of respondents	Total annual responses	Hours per response	Total hours
Applicants	12	12	1	12
Quarterly Reports	0	0	0	0
Final Reports	6	6	.25	1.5
Recordkeeping	12	36	0.5	18
Total	12	54	.58	31.5

Costs to Applicants. Estimate assumes each applicant spends about 1 person-hour to complete the application. Most of this time is invested by a professor or other senior staff person. Average hourly rate is assumed to be $50. Each applicant would incur costs equal to 1 hour x $50 = $50. Total costs to applicants, assuming 12 applicants, will equal 12 x $50= $600

Costs to Awardees. Each person having access to the data would be required to fill out and notarize an affidavit promising not to disclose the data to third parties. It is expected that on average there will be three such persons per license, paid on average at a graduate assistant level of $20 per hour. It is expected that it will take on average 10 minutes to fill out the affidavit, and 15 minutes to obtain the notarization. Notary services are priced at $20 an hour at 5 minutes per affidavit. Thus cost per awardee is 3 x 30 minutes x $20 per hour = $30. Assuming 12 awardees per year, total annual costs would be 12 x $30 = $360. This cost is listed under “Recordkeeping.”

In addition, a data file destruction form (attesting to destruction of all personally identifiable information received from HUD) must be completed at the close of the project. We have assumed 6 such close-out forms per year, requiring 0.25 hours by the project officer, at average hourly rate of $50 per hour. Total annual costs of the data file destruction form are therefore estimated to be 6 x .25 x $50 = $75. This cost is listed under “Final Report.”

A13. Costs to Respondents Resulting from Collection of Information

None.

A14. Annual Cost to the Federal Government

Estimated annual costs to the Federal government of $15,000 (approximately 250 hours of HUD staff time) will be partly or entirely offset by reduced staff time processing small contracts with the same objectives. HUD expects that the net cost of this collection to the government will not be material.

A15. Reasons for any program changes or adjustments

This submission is a new request for approval; there is no change in the burden.

A16. Plans for tabulation, analysis, and publication

Not applicable

A17. Approval to not display the OMB expiration date

Not applicable

A18. Exception to the certification statement

None

Part B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

No statistical methods will be used to study applicants for this license.