SCI - Supporting Statement (2)

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Information Collection:

Small Contractor Initiative

A. Justification

1. HUD is partnering with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and BusinessUSA to develop a website to advance the HUD Small Contractor Initiative. The website will be used by HUD and other federal agencies to notify small contractors for bid opportunities nationwide in one place online. Federally funded construction projects represent substantial business for small construction contractors. In particular, the variety of project sizes funded in a community by HUD can constitute a ladder of opportunities to grow construction businesses. These opportunities are made available locally by developers, property owners, public housing authorities, city agencies and others working with HUD funds. They range in scale from rehabilitation of single family homes, to neighborhood infrastructure projects, to smaller-scale residential or commercial buildings, to large commercial and mixed use facilities and residential projects involving hundreds of units. Contractors who become qualified are also able to participate in transportation, infrastructure and other federally-funded construction projects.

2. This project uses surveys to bring HUD-funded opportunities directly to the email inbox and mobile devices of all businesses that use this tool. HUD grantees will complete an online fillable form to post bid opportunities for contracts ranging in scale from rehabilitation of single family homes, to neighborhood infrastructure projects, to smaller-scale residential or commercial buildings, to large commercial and mixed use facilities and residential projects involving hundreds of units. The surveys will also inform HUD staff of future needs of Small Contractor Initiative participants. HUD grantees will be able to capture and export data from the FBOpen website for use as part of their Section 3 compliance documentation.

3. Technology applied to the collection: This information collection includes a fillable online form to improve data quality and to reduce the public reporting burden.

4. Duplication of Effort: There is no duplication of effort. Information collected is unique to each type of collection and does not duplicate any similar information or method.

5. Impact on Small Business and Small Entities: These information collections have no impact on small businesses or other entities.

6. Consequence of Less Frequent Collection: HUD staff will be less informed about the business needs of Small Contractor Initiative participants.

7. Special Circumstances for Information Collection: There are no special circumstances that would cause these information collections to be conducted inappropriately.

8. Federal Register Notice and Public Comments: A Notice was published in the Federal Register, Volume 79, page58371 on September 29, 2014, to solicit comments on the Small Contractor Initiative information collection.

9. Payment/Gifts to Respondents: No payments or gifts are provided to respondents for any of these information collections.

10. Assurances of Confidentiality: Assurance of confidentiality is neither provided nor needed for any of these information collections.

11. Questions of a Sensitive Nature: No sensitive questions are being asked for any of these information collections.

12. Estimate of Annual Burden Hours for Information Collection: The chart below outlines the burden associated with the various aspects of the Small Contractor Initiative and a breakout of the forms associated with each portion of that burden.

For the Small Contractor Initiative, the burden hours per response total 1 hour. Total burden hours are 20,000 hours.

Information Collection	Number of Respondents	Frequency of Response	Responses Per Annum	Burden Hour Per Response	Annual Burden Hours	Hourly Cost Per Response	Annual Cost
Survey Form	5,000	1	4	1	20,000	$0	$0
Total	5,000	1	4	1	20,000	$0	$0

13. Cost Burden of Information Collection: There are no start-up or additional costs to the respondents other than those reported in Item 12 above in the Burden Cost Column.

14. Annualized Cost to Federal Government: We do not estimate that there will be any additional costs to the Federal government for this information collection.

15. Changes or Adjustments to OMB Form 83-I: None.

16. Publication of Information Collection Results: Information collection results will not be published.

17. Expiration Date: The OMB approval number and date will appear on the HUD-prescribed forms.

18. Exceptions to Certification Statement: There are no exceptions to the certification statement identified in item 19.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods: There are no collections of information that employ statistical methods.