Revised Burden Increase Justification

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Generic Clearance for Usability Data Collections

OMB Control #0693-0043

Expiration date 12/31/2018

NIST is requesting an increase in the number of respondents and burden hours for this Generic Usability Data Collection. This Generic Clearance is primarily used by NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) to conduct research and survey the usability of technology related to IT Security and Public Safety Communications.

The ITL has the need to conduct an information collection that involves a nation-wide collection with public safety first responders, such as fire fighters (FF), emergency medical services (EMS), law enforcement (LE) and 9-1-1 dispatch (COMM). In order to obtain a 99% Confidence Interval (CI), the laboratory will need to reach out to a large number of respondents. The need for this widespread information collection was not anticipated and not planned at the time of the original submission of this generic collection.

In February 2012, the enactment of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act marked an unparalleled push toward next-generation technologies for public safety. The legislation contained landmark provisions for the development and build out of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), a dedicated, interoperable network for emergency responders. The Public Safety Trust Fund (PSTF) was established to support the design and implementation of the Network. The Act charged NIST with utilizing up to $300 million of PSTF allocations and until 2022 to support the development and deployment of NPSBN. NIST ITL received approval and funding in February 2018 for the completion of the information collection by December 2018. This nation-wide collection will provide FirstNet with necessary and actionable requirements directly from the first responders (Fire, EMS, Law and 911 Communications Personnel) to prioritize functionality of the quickly approaching deployment of the new network.

In order to meet our customer needs and to be in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), NIST is respectfully requesting an increase to the current ICR Annual Response allotment from 8,500 to 23,500 and the ICR Annual Hours allotment from 5,000 to 11,000. This will the administration of a new proposed information collection request for submission under this Generic Clearance. NIST will complete the collection prior to the generic clearance’s current expiration date of 12/31/2018.

NIST assures that no changes will be made to any of the individual information collection requests that have been approved for use under this OMB Control number. NIST is in the process of renewing the Generic Clearance for an additional 3 years. NIST will be requesting an increase in our current burdens to cover future collections under the upcoming renewal submission.