0918_ss_(final_022017)

CORES Update/Change Form, FCC Form 161 3060-0918

February 2017

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A. Justification:

Existing Information Collection Requirements:

1. FCC Form 161, “CORES Update/Change Form,” is part of the Commission’s Registration System (CORES). This form may be found at: www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form161/161.pdf.

1. Applicants/entities (respondents) use FCC Form 161 to update/change their name, address, contact representative, telephone, e-mail address, fax number, etc., which was previously entered into the CORES database.

2. The Commission uses FCC Form 161 to allow applicants and licensees doing business with the FCC to keep their account information current.

3. The Commission will also use FCC Form 161 to update/change information in the Commission’s database.

4. For businesses and individuals¹, the FCC Registration Number (FRN) is its Federal Communications Commission-issued FCC FRN. The FRN is a unique account number that is used for identification purposes only.

5. The FCC has updated FCC Form 161 to include a “personal security question,” and a “custom personal security question.”

6. The FCC has incorporated the “certification statement” and “signature line” that have comprised FCC Form 162. The addition of these two elements has not affected the various burden estimates for this collection.

7. The FCC is currently sending, by U.S. Postal Service, confirmations of CORES registrations and updates.

8. The FCC will transition to sending confirmations by e-mail where we have email addresses for the CORES registrants. This is because:

1. E-mailing confirmations instead of sending hard copies will save the FCC considerable amount of money, including labor, paper and postage.

(2) Additionally, it is more efficient to transmit confirmation electronically on a real-time base.

New Information Collection Requirements:

Restricted Use FRNs for Form 323

FRNs that are created in CORES and are used for Form 323² (Ownership Report for Commercial Broadcast Station) and Form 323-E (Ownership Report for Noncommercial Educational Broadcast Station) often do not contain the Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of the owners themselves, since these FRNs are not always created by the owners of the media stations, themselves. Therefore, it can be difficult to uniquely identify these owners without their SSNs.

Consequently, a separate option will be created in CORES to update Restricted Use FRNs (RU FRNs). The requirements are as follows:

1. Allow individuals to update the following fields:

-First Name

-Last Name

-Date of Birth

-Contact Address (Address Line 1, Address Line 2 (optional), City, State, Zip Code)

2. Do not allow individuals to update the Last 4 digits of the Social Security Number.

3. Individuals should be limited to only registering for one Restricted Use FRN. If Updating RU FRN Registration Information, this will be validated using the following info:

-Last four digits of Social Security Number

-Date of Birth

-First Name

-Last Name

On December 7, 2010, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), Amendment of Part 1 of the Commission’s Rules, Concerning Practice and Procedure, Amendment of CORES Registration System, MD Docket Number 10-234, FCC 10-192. Among other things, in this NPRM the FCC has proposed to:

(1) eliminate some of our exceptions to the requirement that entities and individuals provide their Taxpayer Identification Number (“TIN”) at the time of registration;

(2) require FRN holders to provide their e-mail addresses;

(3) give FRN holders the option to identify multiple points of contact; and

(4) require FRN holders to indicate their tax-exempt status and notify the Commission of pending bankruptcy proceedings.

All other remaining existing information collection requirements in this NPRM would stay as they are. The various burden estimates will also remain the same.

This information collection contains personally identifiable information on individuals (PII). ³

(a) The FCC maintains a system of records notice (SORN), FCC/OMD-25, Financial Operations Information System, to cover the collection, purposes(s), storage, safeguards, and disposal of the PII that individual respondents may submit on FCC Form 161. With the approval of FCC/OMD-25 on November 28, 2016, the PII in FCC/OMD-9, “Commission Registration System (CORES) has been incorporated into FCC/OMD-25, and OMD-9 is now cancelled.

(b) The FCC published this SORN last on October 6, 2016 (81 FR 69522). FCC/OMD-25 is posted on the FCC Privacy Webpage at:

http://transition.fcc.gov/omd/privacyact/records-systems.html.

3. The FCC is in the process of updating the Privacy Impact Assessment of the CORES information system. Upon completion it will replace the current CORES information system that is posted on the FCC webpage, as required by OMB Memorandum, M-03-22 (September 22, 2003). It is posted on the FCC Privacy Webpage at: http://transition.fcc.gov/omd/privacyact/Privacy_Impact_Assessment.html.

Statutory authority for this collection of information is the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996, Public Law 104-134, Chapter 10, § 31001.

2. The Commission uses the information that applicants provide on FCC Form 161 to update and/or to change their CORES information.⁴

(a) This is necessary to ensure that the Commission has accurate information to identify applicant filer and to ensure proper crediting of the transaction and money, if applicable.

(b) Applicants (respondents) may update/change their data via the FCC Internet webpage: https://apps.fcc.gov/cores.

3. Respondents may provide the information on FCC Form 161 electronically via the FCC’s webpage: https://apps.fcc.gov/cores, or respondents may continue to file the paper version of FCC Form 161.

4. There is no similar information already available. The Commission is required to obtain this information from any applicants and/or licensees doing business with the Commission.

5. In conformance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Commission is making an effort to minimize the burden on all respondents, regardless of size.

(a) The collection will have minimal impact on all respondents.

(b) The Commission has limited its collection of information to only the extent needed to identify a person or business interacting with the Government.

6. The FRN is used each time a person or entity does business with the Commission. Although this unique number is stored in the Commission’s CORES database, it is an integral part of each filing or service/benefit request. It also serves to identify the filer so as to ensure proper crediting of the transaction and money, if applicable.

7. This information is only collected to update/change data in the CORES system.

8. The Commission published a Notice in the Federal Register on December 13, 2016 (81 FR 89938), which initiated a 60-day comment period. No comments were submitted following publication of the notice.

9. Respondents will not receive any payments or gifts.

10. Consistent with the provisions of the Privacy Act, the Taxpayer Information Number, i.e., Social Security Number and/or the Employee Identification Number, will not be made available to the public. A privacy act statement is included on FCC Form 161 so that applicants (respondents) are informed of the need to obtain the information.⁵

(a) As noted in Question 1, the Commission maintains a SORN, FCC/OMD-25, Financial Operations Information System (FOIS), to cover the collection, purpose(s), storage, safeguards, and disposal of the PII that individual respondents may submit on FCC Form 161.

(b) FCC Form 161 includes a privacy statement to inform applicants (respondents) of the Commission’s need to obtain the information and the protections that the FCC has in place to protect the PII.

11. This collection does not address any private matters of a sensitive nature. In addition:

(a) The Commission assigns each applicant that registers in CORES a FCC Registration Number (FRN), as explained above.

(b) Furthermore, the Commission will redact any sensitive information before it makes FCC forms and other documents available for public inspection.

(c) The FCC has a SORN, FCC/OMD-25, Financial Operations Information System (FOIS), which covers the PII that applicants submit on FCC Form 161, as noted above.⁶

(d) Furthermore, the Commission will redact any PII submitted on this form before it makes FCC Form 161 available for public inspection.

12. The Commission estimates that:

(a) There are 80,000 respondents⁷ who are required to file FCC Form 161.

(b) The average burden on respondents is approximately ten minutes (0.167 hours) based on FCC staff's knowledge and familiarity with the availability of the data that respondents are required to have to file FCC Form 161, “CORES Registration Form:” The number of responses is calculated as one response per applicant and a one-time reporting requirement to register with the FCC).

80,000 responses x 0.167 hours = 13,360 hours

Total Number of Respondents: 80,000 (applicants)

Total Number of Responses: 80,000 responses

Total Annual Hourly Burden: 13,360 hours

The Commission estimates that respondents will use the equivalent of a senior staff person at the GS- 13/Step 5 ($51.48 per hour) to complete and file FCC Form 161:

80,000 responses x 0.167 hours (ten minutes) x $51.48/hour = $687,772.80

Total “In-House” Costs: $687,772.80

(c) As noted in Question 1, the FCC is currently sending, by U.S. Postal Services, confirmations of CORES registrations and updates. The FCC will transition to sending confirmations by email where we have email addresses for CORES registrants.

3. The FCC estimates the annual saving on in-house costs can amount to as much as $86,000.00 when the conversion is completed.

(e) Based on the most current available data, $29,000.00, or 34 percent, of this estimated saving on in-house costs is attributable to FCC Form 160, “CORES Registration Form”, and $57,000.00, or 66 percent is attributable to Form 161, “CORES Update/Changes Form”.

(f) The estimated in-house cost savings are the result of reduced systems/ infrastructure cost, postage, paper, envelopes, printing service and labor cost.

13. The Total Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping Cost Burden estimates:

(a) Total annualized capital/startup costs: $0.00

(b) Total annual costs (O&M): $0.00

(c) Total annualized cost requested: $0.00

14. There are no costs to the Federal Government:

(a) Congress requires the FCC to collect section 9 regulatory fees, which provide the major funding source for the FCC’s operating budget; and

(b) The FCC considers the costs to administer the regulatory fee program, including processing FCC Form 161, as part of its regular operations.

15. As result of revising FCC Form 161, the Commission is reporting a program changes to this submission to OMB. This revision did not result in any changes to the total number of respondents, total annual responses, or total annual burden hours.

16. The data will not be published for statistical use.

17. We are seeking continued OMB approval not to display the expiration date of OMB approval of the information collection.

(a) Once the form is printed, waiving the OMB expiration date will obviate the Commission’s need to maintain paper stocks of forms rather than destroying them away because of an outdated OMB expiration date or change our electronic forms that are available on the Internet or Right Fax system.

(b) The Commission will use an edition date in lieu of an OMB expiration date.

(c) Additionally, the Commission published all OMB-approved information collections in 47 CFR § 0.408.

18. There are no exceptions to the Certification Statement.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods:

This information collection does not employ any statistical methods.

1 The FCC has determined, upon closer examination, that most of the “individuals” who are filing FCC Form 161 are doing so in their “entrepreneurial capacity” as business owners, which exempts most of the information that they provide from personally identifiable information (PII) covered by the Privacy Act. Nonetheless, there is a system of records notice, FCC/OMD-25, Financial Operations Information System (FOIS), to cover any PII data that they may provide.

2 FCC Form 323 is covered under OMB Control Number 3060-0010, Ownership Report for Commercial Broadcast Station and FCC Form 323-E is covered under OMB Control Number 3060-0084, Ownership Report for Noncommercial Educational Broadcast Station.

3 The FCC has determined, upon closer examination, that most of the “individuals” who are filing FCC Form 161 are doing so in their “entrepreneurial capacity” as business owners, which exempts most of the information that they provide from personally identifiable information (PII) covered by the Privacy Act. Nonetheless, there is a system of records notice, FCC/OMD-25, Financial Operations Information System (FOIS), to cover any PII data that they may provide.

4 CORES provides applicants (respondents) with a CORES registration number, which the Commission uses to identify applicants and their business account information with the FCC. This number is used solely for identification purposes.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Based on actual number of responses in 2012, rounded up to thousands. This data is still accurate in this submission to OMB.

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