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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 10 / Friday, January 15, 2021 / Notices

Commission will not refund any
incurred charges. Individuals who are
deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing may
also follow the proceedings by first
calling the Federal Relay Service at 1–
800–877–8339 and providing the
Service with the conference call number
and conference ID number.
Members of the public are entitled to
submit written comments; the
comments must be received in the
regional office within 30 days following
the meeting. Written comments may be
emailed to Melissa Wojnaroski at
mwojnaroski@usccr.gov.
Records generated from this meeting
may be inspected and reproduced at the
Regional Programs Unit Office, as they
become available, both before and after
the meeting. Records of the meeting will
be available via www.facadatabase.gov
under the Commission on Civil Rights,
Arkansas Advisory Committee link.
Persons interested in the work of this
Committee are directed to the
Commission’s website, http://
www.usccr.gov, or may contact the
Regional Programs Unit at the above
email or street address.
Agenda:
I. Welcome & Roll Call
III. Committee Discussion: Civil Rights
Topics in Arkansas
IV. Next Steps
V. Public Comment
VI. Adjournment
Dated: January 11, 2021.
David Mussatt,
Supervisory Chief, Regional Programs Unit.
[FR Doc. 2021–00804 Filed 1–14–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6335–01–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Submission to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Small Business Pulse Survey
The Department of Commerce will
submit the following non-substantive
change request to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
review and clearance in accordance
with the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995, on or after the date of publication
of this notice. We invite the general
public and other Federal agencies to
comment on proposed, and continuing
information collections, which helps us
assess the impact of our information
collection requirements and minimize
the public’s reporting burden.
Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.

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Title: Small Business Pulse Survey.
OMB Control Number: 0607–1014.
Form Number(s): None.
Type of Request: Regular Submission,
Non-substantive change of a Currently
Approved Collection.
Number of Respondents: 738,000 (We
anticipate receiving 20,500 responses
per week for up to 36 weeks of
collection each year).
Average Hours per Response: 6
minutes.
Burden Hours: 73,920 (73,800 + 120
hours for cognitive testing).
Needs and Uses: During the month of
November 2020, the Office of
Management and Budget authorized
clearance of an Information Collection
Request (ICR) to the U.S. Department of
Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau to
conduct a Phase 3 of the Small Business
Pulse Survey. The clearance enabled the
Census Bureau to continue collecting
urgently needed data on the experiences
of American small businesses as the
coronavirus pandemic prompted
business and school closures and
widespread stay-at-home orders. This
Census Bureau now seeks approval of a
non-substantive change request to
conduct Phase 3, Cycle 2 of the Small
Business Pulse Survey which will occur
over 9 weeks stating February 8, 2021.
The continuation of the Small
Business Pulse Survey is responsive to
stakeholder requests for high frequency
data that measure the effect of changing
business conditions during the
Coronavirus pandemic on small
businesses. While the ongoing monthly
and quarterly economic indicator
programs provide estimates of dollar
volume outputs for employer businesses
of all size, the Small Business Pulse
Survey captures the effects of the
pandemic on operations and finances of
small, single location employer
businesses. As the pandemic continues,
the Census Bureau is best poised to
collect this information from a large and
diverse sample of small businesses.
It is hard to predict when a shock will
result in economic activity changing at
a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly
frequency. Early in the pandemic,
federal, state, and local policies were
moving quickly so it made sense to have
a weekly collection. The problem is that
while we are in the moment, we cannot
accurately forecast the likelihood of
policy action. In addition, we are not
able to forecast a change in the
underlying cause of policy actions: the
effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on
the economy. We cannot predict
changes in the severity of the pandemic
(e.g., will it worsen in flu season?) nor
future developments that will alleviate
the pandemic (e.g., vaccines or

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treatments). In a period of such high
uncertainty, the impossibility of
forecasting these inflection points
underscores the benefits of having a
weekly survey. For these reasons, the
Census Bureau will proceed with a
weekly collection.
For the purposes of referencing prior
ICRs, we refer to the initial approval by
OMB to conduct the Small Business
Pulse Survey as ‘‘Phase 1’’ (April–June
2020), the approval as ‘‘Phase 2’’
(August—October 2020), and the third
approval as ‘‘Phase 3’’, which started in
November 2020.
Phase 1 of the Small Business Pulse
Survey was launched on April 26, 2020
as an effort to produce and disseminate
high-frequency, geographic- and
industry-detailed experimental data
about the economic conditions of small
businesses as they experience the
coronavirus pandemic. It is a rapid
response endeavor that leverages the
resources of the federal statistical
system to address emergent data needs.
Given the rapidly changing dynamics of
this situation for American small
businesses, the Small Business Pulse
Survey has been successful in meeting
an acute need for information on
changes in revenues, business closings,
employment and hours worked,
disruptions to supply chains, and
expectations for future operations. In
addition, the Small Business Pulse
Survey provided important estimates of
federal program uptake to key survey
stakeholders.
In Phase 1, the Census Bureau worked
in collaboration with the Bureau of
Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor
Statistics, Federal Reserve Board,
International Trade Administration,
Minority Business Development
Agency, and the Small Business
Administration to develop
questionnaire content. Subsequently,
the Census Bureau was approached by
Bureau of Transportation Statistics,
National Telecommunications and
Information Administration, and the
Office of Tax Analysis with requests to
include additional content to the Small
Business Pulse Survey for Phase 2.
Understanding that information needs
are changing as the pandemic continues,
the Census Bureau proposed a revised
questionnaire to ensure that the data
collected continue to be relevant and
broadly useful. Also, in Phase 2, the
Census Bureau refined its strategies for
contacting businesses in a clear and
effective manner while motivating their
continued participation.
Anticipating that businesses will
continue to be affected by the pandemic,
and as new developments are expected
this year (including the continuation of

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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 10 / Friday, January 15, 2021 / Notices
government assistance programs that
target small businesses; policy shifts
including the loosening or tightening of
restrictions on businesses or customers;
changing weather or seasons on
businesses that rely on serving
customers outdoors; and new research,
vaccines, and/or medications or
treatments for the coronavirus), the
Census Bureau moved forward with a
Phase 3 cycle 1 and proposes moving
forward with Phase 3 cycle 2 as
described in this ICR. The questionnaire
used in Phase 2 and Phase 3 cycle 1 will
continue to be used in this Phase 3 cycle
2. Acknowledging that circumstances
may evolve, and information needs on
specific topics may intensify, change, or
diminish over time, the Census Bureau
may propose revisions to the
questionnaire via the Non-Substantive
Change process. These plans also will
be made available for public comment
through notice in the Federal Register.
In Phase 3 cycle 1 of the Small
Business Pulse Survey, we continued
collaborating with other federal agencies
to produce near real-time experimental
data to understand how changes due to
the response to the COVID–19 pandemic
are affecting American small businesses
and the U.S. economy.
The Phase 3 cycle 1 survey carried
forward questionnaire content from
Phase 2. Content had been provided by
the Census Bureau, Small Business
Administration, Federal Reserve Board,
Minority Business Development
Agency, Office of Tax Analysis, Bureau
of Transportation Statistics, National
Telecommunications and Information
Administration, and International Trade
Administration. Domains include
business closings, changes in
employment and hours, disruptions to
supply chain, changes in capacity,
finances, and expectations for future
operations.
The Phase 3 cycle 2 survey will
modify the questionnaire content to
capture information on concepts such as
business closings, changes in revenue,
changes in employment and hours,
disruptions to supply chain, operating
capacity factors, and expectations for
future operations. These economic data
will be used to understand how changes
due to the response to the COVID–19
pandemic have and continue to affect
American businesses and the U.S.
economy.
The historical circumstances of the
pandemic and uncertainty about how it
may or may not continue to affect
businesses over the period of Phase 3
drives the need for flexibility in Phase
3 of the SBPS.
If required, the Census Bureau would
seek approval from OMB through the

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Non-Substantive Change Request
Process to revise, remove or add
questionnaire content during this phase
to remain relevant in guiding the
nation’s response and recovery.
All results from the Small Business
Pulse Survey will continue to be
disseminated as U.S. Census Bureau
Experimental Data Products (https://
portal.census.gov/pulse/data/). This and
additional information on the Small
Business Pulse Survey are available to
the public on census.gov.
Affected Public: Business or other forprofit organizations.
Frequency: Small business will be
selected once to participate in a 6minute survey.
Respondent’s Obligation: Voluntary.
Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C.,
Sections 131 and 182.
This information collection request
may be viewed at www.reginfo.gov.
Follow the instructions to view the
Department of Commerce collections
currently under review by OMB.
Written comments and
recommendations for the proposed
information collection should be
submitted within 30 days of the
publication of this notice on the
following website www.reginfo.gov/
public/do/PRAMain. Find this
particular information collection by
selecting ‘‘Currently under 30-day
Review—Open for Public Comments’’ or
by using the search function and
entering either the title of the collection
or the OMB Control Number 0607–1014.
Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of
the Chief Information Officer, Commerce
Department.
[FR Doc. 2021–00851 Filed 1–14–21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510–07–P

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Census Bureau
Agency Information Collection
Activities; Submission to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) for
Review and Approval; Comment
Request; Quarterly Summary of State
& Local Government Tax Revenues
Census Bureau, Commerce.
Notice of Information
Collection, request for comment.

AGENCY:
ACTION:

SUMMARY: The Department of
Commerce, in accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of
1995, invites the general public and
other Federal agencies to comment on
proposed, and continuing information
collections, which helps us assess the

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impact of our information collection
requirements and minimize the public’s
reporting burden. The purpose of this
notice is to allow for 60 days of public
comment on the proposed revisions of
the Quarterly Summary of State & Local
Government Tax Revenues, prior to the
submission of the information collection
request (ICR) to OMB for approval.
DATES: To ensure consideration,
comments regarding this proposed
information collection must be received
on or before March 16, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are
invited to submit written comments by
email to Thomas.J.Smith@census.gov.
Please reference Quarterly Summary of
State & Local Government Tax Revenues
in the subject line of your comments.
You may also submit comments,
identified by Docket Number USBC–
2020–0035, to the Federal e-Rulemaking
Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. All
comments received are part of the
public record. No comments will be
posted to http://www.regulations.gov for
public viewing until after the comment
period has closed. Comments will
generally be posted without change. All
Personally Identifiable Information (for
example, name and address) voluntarily
submitted by the commenter may be
publicly accessible. Do not submit
Confidential Business Information or
otherwise sensitive or protected
information. You may submit
attachments to electronic comments in
Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF
file formats.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for additional information or
specific questions related to collection
activities should be directed to Kristina
Pasquino-Frates, Chief, State Finance
and Tax Statistics Branch, EconomyWide Statistics Division, U.S. Census
Bureau, Headquarters, 5K071,
Washington, DC 20233; email:
Kristina.marie.pasquino.frates@
census.gov, by phone: 301–763–5034.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Abstract
The Census Bureau conducts the
Quarterly Summary of State and Local
Government Tax Revenue, using the F–
71 (Quarterly Survey of Property Tax
Collections), F–72 (Quarterly Survey of
State Tax Collections), and F–73
(Quarterly Survey of Non-Property
Taxes) forms. The Quarterly Summary
of State and Local Government Tax
Revenue provides quarterly estimates of
state and local government tax revenue
at the national level, as well as detailed
tax revenue data for individual states.
The information contained in this
survey is the most current information

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