SSA - ACF External Speaker Request Form

Administration for Children and Families External Speaker Request Form

Formative Data Collections for Program Support

0970 – 0531

Supporting Statement

Part A - Justification

May 2022

Submitted By:

Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary

Administration for Children and Families

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

4^th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20201

A1. Necessity for the Data Collection

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval of a form to be embedded on a public facing webpage for individuals and organizations to submit speaker requests for ACF leadership or subject matter experts – such as the assistant secretary, program leadership, or program staff – to participate in an external event.

Background

The President’s Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government urges federal agencies to deliver services more equitably and effectively. ACF aims to improve how external organizations or individuals request participation of ACF leadership and subject matter experts like the assistant secretary and program leadership for external events, such as speaking engagements, interviews, conference participation, and site visits. Currently, these requests are submitted in various formats that often lack details necessary for evaluating, vetting, and ultimately affirming or declining an invitation. This requires an inordinate amount of staff time chasing down crucial details regarding the request.

For the consideration of each request to be done fairly and efficiently, there must be uniformity in the information submitted for each invitation regardless of the requesting organization or individual. This electronic form will provide structure and consistency to ensure the process is fair, streamlined, and more efficient.

Legal or Administrative Requirements that Necessitate the Collection

There are no legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.

A2. Purpose of Survey and Data Collection Procedures

Overview of Purpose and Use

The purpose of this information is to streamline the process of the public submitting and ACF responding to requests for ACF leadership or subject matter experts – such as the assistant secretary, program leadership, or program staff to participate in speaking engagements, presentations, interviews, and other external events. The data will be used to review requests and inform ACF’s decisions about speaking engagements. If a speaking engagement is scheduled, the information may be used to inform correspondence, speeches, or other prepared materials associated with the request.

This proposed information collection meets the following goals of ACF’s generic clearance for formative data collections for program support (0970-0531):

• Refinement of program processes, and the development and refinement of communication systems.

Processes for Information Collection

To request the participation of ACF leadership or subject matter experts at any external event, individuals or organizational representatives can access and complete a fillable form, available on the ACF website. Once complete, the form will be submitted to the deputy assistant director for external communications and external affairs via an embedded link, by pressing a “submit” button at the bottom of the form. Details required before the form can be submitted will include:

• Name of inviting organization or individual

• 501(c)(3) status of inviting organization or individual

• Description of the organization

• Organization website

• Event name

• Event type

• Event topic

• Event description

• Dates of event

• Requested speaking date, time, and duration

• Flexibility for date/time/duration changes

• Deadline for confirmation

• Q&A duration

• Proposed speaking topic(s) and details

• Event venue including location (address, city, state)

• Audience size and makeup

• Recording or publication details

• Invited media outlets

• Identity of other invited and/or confirmed speakers

• Is this a fundraising event

• Any presentation of awards or gifts

• Promotional materials

• Open to the public or invitation only

• Events contacts

A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden

The electronic submission of this information by the requesting organization or individual will ensure the data submitted is accurate and consistent for each request. The data can be used to streamline the review and speed up the vetting process facilitating the final decision. It will also allow the data to be easily used in other formats such as spreadsheets, email, correspondence, speeches, prepared materials associated with the request.

A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

This is not a duplication of effort, but instead ACF is building off of work done by other government agencies. This type of form is already being successfully used by other officials and agencies within HHS; however, it has not yet been implemented for ACF. One such example currently in use is SAMHSA’s speaker request form.

A5. Involvement of Small Organizations

The use of this form would reduce the burden on small organizations and businesses by streamlining the request process. All required information will be collected with the initial request rather than back-and-forth efforts between ACF and the requestor. The process will be the same for all requestors regardless of the size of the organization.

A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection

The data collected would be unique to each request and less burdensome for all involved. Thus, this would be a one-time data collection.

A7. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances for the proposed data collection efforts.

A8. Federal Register Notice and Consultation

Federal Register Notice and Comments

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR Part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), ACF published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of the overarching generic clearance for formative information collection. This notice was published on November 3, 2020, (85 FR 69627), and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment period, no substantive comments were received. A subsequent notice was published on December 28, 2020 (85 FR 84343) and provided a thirty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment period, no substantive comments were received.

On January 28, 2022, ACF a notice (87 FR 4603) providing a sixty-day period related to an extension request to this umbrella clearance. No comments were received. ACF will submit a request to extend approval and publish an additional notice allowing a thirty-day period for public comment prior to July 31, 2022.

Consultation with Outside Experts

No consultations have taken place with experts outside of the project team.

A9. Tokens of Appreciation for Respondents

No tokens of appreciation for respondents are proposed for this information collection.

A10. Privacy of Respondents

Personally identifiable information will be collected for the purposes of following up with the requestor. Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

Information will not be maintained in a paper or electronic system from which data are actually or directly retrieved by an individuals’ personal identifier.

A11. Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.

A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden

Burden Estimates

This is a new process but based on the current number of requests for speaking engagements received by ACF annually, and an anticipation that an online form and streamlined will likely increase the number of requests, we have estimated about 5 responses a month and 60 per year. We estimate the form will take about 30 minutes to complete.

Cost Estimates

The cost to respondents was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job code for Community and Social services Occupations [21-0000] and wage data from May 2021, which is $25.94 per hour. To account for fringe benefits and overhead the rate was multiplied by two which is $51.88.

https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm

Instrument	Annual Number of Respondents	Total Number of Responses Per Respondent	Average Burden Hours Per Response	Annual Burden Hours	Average Hourly Wage	Total Annual Cost
Form requesting participation of ACF leadership or subject matter experts at external event	60	1	.5	30	$51.88	$1556.40

A13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers

There are no additional costs to respondents.

A14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government

The total cost for the data collection activities under this current request will be $1556.40.

A15. Change in Burden

This is for an individual information collection under the umbrella formative generic clearance for program support (0970-0531).

A16. Plan and Time Schedule for Information Collection, Tabulation and Publication

This will not involve regularly scheduled collection of data. Rather, the information collected will be on a case-by-case basis when an organization or individual submits a request for the assistant secretary to contribute to an external event by speaking, attending or other specified participation. The information submitted will be unique to each event, so there will be no need for data comparisons for one submission to another. The information submitted will not be made public, but the information may be incorporated into materials related to a public speaking event.

A17. Reasons Not to Display OMB Expiration Date

All instruments will display the expiration date for OMB approval.

A18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.

8