03-1328. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Emergency Management Agency.

ACTION:

Notice and request for comments.

SUMMARY:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has submitted the following proposed information collection to the Office of Management and Budget for review and clearance in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3507).

Title: National Fire Department Census .

Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection.

OMB Number: 3067-0287.

Abstract: Many data products and reports exist that contain fragmented or estimated information about fire department demographics, and capabilities, but there is no single reference source today that aggregates this data to provide a complete and accurate profile of fire departments in the United States. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) receives many requests for information related to fire departments, including total number of departments, number of stations per department, population protected, apparatus and equipment status. The USFA is working to identify all fire departments in the United States to develop and populate a national database that will include information related to demographics, capabilities and activities. The database will be used by USFA to guide programmatic decisions, provide the Fire Service and the public with information about fire departments, to produce mailing lists for USFA publications and other materials. In the first year of this effort, information was collected from 16,000 fire departments leaving an estimated 17,000 fire departments still to respond.

Affected Public: Not-For-Profit Institutions, Federal Government, and State, Local or Tribal Government.

Number of Respondents: 17,000.

Estimated Time per Respondent: 25 minutes.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 7,083.

Frequency of Response: One-Time.

Comments: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on the proposed information collection to the Desk Officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503 within 30 days of the date of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information or copies of the information collection should be made to Muriel B. Anderson, Chief, Records Management Branch, Information Resources Management Division, Information Technology Services Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency, 500 C Street, SW., Room 316, Washington, DC 20472. Facsimile number [phone], or e-mail address: [e-mail].

Dated: January 10, 2003.

Edward W. Kernan,

Division Director, Information Resources Management Division, Information Technology Services Directorate.