2023-02923. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review and Approval; Comment Request; Middle Mile Grant Program

The Department of Commerce will submit the following information collection 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. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on November 4, 2022. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.

Agency: National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Commerce.

Title: Middle Mile Grant Program.

OMB Control Number: 0660-XXXX.

Form Number(s): None.

Type of Request: New information collection.

Number of Respondents: 75.

Average Hours per Response: 33.22.

Burden Hours: 7,474.50.

Needs and Uses: With this information collection, NTIA will be able to monitor the grant recipients' spending habits and activities. In the absence of collecting this information, NTIA would fail to evaluate the grant recipients' progress toward the grant program priority areas and program goals. Moreover, without these reports, the grants could be the subject of waste, fraud, and abuse of Federal funds. Therefore, it is necessary for the Agencies to collect information using the Bi-Annual Performance Report form.

Affected Public: Grant award recipients consisting of States, political subdivisions of a State, Tribal governments, technology companies, electric utilities, utility cooperatives, public utility districts, telecommunications companies, telecommunications cooperatives, nonprofit foundations, nonprofit corporations, nonprofit institutions, nonprofit associations, regional planning councils, Native entities, economic development authorities, or any partnership of two (2) or more of these entities.

Frequency: Bi-Annually and at the end of the Period of Performance.

Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.

Legal Authority: Section 60401 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, Public Law 117-58, 135 Stat. 429 (November 15, 2021).

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 the title of the collection.

Sheleen Dumas,

Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Department of Commerce.