2018-02615. Agency Information Collection Activities Under Review

AGENCY:

Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (“PRA”), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (“ICR”) abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) for review and comment. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected costs and burden.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before March 12, 2018.

ADDRESSES:

Comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of the information collection, including suggestions for reducing the burden, may be submitted directly to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (“OIRA”) in OMB within 30 days of the notice's publication by either of the following methods. Please identify the comments by “OMB Control No. 3038-0082.”

• By email addressed to: [e-mail] or
• By mail addressed to: the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Attention Desk Officer for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 725 17th Street NW, Washington DC 20503.

A copy of all comments submitted to OIRA should be sent to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission”) by either of the following methods. The copies should refer to “OMB Control No. 3038-0082.”

• The Agency's website, via its Comments Online process: http://comments.cftc.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments through the website.
• Mail: Secretary of the Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20581.
• Hand Delivery/Courier: Same as Mail above.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov/​. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Please submit your comments using only one method.

All comments must be submitted in English, or if not, accompanied by an English translation. Comments will be posted as received to http://www.cftc.gov. You should submit only information that you wish to make available publicly. If you wish the Commission to consider information that you believe is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, a petition for confidential treatment of the exempt information may be submitted according to the procedures established in § 145.9 of the Commission's regulations.^[1]

The Commission reserves the right, but shall have no obligation, to review, pre-screen, filter, redact, refuse or remove any or all of your submission from http://www.cftc.gov that it may deem to be inappropriate for publication, such as obscene language. All submissions that have been redacted or removed that contain comments on the merits of the ICR will be retained in the public comment file and will be considered as required under the Administrative Procedure Act and other applicable laws, and may be accessible under the Freedom of Information Act.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Christopher Ehrman, Director, Whistleblower Office, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, [phone]; email: [e-mail]; and refer to OMB Control No. 3038-0082.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Renewal for Whistleblower Provision, OMB Control Number 3038-0082. This is a request for extension of a currently approved information collection.

Abstract: 17 CFR 165.3(a) requires the submission of information to the Commission on a Form TCR. The Form TCR, “Tip, Complaint, or Referral,” and the instructions thereto, are designed to capture basic identifying information about a complainant and elicit sufficient information to determine whether the conduct alleged suggests a violation of the Commodity Exchange Act. 17 CFR 165.7(b)(1) requires the submission of information to the Commission on a Form WB-APP. The Form WB-APP, “Application for Award for Original Information Provided Pursuant to Section 23 of the Commodity Exchange Act,” and the instructions thereto, are designed to elicit sufficient information to determine whether and to what extent a claimant qualifies for a whistleblower award.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for the CFTC's regulations were published on December 30, 1981. See 46 FR 63035 (Dec. 30, 1981). The Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting comments on this collection of information was published on November 28, 2017 (82 FR 56222).

The Commission received one comment, the thrust of which was to urge that information from whistleblowers be fully evaluated before award determinations are made. The purpose of this information collection is to permit such complete evaluation of whistleblower information.

• Burden Statement: The respondent burden for this collection is estimated to be 0.5 hours per response.
• Respondents/Affected Entities: Individuals.
• Estimated Number of Respondents: 600 per year.
• Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 300 hours.
• Frequency of Collection: Once.

(Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)

Dated: February 6, 2018.

Robert N. Sidman,

Deputy Secretary of the Commission.

Footnotes

1.  17 CFR 145.9.