2020-10466. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for Review and Approval; Comment Request; Technology Letter of Explanation

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 2/6/2020 during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.

Agency: Bureau of Industry and Security.

Title: Technology Letter of Explanation.

OMB Control Number: 0694-0047.

Form Number(s): None.

Type of Request: Regular submission, extension of a current information collection.

Number of Respondents: 6,283.

Average Hours per Response: 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Burden Hours: 9,416.

Needs and Uses: The collection is necessary as export licensing officers must make decisions on licensing the export of United States commodities and technical data to foreign countries. When an export involves certain technical data or knowhow described in the Export Administration Regulation, additional information is required to fully understand the transaction and make a licensing decision. The additional information is necessary to evaluate technology exports as covered under this collection. Under certain circumstances, the export of technology requires additional safeguards to insure that advanced U.S. knowhow is not permitted to end up in the wrong hands. The letter of assurance puts the consignee on notice that the technology is subject to U.S. export controls and causes the consignee to certify that it will not release the data or the direct product of the data to certain specified countries; thus providing assurance that U.S. national security data will be safeguarded.

Affected Public: Business or other for-profit organizations.

Frequency: On occasion.

Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.

Legal Authority: Export Control Reform Act 4812(b) and 4814(b)(1)(B).

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 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 0694-0047.

Sheleen Dumas,

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