Comment on FR Doc # 2010-22705

Greetings, Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I am employed at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the San Francisco Bay Area, and also represent California’s Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs), serving as the group moderator for the current year. In reading the proposed guidance for the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, MTC and California’s RTPAs would like to include the following comments: • Much of the OMB requested information in available via other federal DOT databases; • OMB should continue to work with other federal agencies to identify which information is already being collected, and identify which information is missing; • Information that is missing could potentially be included in those databases, and collected at the same time as the information needed for the other federal agency; • States and local agencies are glad to provide information that is not already being reported; • We encourage the reduction of duplication of effort, reduction cost to taxpayers, and streamlining the information collection by reducing the number of agencies OMB needs to deal with (by first working with other federal agencies); • We also encourage OMB to ensure that additional information required does not slow down the grant making process, thereby ensuring that jobs are created as quickly as possible. I understand that some of our comments have been raised previously (and addressed on the third column of page 55665). We feel that these are still significant concerns and that every effort should be made to streamline the process and not create extra work for cash-strapped agencies, which may hinder more effective job creation. If you have any questions regarding these comments, please feel free to contact me at (510) 817-5768, or via email at kkao@mtc.ca.gov. Thank you for your consideration, Kenneth Kao FY 2010-11 CalRTPA Moderator Assoc. Planner, MTC