Proposed Collection; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Department of Defense (DoD).

ACTION:

Information collection notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness announces a proposed public information collection and seeks public comment on the provisions thereof. Comments are invited on: Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical utility; the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed information collection; ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and ways to minimize the burden of the information collection on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

DATES:

Consideration will be given to all comments received by December 27, 2021.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments, identified by docket number and title, by any of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Mail: DoD cannot receive written comments at this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Comments should be sent electronically to the docket listed above.

Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name, docket number and title for this Federal Register document. The general policy for comments and other submissions from members of the public is to make these submissions available for public viewing on the internet at http://www.regulations.gov as they are received without change, including any personal identifiers or contact information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request more information on this proposed information collection or to obtain a copy of the proposal and associated collection instruments, please write to Defense Human Resources Activity, 4800 Mark Center Drive, Suite 08F05 Alexandria, VA 22350, LaTarsha Yeargins, 571-372-2089.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title; Associated Form; and OMB Number: Officer Retention and Promotion Barrier Analysis; OMB Control Number 0704-0609.

Needs and Uses: The Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 (FY21) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) (Section 551) requires DoD to conduct a barrier analysis to review demographic diversity patterns across the military life cycle, starting with enlistment or accession into the armed forces in order to: (i) Identify barriers to increasing diversity; (ii) develop and implement plans and processes to resolve or eliminate any barriers to diversity; and (iii) review the progress of the armed forces in implementing previous plans and processes to resolve or eliminate barriers to diversity. This information collection will support the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) and DoD to contextualize quantitative data obtained via the DoD Total Force Demographics application and collect as part of the FY21 Officer Cohort Analysis and respond to Executive Order (E.O.) Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government E.O. 13985.

Affected Public: Individuals or households.

Annual Burden Hours: 500 hours.

Number of Respondents: 340.

Responses per Respondent: 1.

Annual Responses: 340.

Average Burden per Response: 88 minutes.

Frequency: On occasion.