Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations

AGENCY:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ACTION:

Notice with comment period.

SUMMARY:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as part of its continuing efforts to reduce public burden and maximize the utility of government information, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. This notice invites comment on the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, an information system which collects data from (1) other CDC programs such as the National Center for Health Statistics, (2) other federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, (3) publically accessible systems such as the Census Bureau, and (4) funded and unfunded state and local health departments (SLHD).

DATES:

Written comments must be received on or before June 13, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2016-0037 by any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulation.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Leroy A. Richardson, Information Collection Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329.

Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name and Docket Number. All relevant comments received will be posted without change to Regulations.gov, including any personal information provided. For access to the docket to read background documents or comments received, go to Regulations.gov.

Please note:

All public comment should be submitted through the Federal eRulemaking portal (Regulations.gov) or by U.S. mail to the address listed above.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

To request more information on the proposed project or to obtain a copy of the information collection plan and instruments, contact the Information Collection Review Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE., MS-D74, Atlanta, Georgia 30329; phone: 404-639-7570; Email: omb@cdc.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. In addition, the PRA also requires Federal agencies to provide a 60-day notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each new proposed collection, each proposed extension of existing collection of information, and each reinstatement of previously approved information collection before submitting the collection to OMB for approval. To comply with this requirement, we are publishing this notice of a proposed data collection as described below.

Comments are invited on: (a) 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; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on respondents, including through the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and purchase of services to provide information. Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time needed to review instructions; to develop, acquire, install and utilize technology and systems for the purpose of collecting, validating and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; to train personnel and to be able to respond to a collection of information, to search data sources, to complete and review the collection of information; and to transmit or otherwise disclose the information.

Proposed Project

Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network)—Existing Collection in Use without an OMB Control Number—National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

In September, 2000, the Pew Environmental Health Commission issued a report entitled “America's Environmental Health Gap: Why the Country Needs a Nationwide Health Tracking Network.” In this report, the Commission documented that the existing environmental health systems were inadequate and fragmented and recommended a “Nationwide Health Tracking Network for disease and exposures.” In response to the report, Congress appropriated funds in the fiscal year 2002's budget for the CDC to establish the National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network).

Continuously since 2008, and at the national level, the program collects data from (1) other CDC programs such as the National Center for Health Statistics, (2) other federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, (3) publically accessible systems such as the Census Bureau, and (4) funded and unfunded state and local health departments (SLHD). These data are integrated into and disseminated from the Tracking Network and used for analyses which can inform national programs, interventions, or policies; guide further development and activities within the Tracking Program; or advance the practice and science of environmental public health tracking. The Tracking Program also collects information from funded SLHD to monitor their progress related to their funding and for program evaluation. This information collection request is focused on data and information gathered by the Tracking Program from SLHD.

Due to voluntary program efforts to continuously improve compliance, the CDC recently determined that the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) should apply to the Tracking Network collections. Thus, the CDC requests a three-year PRA clearance to collect these data.

One part of the collection involves health, exposure, and hazard data from SLHD. The Tracking Network provides the United States with accurate and timely standardized data from existing health, exposure, and hazard surveillance systems and supports ongoing efforts within the public health and environmental sectors. The goal of the Tracking Network is to improve health tracking, exposure and hazard monitoring, and response capacity. When such data are available, the Tracking Program obtains data from national or public sources in order to reduce the burden on SLHD. When data are not available nationally or publically, the Tracking Program relies on funded SLHD to obtain and submit these data to the Tracking Network. Data from unfunded SLHD are accepted but not requested or solicited.

Data submitted annually by SLHD to the Tracking Program include: (1) Birth defects prevalence,(2) childhood lead blood levels, if a SLHD does not already report such data to CDC, (3) community drinking water monitoring, (4) emergency department visits, (5) hospitalizations, and (6) radon testing. The Tracking Program receives childhood lead blood levels data from CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (under the Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Surveillance System [HHLPSS—OMB Control No. 0920-0931, expiration date 5/31/2018]). A metadata record, a file describing the original source and collection procedures for the data being submitted, is also submitted with each dataset (1 per dataset for a total of 6 metadata records per year) using the Tracking Program's metadata creation tool.

Standardized extraction, formatting, and submission processes are developed in collaboration between CDC and SLHD for each dataset. Additions or modifications to these standardized datasets will also be developed collaboratively in order to improve the accuracy, completeness, efficiency, or utility of data submitted to CDC. Such changes will occur at most once a year. Examples of changes to data processes may include: (1) Addition of new variables or outcomes, (2) updates to case definitions, (3) modifications to temporal or spatial aggregation, and (4) changes in formatting for submission. As required, the Tracking Network will submit future additions and modifications as non-substantive change requests or revision information collection requests.

The other part of the collection involves program monitoring information from funded SLHD. In addition to standard reporting required by CDC's Procurement and Grants Office, the Tracking Program also collects information from funded SLHD for the purposes of program evaluation and monitoring. This information includes performance measures collected quarterly, a communications plan collected annually, an earned values management report collected quarterly, an evaluation plan collected annually, and Web site analytics collected quarterly as documents emailed to the Tracking Program.

There are no costs for the respondents other than their time. The total estimated time burden is 25,320 hours. This estimate includes the time it takes to extract the data from the original data source(s), standardize and format the data to match the corresponding Tracking Network data form, and submit the data to the Tracking Network. In some cases, the data at the source are centralized and easily extracted. In other cases, like for radon data, the data are not. In those cases, the number of hours for extracting and standardizing the data is much greater. Four respondents have been added to the 26 SLHDs the program currently funds to account for the data voluntarily received from unfunded SLHDs and to allow for potential program growth over the next three years.