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 a proposed information collection entitled “Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health (UNCOVER EH).” The purpose of the data collection is to collect information from the health department environmental health (EH) workforce to determine demographics, education/training, experience, areas of practice, and current and future needs to address emerging environmental issues.

DATES:

Written comments must be received on or before December 30, 2016.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CDC-2016-0103 by any of the following methods:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: Regulations.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

Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health (UNCOVER EH)—NEW—National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

The environmental health (EH) workforce is an essential component of the public health workforce. According to recent health department surveys, EH professionals are employed at approximately 85% of local health departments, 81% of state health departments, and 30% of tribal health departments. Describing and characterizing the EH workforce is essential to identifying gaps in staffing, training, and ultimately ensuring EH professionals are prepared to meet future challenges.

CDC seeks OMB approval for a one-time, one-year information collection designed to thoroughly describe the health department EH workforce on: (1) The current supply of EH professionals; (2) EH workforce demographics and professional roles; (3) gaps in current EH education and competencies and training needs; and (4) critical skills and resources needed to meet the evolving and emerging EH issues and challenges. This information will benefit the government and other entities by providing essential data to inform and support workforce development activities and initiatives and understand areas of practice and where gaps may exist in capacity to address current EH issues and future challenges.

The respondent universe will be the estimated 20,000 EH professionals working within health departments. They will be enumerated and recruited by identifying a point of contact in each state, local, tribal, and territorial health department from whom a roster of EH professionals will be requested. A list of respondents and their business email addresses will be generated and used for recruitment and survey administration. Any contact information collected will be related to the respondents' role in the organization. Participation will be voluntary.

Data will be collected one time from a census of members of the public health department EH workforce using a web-based survey instrument. The UNCOVER EH Survey will take approximately 30 minutes to complete per respondent, and it will take approximately 5 minutes for health department administrative staff to compile EH workforce names and email addresses into the Health Department Roster.

There will be no cost to respondents other than their time. The requested time burden is 10,269 hours.