Agency Information Collection; Activity Under OMB Review; Report of Extension of Credit to Political Candidates

AGENCY:

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Department of Transportation.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Pub. L. 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request, abstracted below, is being forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget for extension of currently approved reporting requirement. Earlier, a Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period was published on April 21, 2015 (80 FR 22265).

The agency did not receive any comments to its previous notice.

DATES:

Written comments should be submitted by August 7, 2015.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jeff Gorham, Office of Airline Information, RTS-42, Room E34, OST-R, BTS, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590-0001, Telephone Number (202) 366-4406, Fax Number (202) 366-3383 or EMAIL jeff.gorham@dot.gov.

Comments: Send comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 715 17th Street NW., Washington, DC 20503, Attention: OST Desk Officer.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

OMB Approval No. 2138-0016.

Title: Report of Extension of Credit to Political Candidates.

Form No.: 183.

Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved reporting requirement.

Respondents: Certificated air carriers.

Number of Respondents: 2 (Monthly Average).

Number of Responses: 24.

Estimated Time per Response: 1 hour.

Total Annual Burden: 24 hours.

Needs and Uses: The Department uses this form as the means to fulfill its obligation under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (the Act). The Act's legislative history indicates that one of its statutory goals is to prevent candidates for Federal political office from incurring large amounts of unsecured debt with regulated transportation companies (e.g., airlines). This information collection allows the Department to monitor and disclose the amount of unsecured credit extended by airlines to candidates for Federal office. All certificated air carriers are required to submit this information.

The Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note), requires a statistical agency to clearly identify information it collects for non-statistical purposes. BTS hereby notifies the respondents and the public that BTS uses the information it collects under this OMB approval for non-statistical purposes including, but not limited to, publication of both Respondent's identity and its data, and submission of the information to agencies outside BTS for review, analysis and possible use in regulatory and other administrative matters.

Comments are invited on whether the proposed retention of records is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Department of Transportation.