May
1, 1998
MEMORANDUM
FOR CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICERS
FROM: |
Donald
R. Arbuckle /s/
Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs |
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SUBJECT: |
Emergency
Clearance of Y2K Surveys under the Paperwork Reduction Act
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As you know, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)
is working closely with the new Presidents Council on Year
2000 Conversion, chaired by John Koskinen, to coordinate the Federal
governments response to this critical management issue. Recently,
John asked the agencies to reach out to those outside the federal
government -- State and local government, businesses, grantees and
contractors -- and to ask them about their readiness for the year
2000. Some agencies plan to issue surveys or make telephone contact
with these parties.
Such surveys or telephone calls -- otherwise known as information
collections -- are covered under the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (PRA). Because of the critical importance of the year 2000
issue, I want to assure you that we are prepared to provide, on
an expedited basis, 6-month emergency approval for any such information
collection.
Your PRA clearance officer should make a request for an emergency
clearance, describing the urgency of the year 2000 information collection
and requesting waiver of the 60-day and 30-day notices in the Federal
Register. Such information collections are likely to be one-time,
quick turn-around efforts; consequently, I do not foresee the need
for you to submit in your clearance package any documentation beyond
the information collection and a brief justification statement.
Nor would there be any public purpose served by conducting an after-the-fact
public notice.
To help us identify and process these year 2000 information collections,
I ask that you identify these requests clearly as Y2K surveys so
that we can quickly identify and process them. I also request that
you try to allow at least two weeks for emergency review. If this
is not possible, however, we will do everything we can to accommodate
your schedule, and I have asked my staff to make every effort to
conduct PRA reviews to meet your schedule.
Each agencys OIRA Desk Officer will review Y2K information
collections, and any questions about the specifics of your survey
should be addressed to that analyst. However, I have asked Virginia
Huth of my staff (202-395-6929) to coordinate these reviews, and
serve as our Y2K survey ombudsperson. If you or your staff have
any general concerns involving a year 2000 information collection,
please feel free to call her. Finally, please call me if any problems
appear to be developing so that we can resolve them immediately.
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