[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 249 (Monday, December 30, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71894-71895]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-28092]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

 Census Bureau


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    The Department of Commerce will submit to the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) for clearance the following proposal for collection of 
information under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act.
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.

[[Page 71895]]

    Title: Survey of Construction Questionnaire for Building Permit 
Official.
    OMB Control Number: 0607-0125.
    Form Number(s): SOC-QBPO.
    Type of Request: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Number of Respondents: 1,017.
    Average Hours per Response: 15 minutes.
    Burden Hours: 254.
    Needs and Uses: The U.S. Census Bureau is requesting an extension 
of the currently approved collection for the Survey of Construction 
Questionnaire for the Building Permit Official (SOC-QBPO). The 
information collected on the SOC-QBPO is necessary to carry out the 
sampling for the Survey of Housing Starts, Sales and Completions (OMB 
number 0607-0110), also known as the Survey of Construction (SOC). 
Government agencies and private companies use statistics from the SOC 
to monitor and evaluate the large and dynamic housing construction 
industry.
    The SOC-QBPO is an electronic questionnaire. Census Bureau field 
representatives (FRs) either call or visit permit offices to enter 
their survey responses into a laptop computer using the Computer 
Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) software formatted for the SOC-
QBPO. The FRs use the SOC-QBPO to obtain information on the operating 
procedures of a permit office. This enables them to locate, classify, 
list, and sample building permits for residential construction. These 
permits are used as the basis for the sample selected for SOC. The 
Census Bureau also uses the information to verify and update the 
geographic coverage of permit offices. The questions asked during the 
interview and the size of the sample will not change.
    Failure to collect this information would make it difficult, if not 
impossible, to accurately classify and sample building permits for the 
SOC. Data for two principal economic indicators are produced from the 
SOC: New Residential Construction (housing starts and housing 
completions) and New Residential Sales. Government agencies use these 
statistics to evaluate economic policy, measure progress towards the 
national housing goal, make policy decisions, and formulate 
legislation. For example, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve 
System uses data from this survey to evaluate the effect of interest 
rates in this interest-rate sensitive area of the economy. The Bureau 
of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the data in developing the Gross 
Domestic Product (GDP). The private sector and other data users from 
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National 
Association of Home Builders (NAHB) use the information for estimating 
the demand for housing, building materials and the many products used 
in new housing and to schedule production, distribution, and sales 
efforts. The financial community uses the data to estimate the demand 
for short-term (construction loans) and long-term (mortgages) 
borrowing.
    Affected Public: State, local or Tribal government.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Respondent's Obligation: Voluntary.
    Legal Authority: The SOC and this collection are authorized under 
Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 182.
    This information collection request may be viewed at 
www.reginfo.gov. Follow the instructions to view Department of Commerce 
collections currently under review by OMB.
    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information 
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice 
to [email protected] or fax to (202)395-5806.

Sheleen Dumas,
Department PRA Clearance Officer, Office of the Chief Information 
Officer, Commerce Department.
[FR Doc. 2019-28092 Filed 12-27-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-07-P