[Federal Register: February 26, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 38)]
[Notices]
[Page 8972-8974]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26fe04-85]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[30Day-03-04]
Proposed Data Collections Submitted for Public Comment and
Recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publishes a
list of information collection requests under review by the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) in compliance with the Paperwork Reduction
Act (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a copy of these requests, call
the CDC Reports Clearance Officer at (404) 498-1210. Send written
comments to CDC, Desk Officer, Human Resources and Housing Branch, New
Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax
to (202) 395-6974. Written comments should be received within 30 days
of this notice.
Proposed Project: EEOICPA Special Exposure Cohort Petition Forms
(42 CFR part 83)--NEW--National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Background
On October 30, 2000, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness
Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA), 42 U.S.C. 7384-7385 [1994,
supp. 2001] was enacted. It established a compensation program to
provide a lump sum payment of $150,000 and medical benefits as
compensation to
[[Page 8973]]
covered employees suffering from designated illnesses incurred as a
result of their exposure to radiation, beryllium, or silica while in
the performance of duty for the Department of Energy and certain of its
vendors, contractors and subcontractors. This legislation also provided
for payment of compensation for certain survivors of these covered
employees.
EEOICPA instructed the President to designate one or more Federal
Agencies to carry out the compensation program. Accordingly, the
President issued Executive Order 13179 (``Providing Compensation to
America's Nuclear Weapons Workers'') on December 7, 2000 (65 FR 77487),
assigning primary responsibility for administration of the compensation
program to the Department of Labor (DOL). The executive order directed
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to perform several
technical and policymaking roles in support of the DOL program.
Among other duties, the executive order directed HHS to establish
and implement procedures for considering petitions by classes of
nuclear weapons workers to be added to the ``Special Exposure Cohort''
(the ``Cohort''), various groups of workers selected by Congress whose
claims for cancer under EEOICPA can be adjudicated without
demonstrating that their cancer was ``at least as likely as not''
caused by radiation doses they incurred in the performance of duty. In
brief, EEOICPA authorizes HHS to designate such classes of employees
for addition to the Cohort when NIOSH lacks sufficient information to
estimate with sufficient accuracy the radiation doses of the employees,
if HHS also finds that the health of members of the class may have been
endangered by the radiation dose the class potentially incurred. HHS
must also obtain the advice of the Advisory Board on Radiation and
Worker Health (the ``Board'') in establishing such findings. On March
7, 2003, HHS proposed procedures for adding such classes to the Cohort
in a notice of proposed rulemaking at 42 CFR part 83.
The proposed HHS procedures would authorize a variety of
individuals and entities to submit petitions, as specified under Sec.
83.7. Petitioners would be required to provide the information
specified in Sec. 83.9 to qualify their petitions for a complete
evaluation by HHS and the Board. HHS has developed two petition forms
to assist the petitioners in providing this required information
efficiently and completely. Petition Form A is a one-page form to be
used by EEOICPA cancer claimants for whom NIOSH will have attempted to
conduct dose reconstructions and will have determined that available
information is not sufficient to complete the dose reconstruction on
the majority of petitioners. The form addresses the informational
requirements specified under Sec. 83.9(a) and (b). NIOSH expects these
claimant-petitions will comprise the majority of petitions. Petition
Form B, accompanied by separate instructions, is intended for all other
petitioners. The form addresses the informational requirements
specified under Sec. 83.9(a) and (c). Forms A and B can be submitted
electronically as well as in hard copy. Petitioners should be aware
that HHS is not requiring petitioners to use the forms. Petitioners can
choose to submit petitions as letters or in other formats, but
petitions must meet the informational requirements referenced above.
NIOSH expects, however, that all petitioners for whom Form A would be
appropriate will actually make use of the form, since NIOSH will
provide it to them upon determining that their dose reconstruction
cannot be completed and encourage them to submit the petition. NIOSH
expects the large majority of petitioners for whom Form B would be
appropriate will also use the form, since it provides a simple,
organized format for addressing the informational requirements of a
petition.
NIOSH will use the information obtained through the petition for
the following purposes; to: (a) Identify the petitioner(s), obtain
their contact information, and establish that the petitioner(s) is
qualified and intends to petition HHS; (b) establish an initial
definition of the class of employees being proposed to be considered
for addition to the Cohort; (c) determine whether there is
justification to require HHS to evaluate whether or not to designate
the proposed class as an addition to the Cohort (such an evaluation
involves potentially extensive data collection, analysis, and related
deliberations by NIOSH, the Board, and HHS); and, (d) target an
evaluation by HHS to examine relevant potential limitations of
radiation monitoring and/or dosimetry-relevant records and to examine
the potential for related radiation exposures that might have
endangered the health of members of the class. Finally, under Sec.
83.16, petitioners may contest the proposed decision of the Secretary
to add or deny adding classes of employees to the cohort by submitting
evidence that the proposed decision relies on a record of either
factual or procedural errors in the implementation of these procedures.
NIOSH estimates that the time to prepare and submit such a challenge is
45 minutes. Because of the uniqueness of this submission, NIOSH is not
providing a form. The submission should be in a letter format. The
total annual burden for this data collection is 54 hours.
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Average burden
Number of Number of per
CFR reference Respondents respondents responses per respondent
respondent (in hours)
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83.9................................ Form A.................... 80 1 3/60
83.9................................ Form B.................... 10 1 5
83.9................................ Authorization............. 4 1 3/60
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[[Page 8974]]
Dated: February 18, 2004.
Alvin Hall,
Director, Management Analysis and Services Office, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 04-4233 Filed 2-25-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P