[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 39 (Monday, March 1, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9221-9222]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-4117]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection;
Comment Request
In compliance with Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 concerning opportunity for public comment on proposed
collections of information, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA) will publish periodic summaries of
proposed projects. To request more information on the proposed projects
or to obtain a copy of the information collection plans, call the
SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer at (240) 276-1243.
Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collections of
information are 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; and (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.
Proposed Project: Survey of State Underage Drinking Prevention Policies
and Practices--New
The Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (the ``STOP
Act'') \1\ states that the ``Secretary [of Health and Human Services]
shall * * * annually issue a report on each State's performance in
enacting, enforcing, and creating laws, regulations, and programs to
prevent or reduce underage drinking.'' The Secretary has delegated
responsibility for this report to SAMHSA. Therefore, SAMHSA is
developing a Survey of State Underage Drinking Prevention Policies and
Practices (the ``State Survey'') to provide input for an Annual Report
on State Underage Drinking Prevention and Enforcement Activities (the
``State Report'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Public Law 109-422. It is assumed Congress intended to
include the District of Columbia as part of the State Report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The STOP Act also requires the Secretary to develop ``a set of
measures to be used in preparing the report on best practices'' and to
consider categories including but not limited to the following:
Category #1: Sixteen specific underage drinking laws/regulations
enacted at the State level (e.g., laws prohibiting sales to minors;
laws related to minors in possession of alcohol);
Category #2: Enforcement and educational programs to promote
compliance with these laws/regulations;
Category #3: Programs targeted to youths, parents, and caregivers
to deter underage drinking and the number of individuals served by
these programs;
Category #4: The amount that each State invests, per youth capita,
on the prevention of underage drinking broken into five categories: (a)
Compliance check programs in retail outlets; (b) Checkpoints and
saturation patrols that include the goal of reducing and deterring
underage drinking; (c) Community-based, school-based, and higher-
education-based programs to prevent underage drinking; (d) Underage
drinking prevention programs that target youth within the juvenile
justice and child welfare systems; and (e) Any other State efforts or
programs that target underage drinking.
Congress' purpose in mandating the collection of data on State
policies and programs through the State Survey is to provide
policymakers and the public with currently unavailable but much needed
information regarding State underage drinking prevention policies and
programs. SAMHSA and other Federal agencies that have underage drinking
prevention as part of their mandate will use the results of the State
Survey to inform Federal programmatic priorities. The information
gathered by the State Survey will also establish a resource for State
agencies and the general public for assessing policies and programs in
their own State and for becoming familiar with the programs, policies,
and funding priorities of other States.
Because of the broad scope of data required by the STOP Act, SAMHSA
will rely on existing data sources where possible to minimize the
survey burden on the States. SAMHSA will employ data on State underage
drinking policies from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism's Alcohol Policy
[[Page 9222]]
Information System (APIS), an authoritative compendium of State
alcohol-related laws. The APIS data will be augmented by SAMHSA with
original legal research on State laws and policies addressing underage
drinking to include all of the STOP Act's requested laws and
regulations (Category 1 of the four categories included in the
STOP Act, as described above, page 2).
The STOP Act mandates that the State Survey assess ``best
practices'' and emphasize the importance of building collaborations
with Federally Recognized Tribal Governments (``Tribal Governments'').
It also emphasizes the importance at the Federal level of promoting
interagency collaboration and to that end established the Interagency
Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD).
SAMHSA has determined that to fulfill the Congressional intent, it is
critical that the State Survey gather information from the States
regarding the best practices standards that they apply to their
underage drinking programs, collaborations between States and Tribal
Governments, and the development of State-level interagency
collaborations similar to ICCPUD.
SAMHSA has determined that data on Categories 2,
3, and 4 mandated in the STOP Act (as listed on page
2) (enforcement and educational programs; programs targeting youth,
parents, and caregivers; and State expenditures) as well as States'
best practices standards, collaborations with Tribal Governments, and
State-level interagency collaborations are not available from secondary
sources and therefore must be collected from the States themselves. The
State Survey will therefore be necessary to fulfill the Congressional
mandate found in the STOP Act.
The State Survey is a single document that is divided into four
sections, as follows:
(1) Enforcement of underage drinking prevention laws;
(2) Underage drinking prevention programs, including data on State
best practices standards and collaborations with Tribal Governments;
(3) State interagency collaborations used to implement the above
programs; and
(4) Estimates of the State funds invested in the categories
specified in the STOP Act (see description of Category 4,
above, page 2) and descriptions of any dedicated fees, taxes or fines
used to raise these funds.
The number of questions in each Section is as follows:
Section 1: 29 questions
Section 2A: 18 questions \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Note that the number of questions in Sections 2A is an
estimate. This Section asks States to identify their programs that
are specific to underage drinking prevention. For each program
identified there are six follow-up questions. Based on feedback from
stakeholders and pilot testers, it is anticipated that States will
report an average of three programs for a total of 18 questions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2B: 6 questions \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Note that the number of questions in Section 2B is an
estimate. This Section asks States to identify their programs that
are related to underage drinking prevention. For each program
identified there are two follow-up questions. Based on feedback from
stakeholders and pilot testers, it is anticipated that States will
report an average of three such programs for a total of six
questions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 2C: 6 questions
Section 3: 12 questions
Section 4: 19 questions
TOTAL: 90 Questions
It is anticipated that respondents will actually respond to only a
subset of this total. This is because the survey is designed with
``skip logic,'' which means that many questions will only be directed
to a subset of respondents who report the existence of particular
programs or activities.
To ensure that the State Survey obtains the necessary data while
minimizing the burden on the States, SAMHSA has conducted a lengthy and
comprehensive planning process. It has sought advice from key
stakeholders (as mandated by the STOP Act) including hosting an all-day
stakeholders meeting, conducting two field tests with State officials
likely to be responsible for completing the State Survey, and
investigating and testing various State Survey formats, online delivery
systems, and data collection methodologies.
Based on these investigations, SAMHSA has decided to collect the
required data using an online survey instrument over an 8-week period.
The State Survey will be sent to each State Governor's office and the
Office of the Mayor of the District of Columbia, for a total of 51
survey respondents. Based on the feedback received from stakeholders
and field pilot testers, it is anticipated that the State Governors
will designate staff from State agencies that have access to the
requested data (typically State Alcohol Beverage Control [ABC] agencies
and State Substance Abuse Program agencies). SAMHSA will provide both
telephone and online technical support to State agency staff and will
emphasize that the States are only expected to provide data that is
readily available and are not required to provide data that has not
already been collected. The burden estimate below takes into account
these assumptions.
The estimated annual response burden to collect this information is
as follows:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of Responses/ Burden/ Annual burden
Instrument respondents respondent response (hrs) (hrs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
State Questionnaire......................... 51 1 17.7 902.7
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send comments to Summer King, SAMHSA Reports Clearance Officer,
Room 7-1044, One Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20857 and e-mail a
copy to [email protected]. Written comments should be received
within 60 days of this notice.
Dated: February 19, 2010.
Elaine Parry,
Director, Office of Program Services.
[FR Doc. 2010-4117 Filed 2-26-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P