On November 26, 2019 (84 FR 65213), the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice in the federal register requesting comments on a revision to the information collection pertaining to hazardous materials public sector training and planning grants for which PHMSA intends to request a renewal with revision from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Following an audit conducted by the General Accounting Office (GAO), PHMSA received a recommendation (GAO-17-91) to develop a process for regularly collecting information from State Emergency Response Commissions (SERCs) on the distribution of the railroad-provided hazardous materials shipping information to local planning entities. In response to this recommendation, PHMSA is seeking to have grant applicants declare if SERCs have received copies of the Hazardous Materials: Oil Spill Response Plans and Information Sharing for High-Hazard Flammable Trains (HHFT). In addition, PHMSA is seeking to determine if the SERCs are disseminating this information to local planning entities. PHMSA expects that requesting grantees to provide this additional information will add approximately 2 minutes of burden time per respondent. For 62 grantees, this is appropriately 2.067 additional burden hours (62 grantees x 2 minutes). Interested persons are invited to submit comments on or before January 27, 2020.

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PHMSA 11-26-2019 request comment Training and Planning Grants