Information Collection; Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form 5047)
| Published date | 22 February 2024 |
| Record Number | 2024-03606 |
| Citation | 89 FR 13341 |
| Court | General Services Administration |
| Section | Notices |
Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 36 (Thursday, February 22, 2024)
[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 36 (Thursday, February 22, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13341-13348]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03606]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION
[OMB Control No. 3090-XXXX; Docket No. 2024-0001; Sequence No. 2]
Information Collection; Actual Place of Residence Determination
(GSA Form 5047)
AGENCY: Office of Human Resource Management, Division of Human Capital
Policy and Programs, General Services Administration (GSA).
ACTION: Notice of request for comments regarding a request for a new
OMB clearance.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, the
Regulatory Secretariat Division will be submitting to the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) a request to review and approve a new
information collection requirement.
DATES: Submit comments on or before April 22, 2024.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments identified by Information Collection 3090-
XXXX; ``Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form 5047)'' to:
https://www.regulations.gov. Submit comments via the Federal
eRulemaking portal by searching for ``Information Collection 3090-XXXX;
``Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form 5047).'' Select the
link ``Submit a Comment'' that corresponds with ``Information
Collection 3090-XXXX; Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form
5047).'' Follow the instructions provided at the ``Submit a Comment''
screen. Please include your name, company name (if any), and
``Information Collection 3090-XXXX; Actual Place of Residence
Determination (GSA Form 5047)'' on your attached document. If your
comment cannot be submitted using https://www.regulations.gov, call or
email the points of contact in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
section of this document for alternate instructions.
Instructions: Please submit comments only and cite ``Information
Collection 3090-XXXX; Actual Place of Residence Determination (GSA Form
5047),'' in all correspondence related to this collection. Comments
received generally will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal and/or business
confidential information provided. To confirm receipt of your
comment(s), please check www.regulations.gov, approximately two-to-
three days after submission to verify posting.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Colin C. Bennett, Human Resources
Specialist, Office of Human Resources Management, Division of Human
Capital Policy and Programs, at telephone 240-418-6822 or via email to
[email protected] for clarification of content.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A. Purpose
The General Services Administration (GSA) routinely hires,
reassigns, promotes and transfers Federal employees to duty stations in
foreign areas (i.e., locations outside of the United States, its
territories and possessions). For this staffing activity, GSA pays for
the cost of relocation, known as ``permanent change of station''
relocation benefits (see further 5 U.S.C. 5722(a) and 5724(d)).
Relocation benefits include the cost of travel and transportation, as
well as the cost of shipment of household goods to a new post outside
of the Continental United States. In addition, most overseas employees
are eligible for ``renewal agreement travel,'' a travel reimbursement
authority that allows agency to leverage funds to pay for periodic
travel back to the United States between overseas tours of duty for
paid time off, known as ``home leave'' (see further, 5 U.S.C. 5728(a)
and 5 U.S.C. 6305(a)).
For an agency to calculate the costs of relocation as well as
renewal agreement travel, both federal travel laws require that the
employee (or appointee) designate an ``actual place of residence.''
When such residence cannot be easily determined by the job candidate,
the agency must instead make an administrative residency determination
on behalf of the employee. The new GSA Form 5047 will help agency
representatives (i.e. human resources specialists) make a determination
of the actual place of residence based upon documents and input
provided by the job candidates, considered members of the public.
Typically, agencies use the definition of ``residence'' from the
Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952, codified at 5 U.S.C.
1101(33), which defines ``residence'' as a ``place of general abode''
or the ``principal, actual dwelling place in fact, without regard to
intent.'' While for most employees (or appointees) the determination of
an actual place of residence in the U.S. is typically straightforward,
residency may be unclear if the appointee is already overseas and has
been overseas for a long period of time. Long-term posts overseas are
often characterized by the lease (or even sale) of the employee's
primary U.S. dwelling, changes in the declared U.S. voting registration
location, and/or changes in the state and local income or property tax
jurisdictions.
To more effectively administer permanent change of station
relocation as well as renewal agreement travel, the General Services
Administration (GSA) has created a new agency form, GSA Form 5047,
Actual Place of Residence Determination. This form will allow
employees, job candidates, and the agency's human resources
specialists, to more easily determine the actual place of residence by
working through a series of guided questions on the form's worksheet.
Following completion of the form's worksheet, the employee, candidate,
and human resources specialist can summarize the determination on the
form's front cover sheet.
The questions on the worksheet portion of the form are drawn from
governing administrative law authorities, primary Comptroller General
decisions such as: Rafael Arroyo, decision B-197205 (May 16, 1980),
decision B-157548 (Sept. 13, 1965), 45 Comp. Gen. 136, and decision B-
140748 (Oct. 29, 1959), 39 Comp. Gen. 337. Under these administrative
law authorities, the place of actual residence is established at the
time of appointment or transfer (see also decision B-136029, June 24,
1958, 37 Comp. Gen. 846). Use of this form is therefore recommended for
all overseas appointments, transfers or reassignments and, in
particular, those personnel selections of job candidates via agency
transfer employed by a different U.S. Government agency and already
present overseas.
Use of this form will allow GSA to comply with the Federal Travel
Regulations, which require the
[[Page 13342]]
administrative determination and documentation of the actual place of
residence for all overseas appointments or placements (see further 41
CFR 302-3.509). In addition, this form will also allow the agency to
leverage the renewal agreement travel authority (i.e., the Home Leave
Act of 1954, 68 Stat. 1008) only when appropriate and not in the rare
cases of local foreign hires who have severed all jurisdictional
nexuses with the U.S.
Significantly, this residency determination form can also be used
to determine eligibility for the following other overseas allowance and
benefit authorities: (a) the 45-day annual leave accrual authority (5
U.S.C. 6304(b)), (b) home leave (5 U.S.C. 6305(a)) and (c) living
quarters allowance (5 U.S.C. 5923(a)(2)). Under each of these
authorities, local hires who currently live in foreign areas are
excluded from benefits eligibility unless they can demonstrate that
foreign residence is temporary, is only pursuant to continuous
employment overseas with the U.S. Government (or other U.S. interest),
and finally, there exists a contractual transportation agreement that
provides for the eventual return of the job candidate to a
specifically-identified place of actual residence within the U.S.
B. Annual Reporting Burden
Respondents: 25 per year.
Responses per Respondent: 1.
Total Annual Responses: 25.
Hours per Response: 1.
Total Burden Hours: 25.
C. Public Comments
Public comments are encouraged, and are particularly invited, on:
(a) whether this collection of information is necessary, (b) whether it
will have practical utility, (c) whether our estimate of the public
burden of this collection of information is accurate (and based on
valid assumptions and methodology), (d) whether or not there are ways
to enhance the new form's utility and clarity of the information to be
collected, and (e) whether or not there might be ways in to minimize
the data collection burden through the use of information technology.
Obtaining Copies of Proposals: We have provided a copy of the
proposed draft GSA Form 5047 at the end of this notice below the
signature block. A copy of the proposed draft form can alternatively be
obtained through GSA's Regulatory Secretariat Division by calling (202)
501-4755 or emailing [email protected]. Please cite OMB Control No.
3090-XXXX, Actual Place of Residency Determination (GSA Form 5047), in
all correspondence.
Lois Mandell,
Director, Regulatory Secretariat Division, General Services
Administration.
BILLING CODE 6820-FM-P
[[Page 13343]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN22FE24.088
[[Page 13344]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN22FE24.089
[[Page 13345]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN22FE24.090
[[Page 13346]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN22FE24.091
[[Page 13347]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN22FE24.092
[[Page 13348]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN22FE24.093
[FR Doc. 2024-03606 Filed 2-21-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820-FM-C
