Proposed Collection; Comment Request
| Published date | 15 July 2021 |
| Record Number | 2021-15091 |
| Section | Notices |
| Court | Federal Housing Finance Agency |
Federal Register, Volume 86 Issue 133 (Thursday, July 15, 2021)
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 133 (Thursday, July 15, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37330-37332]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-15091]
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FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY
[No. 2021-N-8]
Proposed Collection; Comment Request
AGENCY: Federal Housing Finance Agency.
ACTION: 60-Day notice of submission of information collection for
approval from Office of Management and Budget.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction
Act of 1995 (PRA), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA or the
Agency) is seeking public comments concerning an information collection
known as ``Minority and Women Inclusion,'' which has been assigned
control number 2590-0014 by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
FHFA intends to submit the information collection to OMB for review and
approval of a three-year extension of the control number, which is due
to expire on October 31, 2021.
DATES: Interested persons may submit comments on or before September
13, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Submit comments to FHFA, identified by ``Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: ``Minority and Women Inclusion, (No. 2021-
N-8)'' by any of the following methods:
Agency Website: www.fhfa.gov/open-for-comment-or-input.
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments. If you submit your
comment to the Federal eRulemaking Portal, please also send it by email
to FHFA at [email protected] to ensure timely receipt by the Agency.
Mail/Hand Delivery: Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219, ATTENTION: Proposed
Collection; Comment Request: ``Minority and Women Inclusion, (No. 2021-
N-8)''.
We will post all public comments we receive without change,
including any
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personal information you provide, such as your name and address, email
address, and telephone number, on the FHFA website at http://www.fhfa.gov. In addition, copies of all comments received will be
available for examination by the public on business days between the
hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. To make an appointment to
inspect comments, please call the Office of General Counsel at (202)
649-3804.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Felicia Bland, Supervisory Examination
Specialist, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion,
[email protected], or by telephone at (202) 365-7471; or Angela
Supervielle, Counsel, [email protected], (202) 649-3973
(these are not toll-free numbers); Federal Housing Finance Agency, 400
Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20219. The Telecommunications Device
for the Deaf is (800) 877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: FHFA is seeking comments on its collection
of information regarding the minority and gender classification of
individuals serving on the boards of directors of the Federal Home Loan
Banks (Banks) and of the Office of Finance under FHFA's regulations on
Minority and Women Inclusion (MWI), codified at 12 CFR part 1223, which
it will soon be submitting for renewal of the OMB control number under
the PRA.
A. Need for and Use of the Information Collection
The Federal Home Loan Bank System consists of eleven regional Banks
and the Office of Finance, which issues and services the Banks' debt
securities. The Banks are wholesale financial institutions, organized
under authority of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (Bank Act) to serve
the public interest by enhancing the availability of residential
housing finance and community lending credit through their member
institutions and, to a limited extent, through certain eligible non-
member entities. Each Bank is structured as a regional cooperative that
is owned and controlled by member financial institutions located within
its district, which are also its primary customers. The Bank Act vests
the management of each Bank in a board of directors that consists of
two types of directors: (1) Member directors, who are drawn from the
officers and directors of member institutions located in the Bank's
district and who are elected to represent members in a particular state
in that district; and (2) independent directors, who are unaffiliated
with any of the Bank's member institutions, but who reside in the
Bank's district and are elected on an at-large basis.\1\ The Office of
Finance is also governed by a board of directors, which consists of the
presidents of the eleven Banks and five independent directors.\2\
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\1\ See 12 U.S.C. 1427(a)(1), (b), (d).
\2\ See 12 CFR 1273.7(a).
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Section 1319A of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety
and Soundness Act of 1992 (Safety and Soundness Act) requires that each
of the Banks establish an Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI)
to be responsible for all matters relating to diversity in its
management, employment, and business activities, in accordance with
requirements established by FHFA.\3\ Section 1319A also requires that
each Bank implement standards and procedures to ensure, to the maximum
extent possible, the inclusion and utilization of women and minorities
``at all levels'' of its business and activities, and submit an annual
report to FHFA detailing actions taken to achieve those goals.\4\
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\3\ See 12 U.S.C. 4520(a).
\4\ See 12 U.S.C. 4520(b), (d).
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FHFA's MWI regulations implement those statutory requirements and
also extend the requirements to the Office of Finance. The MWI
regulations require generally that each Bank and the Office of Finance
``develop, implement, and maintain policies and procedures to ensure,
to the maximum extent possible in balance with financially safe and
sound business practices, the inclusion and utilization of minorities,
women, individuals with disabilities, and minority-, women-, and
disabled-owned businesses in all business and activities and at all
levels of the regulated entity, including in management, employment,
procurement, insurance, and all types of contracts.'' \5\ In
recognition of the fact that each Bank is required by statute to
promote diversity and inclusion ``at all levels'' of its business and
activities, the MWI regulations further require that the Banks'
policies and procedures (as well as those of the Office of Finance)
``[e]ncourage the consideration of diversity in nominating or
soliciting nominees for positions on boards of directors and engage in
recruiting and outreach directed at encouraging individuals who are
minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities to seek or apply
for employment with the regulated entity.'' \6\
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\5\ See 12 CFR 1223.21(b).
\6\ See 12 CFR 1223.21(b)(7).
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In conformity with the statutory requirements, FHFA's MWI
regulations require that each Bank and the Office of Finance submit to
FHFA an annual report describing, among other things, its efforts to
promote diversity at all levels of management and employment, and the
results of those efforts.\7\ In order to provide a quantitative basis
upon which to assess the results of those efforts, FHFA's MWI
regulations require that each Bank and the Office of Finance set forth
in their respective annual reports the demographic data reported on the
EEO-1 form, which they are required to file annually with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).\8\ The EEO-1 form requires
that each respondent provide race, ethnicity and gender information for
its employees, broken down into various job categories. Because the
EEO-1 form does not require that a respondent provide information on
board directors, FHFA cannot use the EEO-1 data to assess the
effectiveness of the Federal Home Loan Bank System's efforts to
``encourage the consideration of diversity in nominating or soliciting
nominees for positions on boards of directors.''
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\7\ See 12 CFR 1223.22(a).
\8\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(1). As required by 29 CFR 1602.7, each
Bank and the Office of Finance annually files an EEO-1 form with the
EEOC.
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Therefore, in order to enable FHFA to assess those efforts, the MWI
regulations separately require that the annual reports set forth
``[d]ata showing for the reporting year by minority and gender
classification, the number of individuals on the board of directors of
each Bank and the Office of Finance,'' using the same racial and ethnic
classifications that are used on the EEO-1 form (which comply with
OMB's ``Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, Race and Ethnic Standards
for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting'').\9\ The MWI
regulations require that each Bank and the Office of Finance collect
that data ``through an information collection requesting each
director's voluntary self-identification of his or her minority and
gender classification without personally identifiable information.''
\10\
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\9\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(10)(i).
\10\ See 12 CFR 1223.23(b)(10)(i)(A).
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FHFA uses the information collected under this control number to
assess the effectiveness of the policies and procedures that each Bank
and the Office of Finance is required to implement to promote diversity
in all of its business and activities ``at all levels'' and,
specifically, to encourage diversity in the nomination and solicitation
of nominees for members of its boards of directors. FHFA also uses the
information to establish a baseline to
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analyze future trends related to the diversity of the boards of
directors of the Banks and the Office of Finance and to assess the
effectiveness of the strategies developed by the Banks and the Office
of Finance for promoting, developing, and retaining diverse board
talent.
B. Burden Estimate
FHFA estimates the total annual hour burden imposed upon
respondents by this information collection to be 20.5 hours. This is
based on estimates that 205 Bank and Office of Finance Directors will
respond annually, with each response taking an average of 0.1 hours (6
minutes) (205 respondents x 0.1 hours = 20.5 hours).
C. Comments Request
FHFA requests written comments on the following: (1) Whether the
collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of
FHFA functions, including whether the information has practical
utility; (2) the accuracy of FHFA's estimate of the burden of the
collection of information; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility,
and clarity of the information collected; and (4) 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.
Kevin Smith,
Chief Information Officer, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
[FR Doc. 2021-15091 Filed 7-14-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8070-01-P
