In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice invites the general public and other public agencies to comment on a proposed information collection. This collection is a revision of the currently approved information collection for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which contains the reporting and recordkeeping burdens associated with the WIC Program regulations. These revisions include existing requirements that have been in use without Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval, identified during the drafting of proposed information collection requests associated with two rulemakings: the Revisions in the WIC Food Packages proposed rule and the WIC Online Ordering and Transactions proposed rule.
FNS is currently drafting two proposed rules that would change federal regulations governing the WIC Program at 7 CFR part 246. FNS will seek comment on the proposed information collections associated with those two rules separately. In the development of those two rules, FNS identified several existing requirements that are currently in use without OMB approval. This revision of OMB Control Number 0584-0043 adds those requirements and their associated burdens into this collection to correct this oversight. These requirements will be included in future revisions to the WIC burden.
During development of the Revisions in the WIC Food Packages proposed rule, FNS identified the state agency reporting burden associated with 7 CFR 246.12(h)(1)(i) as in use without OMB approval. This provision requires the state agency to enter into a written agreement with retail vendors. State agencies must review completed applications and sign a vendor agreement where the agreement period must not exceed three years. The revision increases the approved annual reporting burden by 13,584.12 responses across all 89 state agencies, totaling 10,188.09 hours.
During the development of the WIC Online Ordering and Transactions proposed rule, FNS identified six additional existing regulatory requirements as in use without OMB approval that affect the reporting burdens for WIC state agencies, households, and WIC-authorized retail vendors. The state agency reporting burden associated with vendor applications and agreements, discussed above, was identified during the development of both WIC proposed rules.