OMB Approves STB Expedited Relief ICR

Friday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved an information collection request (ICR) from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on “Expedited Relief for Service Emergencies”. The 60-day ICR notice was published [removed from paywall] on May 2^nd, 2022. The 30-day ICR notice was published [removed from paywall] as part of the final rule on January 4^th, 2024.

Burden Estimate	Initial
# of Responses	32
Time Burden (hrs)	2,710
Cost Burden ($)	0

STB Withdraws Expedited Relief Emergency ICR

Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) had withdrawn an emergency information collection request (ICR) for a new ICR on “Expedited Relief for Service Emergencies”. This ICR would have supported the information reporting requirements of the STB’s recent final rule on “Revisions to Regulations for Expedited Relief for Service Emergencies” that was published on January 24^th, 2024. The emergency ICR request was submitted to OIRA on February 12^th, 2024.

The STB did include an ICR notice in their notice of proposed rulemaking on the subject that was published on May 2^nd, 2022. A similar notice was included in the final rule, but the STB was supposed to have published a 30-day ICR notice when the final rule was published in January. That ICR would have been approved and an ICR collection number issued by this point if it had done so.

Now I suspect that we will see a 30-day ICR notice published in the Federal Register tomorrow or early next week.