                             SUPPORTING STATEMENT
                     DRUG TESTING FOR CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEES

1. Identification of the Information Collection

      (a) Title of the Information Collection

"Drug Testing for Contractor Employees (Renewal)," EPA ICR Number 2183.08 and OMB Control Number 2030-0044. 

      (b) Short Characterization 

      This information collection request (ICR) applies to a contractor who performs response services at sensitive sites with serious security concerns where the Agency and public interest would best be protected through drug testing of contractor employees.  The Contracting Officer or On-Scene Coordinator will designate significant security concerns in the contractual tasking document when the situation warrants.  The contractor will test its employees for the use of marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, phencyclidine (PCP), and any other controlled substances.  Only contractor employees who have been tested within the previous 90 calendar days and have passing drug test results may be directly engaged in on-site response work and/or on-site related activities at designated sites with significant security concerns. The testing for drugs must be completed prior to contract employee performance.  The contractor shall maintain records associated with all drug tests of their employees for three years in accordance with EPA Records Schedule 0569.

      (c) Terms of OMB Clearance

      OMB Terms of Clearance: "The Agency has clarified that it does not require drug testing of contractor employees, but rather that it requires the contractor to provide employees that have been drug tested. Should the agency begin to require drug testing, this ICR should be modified to reflect appropriate protections of respondent privacy."
      
      EPA contractors performing emergency response services at non-Federal facilities are not subject to the requirements and standards of Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12), e.g., leased office buildings, emergency response sites, private residences, schools, sites of law enforcement activity.  This type of location is not covered under HSPD-12.
There are no requirements for drug testing of contractor employees working at either Federal or non-Federal facilities under HSPD-12.

2. Need For and Use of The Collection 

      (a) Need/authority for the Collection

      The legal authority for this collection is Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 731, 732, and 736.  The EPA has a responsibility to protect the public and Agency and contractor employees working on an emergency response incident by ensuring employees are not under the influence of marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, PCP, and any other controlled substances.  This process is necessary to allow the EPA to meet its responsibilities and mitigate the threat to the public health, welfare and the environment. 

      (b) Uses/users of the Data

      Information is collected by contractors for performing drug tests on contract employees before the individual employees perform contractual services for the EPA.

3. Nonduplication, Consultation, and Other Collection Criteria

 Nonduplication

      Information requested from a contractor's employee to determine suitability to perform on a response contract is unique to a specific individual; this information cannot be obtained without a drug test.

      (b) Public Notice Required Prior to ICR submission to Office of Management and Budget.

  A notice to renew this information collection was posted to the Federal Register on March 8, 2021(86 FR 13369).  Public comments were due by May 7, 2021, and no relevant public comments were received.
      
      
      (c) Consultations

      To determine contractor burden associated with the information collection identified in this request, the following vendors were contacted but did not respond; therefore the estimated burden figures from the existing ICR are considered to still be applicable.  Estimated time to complete the information collection is described in Section 6, Estimating the Burden and Cost of the Collection.  
      

_Representative__		               Firm___________	          ____Phone___
Joe Baer	  		Tech Law	                                    (304) 230-1230
Lisa Friday		            Weston Solutions	 		(610) 701-3157
Eric Simpson	  		Sovereign Consulting			(508) 339-3200

      (d) Effects of Less Frequent Collection

      The information provided by the contractors' employees is collected once prior to the employee performing under a response contract work on-site for the EPA and generally every quarter to ensure employees can meet the requirement of having been tested every 90 days prior to starting work on a sensitive site.  The requirement for drug testing cannot be met with a less frequent collection. 

      (e) General Guidelines

      This ICR does not exceed any of the OMB guidelines found 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2). 
      
      (f) Confidentiality

      The EPA contractor is responsible for collecting and maintaining information under this collection of information; therefore, each contractor will have its own procedures for ensuring confidentiality.
      
      The EPA contractor is responsible for having the drug testing performed, and for providing, for work at sensitive sites, only those individuals who have passed the test within the previous 90 days.

      (g) Sensitive Questions

      No questions concerning sexual behavior or attitudes, religious beliefs, or other matters usually considered private are included in this information collection.

4. The Respondents and the Information Received   

      (a) Respondents/North American Industry Classification System Codes

      Notification is provided from contractors of the passing status of proposed contractor and subcontractor employees who will perform services with regard to environmental emergencies involving the release, or threatened release, of oil, radioactive materials or hazardous chemicals that may potentially affect communities and the surrounding environment.  Information is collected for employees of the contractors and subcontractors who perform work in sensitive sites or sensitive projects corresponding with the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 562910 for Remediation Services. 
      
 Information Requested

      EPA is only requesting information on the status of proposed employees' drug test and the date of the drug testing. Submissions are accepted in any format, as long as they provide a passing status of proposed employees and the date the test was given. No other information is required to be submitted to the Agency.

5. The Information Collected: Agency Activities, Collection Methodology, and Information Management

      (a) Agency Activities  

      The EPA contracting officers are responsible for ensuring that they have received notification from the contractor that all of its employees working under the contract at a response site with security concerns have passed the drug test for the use of marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, PCP, and any other controlled substances.

      (b) Collection Methodology and Management  

      The information is collected by contractors from their employees who work on sensitive response sites.  Compliance is mandatory and no employee may work on a response site with security concerns without passing the drug test.  Only those contractor employees who have been tested within the previous 90 calendar days may be directly engaged in on-site response work and/or on-site related activities at designated sites with significant security concerns.  

      (c) Small Entity Flexibility

      Separate or further simplified requirements for small entities are not practical because the stated objectives cannot be met under such alternatives.  The requirements of the information collection apply to the awardees of the contract.  Reasonable expense associated with the drug testing is reimbursable; therefore, small businesses are not expected to experience financial difficulties in fulfilling these requirements.  There are numerous commercial sources that perform drug tests.

      (d) Collection Schedule

      Information on the passing status of proposed employees and the date the test was given will be collected as needed as individuals are requested to work on a response site location under new or existing contracts.

6. Estimating the Burden and Cost of the Collection

      (a) Estimation of Respondent Burden

      Respondent burden estimates for this collection are based upon discussions with the contractors identified in 3(b) above and discussions with Agency personnel.  The Agency anticipates that the contractor burden for complying with this requirement includes the time it takes for employees to provide the required information, the administrative time to manage a drug testing subcontract, the time to notify the Agency, and the effort to maintain the records.  

      (b) Estimation of Respondent Costs

            (i) Estimating Labor Costs

                           Respondent Cost Estimate
Respondent Cost Estimate
                                                   Burden	         Loaded 
Step	Collection Activity  	     	Labor Category        Hours              Rate__	    Cost
   1.  Time to provide sample		Employees	         1.5 hours         $74.00	$111.00
   2.  Cost of Drug Test					flat rate		$  50.00
      (subcontract)
   3.  Manage Drug Test		HR Manager	        0.25 hour	       $180.92	$  45.23
   subcontract & review results
   4.  Submit notification 		HR Manager	        0.25 hour        $180.92	$  45.23
   5.  Maintain files		       Admin. Support 	        0.25 hour          $58.25	$  14.56
            				        2.25 hours
            Estimated Respondent Cost per Drug Test                             $266.02

      Step 1 of the information collection is completed by a contractor employee working at a sensitive site. The 1.5-hour estimate is based upon information provided by the contractors who provided consultations in previous ICR renewals.  The contractors indicated that while it takes 15 minutes to provide a specimen, it does not take into account travelling to a lab, waiting to be called for the testing and returning to the job site.  The cost for Step 2, having a third party perform a drug test, is based upon market research and input from the vendors surveyed.  Vendors' costs for this ranged from $28-$85.  OHS Health and Safety Services, one of the largest drug testing companies in the United States, estimates average costs at $44 per test.  OHS' prices range from $25-$65 depending on the volume purchased.  This data can be found on the OHS website at www.ohsinc.com.  For estimating purposes for this ICR, $50 average was used. Steps 3 and 4, reviewing suitability and notifying EPA, are performed by a human resource-type manager responsible for personnel management and are estimated at 15 minutes based on vendor input. Administrative support personnel are responsible for completing step 5, which includes filing the background check in personnel records. This was estimated at 15 minutes based on vendor input. 
      
      The cost associated with this effort was estimated using hourly rates based upon the May 2019 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates published by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The occupational categories used are Hazardous Materials Removal Workers, Human Resource Manager, and Office and Administrative Support. 

      Since the labor rates used in this estimate are from 2019, an escalation factor of 3% was applied for each year to determine an average wage for the respective year.  The cost for each labor category was determined by multiplying the escalated hourly labor rate by an estimated loading factor of 2.95 to reflect industries' overhead, fringe benefits, and general and administrative costs for each year (2020-2023) that the ICR will be in effect.  The 2.95 estimate was provided by an EPA cost analyst as representative of labor related burdens experienced by EPA contractors.  The loaded labor costs for 2020 thru 2023 were added together then divided by three (number of years for the ICR) to arrive at an annualized labor cost for each labor category.  
      
      The following are the loaded labor rates used in the calculations in the table above:

Employee  -  Hazardous Materials Removal Worker:
2019 = $22.95
2020 = ($22.95 x 1.03) = $23.64
2021 = ($23.64 x 1.03) = $24.35 x 2.95 = $ 71.83
2022 = ($24.35 x 1.03) = $25.08 x 2.95 = $ 73.98
2023 = ($25.08 x 1.03) = $25.83 x 2.95 = $ 76.20
                                      $222.01/3 = $74.00
                              
Human Resource Manager:
2019 = $56.11
2020 = ($56.11 x 1.03) = $57.79
2021 = ($57.79 x 1.03) = $59.53 x 2.95 = $ 175.61
2022 = ($59.53 x 1.03) = $61.31 x 2.95 = $ 180.86
2023 = ($61.31 x 1.03) = $63.15 x 2.95 = $ 186.30
                                     $ 542.77/3 = $180.92

Administrative Support:
2019 = $18.07
2020 = ($18.07 x 1.03) = $18.61
2021 = ($18.61 x 1.03) = $19.17 x 2.95 = $ 56.55
2022 = ($19.17 x 1.03) = $19.74 x 2.95 = $ 58.23
2023 = ($19.74 x 1.03) = $20.33 x 2.95 = $ 59.97
                                     $174.75/3 = $58.25

 (ii)  Capital/ Start-up Costs

      Respondents will not be required to acquire capital goods to provide the requested information; therefore, capital start-up costs have not been included in this estimate.

      (iii)  Operating and Maintenance Costs

      Operating and maintenance costs, which include such items as file storage, photocopying, and postage, will be nominal.

      (c) Estimating Agency Burden and Cost

      Agency burden for responses to background check and suitability determinations.

                          Agency Burden Cost Estimate
                                 Labor			    Loaded
Step	Collection Activity		Category        Burden Hours	   _Rate_	Cost

   1.  Ensure Compliance and		GS-13		0.25 hour	   $113.54	$28.38
        document file 			
      				     Estimated Agency cost per drug test	$28.38	
      
      Drug testing is the responsibility of the EPA contractor.  The Agency is primarily responsible for ensuring that contractors notify the Agency that its employees have passed the drug test.  The Agency's current effort is estimated to be performed by an employee at the GS-13 level and will take approximately fifteen minutes, which is about the same as previous years. The GS-13 hourly salary for 2020 with a locality pay for "Rest of US" is $49.54, and a 3 percent escalation factor has been applied for any cost-of-living increases given to federal workers in 2019 or 2020.  These wage rates were then multiplied by a factor of 2.16 to reflect Federal employee benefits. The 2.16 estimate was provided by an EPA cost analyst as representative of labor-related burdens for government employees. The loaded labor costs for 2018 thru 2020 were added together then divided by three (number of years for the ICR) for an annualized loaded rate of $105.44 for the three years the ICR is in effect.  

2020 =			     $49.54
2021 = ($49.54 x 1.03) = $51.02 x 2.16 = $110.21
2022 = ($51.02 x 1.03) = $52.55 x 2.16 = $113.51
2023 = ($52.55 x 1.03) = $54.12 x 2.16 = $116.91
                                   $340.63/3 = $113.54
      
       (d) Estimating the Respondent Universe and Total Burden 

      All EPA contractor personnel performing at an EPA designated sensitive site with significant security concerns must be tested for the presence of marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, PCP, and any other controlled substances.  A site with significant security concerns is determined by the Agency and could be sites that involve law enforcement activities, any indoor cleanups (including household residences), drug lab cleanups, and response actions at geographically sensitive locations such as military installations and government buildings.  The number of contractor employees expected to submit to drug testing is around 1,500 for the life of this ICR (3 years).  This number was determined by estimating the number of drug tests that contractors provide in a year because they would be considered to have security concerns for the Agency.  Annually, the Agency responds to roughly 450 incidences with an estimated 5% of these responses (23) that may be designated as having security concerns for the Agency.  

      There are both small and large businesses working in the field with diverse response site situations that require large variations in the number of employees.  Contractors may be on-site for a few days or many years depending on the situation.  Per the EPA Office of Acquisition Solution's active contract list, there are currently about 50 contracts which require contractors to perform drug testing on employees working at sensitive sites.  The number of annual drug tests performed by the companies ranged from 0 to 300, taking into account multiple tests for employees who are being tested quarterly.  The government estimate is 500 tests for all contractors per year.   

      (e) Bottom Line Burden Hours and Costs

            (i) Respondent Tally

      Total estimated annual hours for this request is 1,125 hours at a cost of $133,010. The hours were calculated by multiplying the number of hours per occurrence, 2.25, by the estimated number of tests per year, 500.  The cost was derived by multiplying the respondent cost per collection, $266.02, by the estimated 500 occurrences per year. The total cost over the life of this ICR, three years, is $387,300.  The previous ICR estimated annual cost was $129,100. 

            (ii) The Agency Tally

      The total annual Agency burden hours for this collection request are 125 hours.  This is calculated by taking the total number of contractor employees expected to submit to drug testing, 500 per year, by the estimated burden of 0.25 hour per occurrence. The total annual Agency burden cost is estimated at $14,190.  This is calculated by multiplying the estimated burden hours, 0.25, by the estimated hourly rate of $113.54 for a total of $28.38 for one collection request.  Then, the $28.38 is multiplied by the estimated number of annual occurrences, 500, for a total of $14,190 annually.  The estimated Agency cost over the life of this ICR, three years, is $42,570.
      
       (f) Reasons for Change in Burden
      
      No burden change.
      
      (g) Burden Statement

The annual public reporting and record keeping burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 2.25 hours per response.  Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide information to or for a Federal agency.  This includes the time needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.   An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.  The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are listed in 40 CFR part 9 and 48 CFR chapter 15.

 To comment on the Agency's need for this information, the accuracy of the provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods for minimizing respondent burden, including the use of automated collection techniques, EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OARM-2018-0065 which is available for online viewing at www.regulations.gov, or in person viewing at the Office of Environmental Information in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.  The EPA Docket Center Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays.  The telephone number for the Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Office of Environmental Information is (202) 566-1752.  An electronic version of the public docket is available at www.regulations.gov.  This site can be used to submit or view public comments, access the index listing of the contents of the public docket, and to access those documents in the public docket that are available electronically.  When in the system, select "search," then key in the Docket ID Number identified above.  Also, you can send comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 725 17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20503, Attention: Desk Officer for EPA.  Please include the EPA Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OARM-2018-0065 and OMB Control Number 2030-0044 in any correspondence.

