EPA Data Governance Council

Meeting Summary - April 25, 2022

General Updates

•	EPA's Chief Data Officer, Richard Allen, welcomed the group.

•	FY 22 ITPR Data Discussions began in April 2022.

•	Ongoing DGC project updates are available in the 04/25/2022 DGC Project Updates wiki.

Paperwork Reduction Act and Information Collection Request Requirements

•	Courtney Kerwin presented an overview of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) and Information
Collection Request (ICR) requirements.

•	The PRA requires OMB approval before a federal agency undertakes a collection of information directed
at ten or more persons.

o This protects the public from unnecessary, duplicative and burdensome requests for information

by the federal government,
o It ensures the greatest possible benefit from information collected by the federal government.

•	Failure to comply with the PRA can result in a halt to information collections, an affirmative defense in
an enforcement case and/or reporting to Congress as part of the Information Collection Budget of the
United States.

•	If someone only needs to provide their name, email address or address, for example, to register for a
webinar, you are not required to complete an ICR.

•	There is a generic ICR process for satisfaction surveys that is much quicker.

•	Asking questions of Federal employees as part of their job does not require an ICR.

•	The ICR Team does not have a contracting vehicle to support offices in the development of ICRs, but
many offices have their own contract support to assist with this.

•	The PRA is not waived when there is an emergency, but there is an expedited process that can be used
in the case of an emergency.

•	Each program office and region has an ICR desk officer.

Data Sharing

•	Cat Foley presented the data sharing decision tree developed in support of the implementation of the
Evidence Act.

•	The draft data sharing decision tree provides guidance on the appropriate way to share Agency data in
alignment with EPA's priority for increased access to data.

•	The next step is to review EPA's infrastructure to ensure that it can support the approach outlined in the
decision tree.

•	EPA is developing an overall approach to collecting and disseminating information so that programs can
adopt EPA processes. This will be incorporated in the governance processes being developed.

•	The DGC Data Inventory Subcommittee is looking at solutions for tagging and metadata.

•	EPA is in the process of procuring a metadata management tool that will assist with data sharing.

•	There is EPA senior leadership support for this effort which is important in successfully implementing a
standardized process. A Proof of Concept could be beneficial in reinforcing the value in the effort.

EPA Data Governance Council Meeting Summary	1	April 25,2022


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Governance Subcommittee Updates

•	Heather Barnhart presented an update on the DGC Governance Subcommittee activities.

•	Action: DGC members to review and comment on the Data Governance - Aligning Existing Governance-
Subcommittee Feedback.docx and Data Activities-DGC Full List- March 2022.xlsx by May 20, 2022.

•	Next Steps

o DGC Governance Subcommittee Update-Roadmap Update-March 2022.docx
o May-June: Finalize Governance,
o May-July: ITPRs and Data Discussions.

o September: Evaluate Data Management Process Project for CY 22/23 Work,
o October: Finalize Data Officer Suggested PARS Elements.

Communications Subcommittee Updates

•	Stephanie Montrallo presented an update on the DGC Communications Subcommittee activities.

•	The purpose of the Communications Subcommittee is to effectively coordinate internal and external
communications for the DGC.

•	The strategy is to implement the foundations for subcommittees to document and plan their
communication needs and coordinate communication among those subcommittees.

•	For subcommittee-specific communication plans, the Communications Subcommittee needs to know
what and when subcommittee deliverables and updates are.

•	Action: The Communications Subcommittee is seeking representatives from each subcommittee to
liaise with on communications needs and updates by April 25, 2022.

EPA Data Governance Council Meeting Summary

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April 25, 2022


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