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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 173 / Friday, September 10, 2021 / Rules and Regulations Emergency Management Director SOC:
119160, mean hourly wage $39.68 10
and First-Line Supervisor of Office and Administrative Support Workers SOC:
431010, mean hourly wage $28.91 11
are most representative of these roles in a State. Using the 1.46 multiplier,12 the fully loaded wage rates are $57.93 and $42.21 respectively. The estimated total cost of recipients making themselves familiar with the rule is $5,608 in year 1 $1,041 per year annualized at 7
percent over 7 years, and $900 at 3
percent. 56 recipients 1 hour
$57.93 wage + 56 recipients 1 hour $42.21 wage = $5,608
Summary of Costs. FEMA estimated the rule has familiarization costs of $5,608 in the first year of implementation. FEMA assumed that all staff and resources will come from existing sources and thus represent an opportunity cost.
Benefits This rule will be beneficial to both FEMA and Hazard Mitigation Grant recipients. While the benefits are not quantifiable, FEMA believes that changes implemented by BW12 allow it to target the most vulnerable properties, and streamline the mitigation grant process. Under the noaction baseline, most changes in this rule are technical and include definitional updates and other changes made to harmonize FEMA regulations with current FEMA practices and HMA
guidance, modernize and standardize the regulations, reduce redundancy, or increase readability. These changes are largely nonsubstantive and do not have an economic impact.
Cost Savings. FEMA estimated annual costs savings of $81,159 resulting from removal of the definition of market value at 44 CFR 79.2f and g. The removal of market value is new to this regulation and was not implemented in previous guidance. Currently, the regulation requires FEMA to use the
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10 May
2019 National Occupational Employment and Wage Rates, National File xls, First-Line Supervisors of Office & Admin Support Workers SOC: 431010, Average, Column Title: H_Mean.
Accessed and downloaded Feb 8, 2021. https
www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.
11 May 2019 National Occupational Employment and Wage Rates, National File xls, Emergency Management Directors SOC: 119160, Average, Column Title: H_Mean. Accessed and downloaded Feb 8, 2021. https www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.
12 December 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Table 1. Employer costs per hour worked for employee compensation and costs as a percent of total compensation: Civilian workers, by major occupational and industry group, page 4 $37.73/
$25.91. Accessed and downloaded Feb 8, 2021.
https www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ecec_
06182020.pdf.

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market value of a structure when making grant determinations. Removal of this requirement allows FEMA to consider the value of the structure listed on the flood insurance policy when considering a grant request related to a vulnerable structure, rather than the market value. This results in a reduction in the time it takes FEMA
personnel to review a grant application.
Using market value required additional research and appraisals, whereas the flood insurance property value is readily available to FEMA
personnel. FEMA estimates that this change reduces the personnel time it takes to review a grant application by an estimated 2 hours per review for a total of $81,159 annually. The removal of market value may impact grant amounts due to possible differences from the insured value, but FEMA does not have data available to estimate this impact.
FEMA based its estimates on the estimated annual average number of FMA grant applications that required a market value review between 2013 and 2019 and the wage rates of the personnel reviewing the grants. The annual average number of grant requests was 545. Table 3 shows the annual number of grant requests for vulnerable properties that required a market value review between 2013 and 2019.

TABLE 3ANNUAL GRANT REQUESTS
REQUIRING MARKET VALUE REVIEW
Year 2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019

FMA Program

552
374
678
832
743
485
149

Total

3,813

Annual Average

545

Reviews of the grant applications can vary widely from simpleall documentation accompanies the request and requires very little follow-upto complex. For this analysis, FEMA chose to capture the variability in the grant application reviews by using a weighted average of the hours it takes to complete the reviews. FEMA estimated that 25
percent of the reviews are simple; these reviews take 8 hours each on average to complete. Reviews of applications that are average in their complexity comprise 50 percent of the reviews and are assumed to take 12 hours each.
Twenty-five percent of the reviews are complex and take 16 hours on average
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to complete.13 Taking a weighted average of the times listed and using the distribution of 25 percent simple/50
percent average/25 percent complex, FEMA estimated that grant application reviews take 12 hours on average to complete. 0.25 8 + 0.50 12 +
0.25 16 = 12 hours Program Specialists GS 13, step 5
and contracted Civil Engineers conduct the reviews, the Program Specialists conduct 75 percent of reviews and the Civil Engineers conduct the remaining 25 percent. The fully-loaded average hourly wage for GS 13, step 5 at the FEMA regional locations is $77.20 14
and FEMA estimates $66.23 15 is the fully-loaded hourly wage rate for Civil Engineers. Using the 12-hour average estimate for reviewing the grant application, FEMA estimated that each year it spends $486,952 on average to review FMA grant applications. 545
grant reviews 12 hours per review
$77.20 hourly wage for Program Specialist 0.75 + 545 grant reviews 12 hours per review $66.23 hourly wage for Civil Engineer 0.25 =
$486,952.05
FEMA estimated that removing the definition of market value will reduce its administrative burden by 2 hours per review. This results in each review taking 10 hours instead of 12, on average. Using the same calculation as above and 10 hours instead of 12 hours per review, FEMAs average amount spent each year on reviewing FMA grant applications will be $405,793 and results in an estimated annual cost savings of $81,159. $486,952
$405,793 = $81,159
Clarification of Mitigation Grant Terms and Conditions. The current HMA grant program regulations contain inconsistencies or vague language that may cause confusion. Specifically, 13 FEMA personnel who review the FMA grant requests provided the information on the average time to review and the discussion of complexity.
14 Based on the OPM General Schedule of Pay, January 2019, the average base wage of GS 13, step 5 in each of the FEMA regional office locations is $52.88 Boston, MA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Denton, TX; Kansas City, MO; Denver, CO; Oakland, CA; and Bothell, WA, which is multiplied by a 1.46 benefits multiplier December 2018, BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation to get a fully loaded wage rate of $77.20/hour. Accessed and downloaded Feb 9, 2021. https www.opm.gov/policy-dataoversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2019/generalschedule/.
15 Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2019
National Employment and Wage Rate, National File xls, a Civil Engineer, SOC 172050, has a base wage of $45.36, which is multiplied by a benefits multiplier of 1.46 December 2019, BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation to get a fully loaded wage rate of $66.23/hour. Accessed and downloaded Feb 8, 2021. https www.bls.gov/oes/
tables.htm.

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