SUPPORTING STATEMENT - PART A
Veterans Engagement Action Center (VEAC) Surveys
– 2900-0912
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1. Need for the Information Collection (1-3 paragraphs)
Veterans Experience Action Center (VEAC) is a Veterans Affairs (VA) program established to proactively assist Veterans in a selected state with a one-stop resource for all their needs. The VEAC brings together VA benefits, health care and other resources in partnership with state VA resources.
The VEAC gathers feedback from Veterans, Active Military, Guard/Reservist, Family members, caregivers, providers, and survivors. The VEAC then provides that feedback to VA leaders to measure the success of the outreach event and measure the ease, effectiveness, emotion, and trust from the participants as they exit.
The surveys will further allow the Veterans Experience Office (VEO) to measure whether the needs of the participants were met. Additional areas where the survey results will provide meaningful value and impact:
Identifies gaps and challenges in health care, benefits, and service delivery.
Identifies areas for how VA can best support local efforts in a holistic fashion.
Identifies areas where there may be barriers to access to VA products and services, and the extent to which outreach tailored to local communities is valuable and effective.
Per FY2021 MILCON House report 116-445, the Committee directs the VA to provide quarterly reports on the status of the implementation of the VEAC pilot program; the effectiveness of the pilot program at reaching Veterans, particularly those in need, and increasing utilization of VA services:
Congress (Quarterly Congressional Tracking Reports (CTRs)
2. Use of the Information (2-4 paragraphs)
VEAC surveys afford VEAC participants the ability to provide feedback to VA and allow the customer to share their experiences. VEO uses the customer’s feedback to enhance and increase outreach and engagement efforts and determine the direct value of our efforts.
The surveys and its delivery are an innovative approach to measure and improve customer experience based on the "voice of the Veteran." Through the use of the VSignals digital platform, VEO can identify gaps and challenges in the community, provide information on VA programs, increase access and outreach, identify what is and what is not working, and determine how VA can best support local community efforts in support of Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors. The Veteran Experience Office (VEO) has also been commissioned to measure the satisfaction of Peer-to-Peer organizations and veterans who recently interacted with the VEAC.
Survey respondents will be Veterans, Active Military, Guard/Reservist, family members, caregivers, and survivors that attend a VEAC event. Some VEAC participants may also be offered to provide feedback to surveys that capture their experience through their Peer-to-Peer connections or their attendance on a Veterans Experience Live Question and Answer event. Different surveys may be administered participants of events:
VEAC Exit Survey: Outreach event staff will verbally administer the survey to event attendees as the last step in the overall event process. The outreach staff will fill out the web-based survey on behalf of the outreach event participant.
VEAC Email Survey: A survey will be sent via email to event attendees that were not able to take the VEAC Exit Survey. The email survey will not be sent to event attendees that opted out of the VEAC Exit Survey.
3. Use of Information Technology (1-4 sentences)
100% of the responses will be collected electronically. This survey is a non-probability-based survey and is not intended to make inferences about any overall population. This survey will be administered to Veterans who either are (a) affiliated with Veteran Service Organizations; (b) affiliated with Veteran-focused community-based or nonprofit organizations; or (c) Veterans who are not affiliated with any specific organizations.
4. Non-duplication (1-2 sentences)
The information obtained through this collection is unique and is not already available for use or adaptation from another cleared source.
5. Burden on Small Businesses(1-2 sentences)
This information collection does not impose a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small businesses or entities.
6. Less Frequent Collection (1-3 sentences)
Events are held in different states and use different staff members from the local areas. It is important to collect feedback at each event to provide insights on attendee experience at the local level and tailor process improvements to specific areas.
7. Paperwork Reduction Act Guidelines (1 sentence)
This collection of information does not require collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines delineated in 5 CFR 1320.5(d)(2).
8. Consultation and Public Comments
Part A: PUBLIC NOTICE
A 60-Day Federal Register Notice (FRN) for the collection published on Monday, May 5, 2025. The 60-Day FRN citation is 90 FRN 19087
No comments were received during the 60-Day Comment Period.
A 30-Day Federal Register Notice for the collection published on Thursday, July 10, 2025. The 30-Day FRN citation is 90 FRN 30776.
Part B: CONSULTATION (2-4 sentences)
No additional consultation apart from soliciting public comments through the Federal Register was conducted for this submission.
9. Gifts or Payment (1-3 sentences)
No payments or gifts are being offered to respondents as an incentive to participate in the collection.
10. Confidentiality
A Privacy Act Statement is not required for this collection because we are not requesting individuals to furnish personal information for a system of records.
A System of Record Notice (SORN) is not required for this collection because records are not retrievable by PII.
A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) is published here: https://department.va.gov/privacy/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/05/FY23VSignalsAssessingPIA.pdf
VSignals does not intentionally retain any personal identifiable information. Veteran respondents could provide PII via open text field without solicitation. Data is retained for 7 years as defined by the agency before being purged from the system. VSignals system does not retrieve records by personal identifier. Any information in identifiable form or PII is not intentionally collected directly from individual. It is extracted from the CDW. Information received from CDW is purged from the system after usage. Any issued privacy
notices have already been provided at the point of collection before being stored in the CDW. The data remains in the S3 bucket until the next round of data is pushed to the bucket at which point the deprecated data is removed. This is an approved rule, which runs twice a week.
11. Sensitive Questions (1 paragraph)
No questions considered sensitive are being asked in this collection.
12. Respondent Burden and its Labor Costs
Part A: ESTIMATION OF RESPONDENT BURDEN
Collection Instrument(s)
VEAC Exit and Email Surveys
Number of Respondents: 12,000 annually
Number of Responses Per Respondent: 1
Number of Total Annual Responses: 12,000
Response Time: 5 minutes
Respondent Burden Hours: 1,000 hours
Total Submission Burden (Summation or average based on collection)
Total Number of Respondents: 12,000
Total Number of Annual Responses: 12,000
Total Respondent Burden Hours: 1,000 hours
Part B: LABOR COST OF RESPONDENT BURDEN
Collection Instrument(s)
VEAC Exit and Email Surveys
Number of Total Annual Responses: 12,000 annually
Response Time: 5 minutes
Respondent Hourly Wage: $28.01
Labor Burden per Response: $2.33
Total Labor Burden: $28,010.00
Overall Labor Burden
Total Number of Annual Responses: 12,000
Total Labor Burden: $28,010
The Respondent hourly wage was determined by using the [Department of Labor Wage Website] ([http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/wages/index.htm])
13. Respondent Costs Other Than Burden Hour Costs (1-4 sentences)
There are no annualized costs to respondents other than the labor burden costs addressed in Section 12 of this document to complete this collection.
14. Cost to the Federal Government
Part A: LABOR COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
(P): Repeat (using copy and paste) 1a-e for each collection instrument.
Collection Instrument(s)
VEAC Exit and Email Surveys
Number of Total Annual Responses: 12,000
Processing Time per Response: .02 hours
Hourly Wage of Worker(s) Processing Responses : $161,486 annually for GS14 step 5 in Washington DC
2087 hours per year (Computing Hourly Rates of Pay Using the 2,087-Hour Divisor (opm.gov))
$161,486/2087 =$77.38
Cost to Process Each Response (P: B multiplied by C): $1.55
Total Cost to Process Responses (P: A multiplied by D): $18,600
Overall Labor Burden to the Federal Government
Total Number of Annual Responses (P: add all “a’s” in this section): 12,000
Total Labor Burden (P: add all “e’s” in this section): $18,600
Part B: OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE COSTS
Cost Categories
Equipment: $0
Printing: $0
Postage: $0
Software Purchases: $0
Licensing Costs: $3,670,499.68 annually, 159 surveys, this OMB package is for 2 surveys:
$3,670,499.68 /159 = $23,084.90 annually per survey
$23,084.90 x 2 = $46,169.80 annually for the two surveys in this package
Other: $11,046,064.17 annually for contract support, 159 surveys, this OMB package is for 2 surveys:
$11,046,064.17 /159=$69,472.10 annually per survey
$69,472.10 x 2 = $138,944.20 annually for the two surveys in this package
Total Operational and Maintenance Cost: (P: Add a) through f) in this section) $185,114 annually
Part C: TOTAL COST TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Total Labor Cost to the Federal Government: $18,600 annually
Total Operational and Maintenance Costs: $185,114 annually
Total Cost to the Federal Government (P: Add 1 and 2 in this section): $203,714 annually
15. Reasons for Change in Burden (1-7 sentences)
(P): Has there been a change in burden estimates since the last time this collection was approved? Why, or why not?
The burden has decreased since the previous approval due to peer to peer survey instrument no longer being in use.
16. Publication of Results (1 sentence/ 1 paragraph)
Per FY2021 MILCON House report 116-445, the Committee directs the VA to provide quarterly reports on the status of the implementation of the VEAC pilot program; the effectiveness of the pilot program at reaching Veterans, particularly those in need, and increasing utilization of VA services:
Congress (Quarterly Congressional Tracking Reports (CTRs)
17. Non-Display of OMB Expiration Date (1 sentence/ 1 paragraph)
We are not seeking approval to omit the display of the expiration date of the OMB approval on the collection instrument.
18. Exceptions to “Certification for Paperwork Reduction Submissions” (1 sentence)
We are not requesting any exemptions to the provisions stated in 5 CFR 1320.9.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Kaitlin Chiarelli |
| File Created | 2025:07:15 21:58:47Z |