One form for recruits who cannot produce a birth certificate — 150,000 a year at five minutes each
The Defense Department gave 30 days notice, alongside its application to the Office of Management and Budget, on a form asking state and local agencies to verify a recruit date of birth. The estimate is 150,000 responses a year at five minutes each, for 12,500 annual burden hours.
Document overview (primary data)
- Document typeNotice
- AgencyDepartment of Defense
- Citation91 FR 55845
Key points
- The Defense Department sought 30 days of comment on DD Form 372, used to verify an enlistment applicant date of birth.
- The estimate is 150,000 responses a year at five minutes each, for 12,500 annual burden hours, borne by state, local or tribal government.
- The form is used where an applicant cannot provide a birth certificate, to confirm age limits and support the citizenship claimed.
- A contractor-data notice published the same day estimates 29.65 million hours — about 2,400 times the burden under the same regime.
- The request is an extension: approvals expire, so continued use requires repeating the application and comment periods.
1When there is no birth certificate
Enlisting in the United States armed forces requires meeting statutory age and citizenship requirements. A birth certificate normally establishes this, but some applicants cannot produce one. DD Form 372 is what a recruiter then sends to a state or local agency to have the date of birth verified. This notice is the application to keep using that form.
2The burden estimated
That 150,000 a year indicates how many people reach the enlistment process without a birth certificate in hand. Five minutes per response reflects a judgment that it is light work for the agency answering. Multiplied out, 12,500 hours is the social cost booked for this procedure.
3One statute, very different scales
Two notices under the same Paperwork Reduction Act, published the same day, differ in burden by a factor of roughly 2,400. That is the range the regime covers. A query answered in minutes and a submission taking dozens of hours are counted in the same units and cleared through the same procedure. Requiring quantification regardless of scale is the character of this machinery.
4The 30-day stage
This is the second stage of clearance. The agency has completed a 60-day comment period, has applied to the Office of Management and Budget, and now takes a further 30 days of comment. The type of request is an extension: not a new collection, but permission to keep using an existing form. Approvals expire, so continuing to use a form means repeating the application and the comment periods.
5Voluntary response
The notice records that response is voluntary. A state or local agency receiving the request is not obliged to answer. Yet without an answer the applicant requirements cannot be confirmed, so cooperation is assumed in practice. That this not-required-but-necessary status is itself a labelled field in the notice shows how thoroughly the procedure is formalized.
Why it matters
Because quantification and clearance are required regardless of scale, a five-minute query and a 66-hour submission can be compared in the same units. It works as a common yardstick for the total volume of administrative process.
FAQ
Why does enlistment require verifying birth?
What stage is a 30-day notice?
Sources (primary)
Source: Federal Register (federal documents, public domain). Links go to the official site.