JUSTIFICATION FOR A NON-MATERIAL/NONSUBSTANTIVE CHANGE TO OMB 1105-0030, Electronic Applications for the Attorney General’s Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program

JUSTIFICATION FOR A NON-MATERIAL/NONSUBSTANTIVE CHANGE TO OMB
1105-0030, Electronic Applications for the Attorney General’s Honors Program and the
Summer Law Intern Program
1.

Circumstances of the Change: In 2023, the Office of the Chief Statistician of the United
States developed a report to provide recommendations for Federal agencies on the current
best practices for the collection of self-reported sexual orientation and gender identity
(SOGI) data on Federal statistical surveys. See Recommendations on the Best Practices
for the Collection of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data on Federal Statistical
Surveys (whitehouse.gov) This was in response to Section 11 of Executive Order 14075
on Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex
Individuals issued by the White House in June 2022. (See Executive Order on Advancing
Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals | The
White House . It suggests a slightly different way of listing Gender and Sexual Orientation.

2.

Effective Date: These provisions do not mandate any particular approach or create any
new requirements for the agency at this time. SOGI measures need to be flexible and adapt
over time to maintain usefulness.

3.

Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management (OARM) Action:
As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), Federal agencies must ensure that all
survey questions provide useful data that meet the intended purposes without unduly
burdening respondents. OARM uses SOGI questions to determine whether our recruitment
and outreach effectively reaches all demographic groups within the law school population
so that we can evaluate the effectiveness of our recruitment efforts in support of the agency.
This data is annually reported to hiring offices within the Department. We aspire to
minimize burden and privacy risk to respondents, and collect only the minimum amount of
information needed to meet the planned uses. Responses are electronically segregated from
each application and accessed only in an aggregate, numeric manner not linked to a
particular applicant.
There is no single, best practice set of questions for soliciting information about a person’s
sexual orientation or gender identity. One of the examples offered in the 2023
Recommendations on the Best Practices for the Collection of Sexual Orientation and
Gender Identity Data on Federal Statistical Surveys (whitehouse.gov), reflect a minimally
detailed approach to collecting gender identity that can provide higher-level results that
meet data needs while minimizing burden, sensitivity, and privacy risk. This approach adds
a third response option to traditional binary measures and collects only basic information
about an individual’s current gender identity. Surveys that currently collect gender using
only binary response options (i.e., “male”/”female”) can use this approach to update to a
more inclusive question.

This change is limited to the format of optional demographic information provided by eligible
applicants to the Attorney General’s Honors Program and the Summer Law Intern Program and
will be effective with the 2024 hiring cycle. Responses are completely voluntary. Applicants may
opt not to respond, or may opt to select one or more of the responses listed. There is no impact
on the public burden or cost.