2019-17072. Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Older Americans Act, Title VI Grant Application

AGENCY:

Administration for Community Living, HHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Administration for Community Living (ACL) is announcing an opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed collection of information listed above. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Federal agencies are required to publish a notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information, including each proposed extension of an existing collection of information, and to allow 30 days for public comment in response to the notice.

This notice solicits comments on the Proposed New Collection and solicits comments on the information collection requirements related to the Application for Older Americans Act, Title VI Parts A/B and C Grants.

DATES:

Comments on the collection of information must be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. (EST) or postmarked by September 9, 2019.

ADDRESSES:

Submit written comments on the collection of information by:

(a) Email to: [e-mail], Attn: OMB Desk Officer for ACL;

(b) fax to 202.395.5806, Attn: OMB Desk Officer for ACL; or

(c) by mail to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, New Executive Office Bldg., 725 17th St. NW, Rm. 10235, Washington, DC 20503, Attn: OMB Desk Officer for ACL.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Rhonda Schwartz, Administration for Community Living, Washington, DC 20201, Rhonda Schwartz, [e-mail], [phone].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In compliance with 44 U.S.C. 3507, ACL has submitted the following proposed collection of information to OMB for review and clearance.

ACL is responsible for administering the Title VI A/B (Nutrition and Supportive Service) and C (Caregiver) grants. The purpose of this data collection is to improve and standardize the format of the application. The instrument will collect data as prescribed by the Older Americans Act Section 612(a), 614(a) and 45 CFR 1326.19 related to the eligibility of Federally-recognized Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations for grant funds under this program and their capacity to deliver services to elders.

The Application for Older Americans Act, Title VI A/B and C Grants collects information on the ability of federally-recognized American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian organizations to provide nutrition, supportive, and caregiver services to elders within their service area. Applicants are required to provide a description of their organization's service area, the number of eligible elders in their service area, and their ability to deliver services and sign assurances that the organization will comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

This is a new data collection. In prior grant cycles, AoA used ACL's generic clearance for the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) information collection currently approved under OMB control number 0985-0018. The proposed data collection materials have been updated to better align with the requirements of the Older Americans Act and Federal regulations, as well as to improve data quality and grantee accountability. Furthermore, this grantee application will better line up with the revised Title VI Program Performance Report under 0985-0059 and will eliminate duplicate reporting requirements for grantees. This data collection will also support ACL in tracking performance outcomes and efficiency measures with respect to the annual and long-term performance targets established in compliance with the Government Performance Results Modernization Act (GPRMA).

A notice was published in the Federal Register on June 3, 2019, Vol. 84, No. 106, pp. 25546-25547.

The proposed data collection tools may be found on the ACL website for review at https://www.acl.gov/​about-acl/​public-input.

Estimated Program Burden

Title VI grant applications are required once every three (3) years, so an annual response is not required for this instrument (the annual burden below reflects this calculation). Additionally, Title VI funding is broken into three categories.

Parts A and B are for nutritional and supportive programming, with Part A being restricted to American Indian and Alaska Native grantees, and Part B restricted to Native Hawaiian grantees. Part C is for caregiver programming. All Part C grantees must have Part A/B funding, but not all Part A/B grantees will have Part C programs. Therefore, there are likely to be 295 unique respondents, but only 250 will have to complete all three portions of the application. This application covers all three parts of Title VI.

ACL estimates the burden associated with this collection of information as follows:

Respondent/data collection activity	Number of respondents	Responses per respondent	Hours per response	Annual burden hours
Title VI Application Part A/B	295	1	2.75	270.4
Title VI Application Part C	250	1	1.5	125
Total			4.25	395.4

The number of burden hours associated with the Title VI, Part C, data collection was calculated as 811.25. However, since this instrument is used only once every 3 years, this number was annualized by dividing it into thirds. This resulted in an annualized number of 270.4 hours. Similarly, the total hours associated with the Title VI, Part C, application is 375. This number was annualized by dividing it by three, resulting in an annual burden hours of 125.

Dated: August 5, 2019.

Mary Lazare,

Principal Deputy Administrator.