81 FR 71736 - Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Administration for Children and Families

Federal Register Volume 81, Issue 201 (October 18, 2016)

[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 201 (Tuesday, October 18, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 71736-71737]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2016-25120]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

    Proposed Projects:
    Title: Renewal of Office of Community Services (OCS) Community 
Economic Development (CED) Standard Reporting Format.
    OMB No.: 0970-0386.
    Description: The Office of Community Services (OCS) will continue 
collecting key information about projects funded through the Community 
Economic Development (CED) program. The legislative requirement for 
this program is in Title IV of the Community Opportunities, 
Accountability and Training and Educational Services Act (COATS Human 
Services Reauthorization Act) of October 27, 1998, Public Law 105-285, 
section 680(b) as amended. The reporting format, Performance Progress 
Report (PPR), collects information concerning the outcomes and 
management of CED projects. OCS will use the data to critically review 
the overall design and effectiveness of the program.
    The PPR will continue to be administered to all active grantees of 
the CED program. Grantees will be required to use this reporting tool 
for their semi-annual reports to be submitted twice a year. The current 
PPR replaced both the annual questionnaire and other semi-annual 
reporting formats, which resulted in an overall reduction in burden for 
the grantees while significantly improving the quality of the data 
collected by OCS. OCS seeks to renew this PPR to continue to collect 
quality data from grantees. To ensure the burden on grantees is not 
increased, but that the information collected demonstrates the full 
impact of the program, OCS has conducted an in-depth review to remove 
indicators that are not being used; add indicators that will allow OCS 
to better demonstrate the impact of the program; and clarify language 
of some indicators to reduce grantee confusion. Based on this review, 
proposed changes to the CED PPR are minimal and focused on clarifying 
language, removing outdated indicators, and gathering minimal 
additional data that will not increase the burden on grantees. These 
measures will result in a stronger and streamlined CED PPR that will 
allow for the following:

--More clarity for grantees and ability to avoid confusion around what 
data should be provided.
--Increased consistency across data.
--Ability for OCS and grantees to better demonstrate the impact of 
these projects.
    A summary of all proposed changes can be provided upon request.
    Respondents: Active CED Grantees

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                  Number of      Average burden
                 Instrument                      Number of      responses per      hours per       Total burden
                                                respondents       respondent        response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PPR for Current OCS-CED Grantees............             170                2              1.5              510
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours:
    In compliance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chap 35), the Administration for 
Children and Families is soliciting public comment on the specific 
aspects of the information collection described above. Copies of the 
proposed collection of information can be obtained and comments may be 
forwarded by writing to the Administration for Children and Families, 
Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, 330 C Street SW., 
Washington DC 20201. Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer. Email 
address: [email protected]. All requests should be identified 
by the title of the information collection.

[[Page 71737]]

    The Department specifically requests comments on: (a) Whether the 
proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper 
performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the 
information shall have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 
agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (c) the quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
to be collected; and (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection 
of information on respondents, including through the use of automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology. 
Consideration will be given to comments and suggestions submitted 
within 60 days of this publication.

Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2016-25120 Filed 10-17-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4184-01-P