[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 7, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 13740-13744]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-5516]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation: 
Notice Inviting Abstracts for Policy Research and Studies on Welfare 
Reform Outcomes for Fiscal Year 2001

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 
Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Announcement of the request for abstracts and the availability 
of funds for welfare reform policy research and studies.

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SUMMARY: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and 
Evaluation (ASPE) invites abstracts for policy research and studies 
related to welfare reform.
    Closing Date: The closing date for submitting abstracts under this 
announcement is April 6, 2001. Only abstracts, not full proposals, will 
be accepted under this announcement. Please email Audrey Mirsky-Ashby 
at [email protected] by March 27, 2001 to inform the government 
of your intent to submit an abstract. Please include the proposed title 
of the research project and please put ``intent to submit'' in the 
subject line of your email. Providing notice of intent to submit is not 
a requirement for submitting an abstract. However, a notice of intent 
to submit will help the federal government in the planning for the 
review process. Please email Evvie Becker at [email protected] 
April 18, 2001 to confirm receipt of any abstracts submitted. Please 
include the researcher's name, the name of the organization submitting 
the abstract, the amount of federal funds requested, and the title of 
the research project. Please put ``confirm receipt'' in the subject 
line of your email.
    Mailing Address: Abstracts should be submitted to: Adrienne Little, 
Grants Officer, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and 
Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence 
Avenue, SW., Room 405F, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Washington, DC 
20201, Telephone: (202) 690-8794. Administrative questions will be 
accepted and responded to up to ten working days prior to closing date 
of receipt of abstracts.
    The printed Federal Register notice is the only official program 
announcement. Any corrections to this announcement will be published in 
the Federal Register as well as published on the ASPE World Wide Web 
Pages. The web site is http://aspe.hhs.gov/funding.htm. Although 
reasonable efforts are taken to assure that the files on the ASPE World 
Wide Web Page containing electronic copies of this Program Announcement 
are accurate and complete, they are provided for information only. The 
applicant bears sole responsibility to assure that the copy downloaded 
and/or printed from any other source is accurate and complete.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Administrative questions should be 
directed to the Grants Officer at the address or phone number listed 
above. Technical questions should be directed to Audrey Mirsky-Ashby, 
DHHS, ASPE, telephone, 202-401-6640 or e-mail, [email protected]. 
Technical questions may also be directed in writing to Evvie Becker, 
DHHS, ASPE, at [email protected]. In addition, written technical 
questions may be faxed to Audrey Mirsky-Ashby or Evvie Becker at 202-
690-6562 or may be addressed to either Audrey Mirsky-Ashby or Evvie 
Becker at the following address, Office of the Assistant Secretary for 
Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, 200 
Independence Avenue, SW., Room 404E, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 
Washington, DC 20201. Please call to confirm receipt. Technical 
questions will be accepted and responded to up to ten working days 
prior to the closing date of receipt of abstracts.

Part I. Supplementary Information

Legislative Authority

    This announcement is authorized by Section 1110 of the Social 
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1310) and awards will be

[[Page 13741]]

made from funds appropriated under the Departments of Labor, Health and 
Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 
2001, as enacted by section 1000(a)(4) of the Consolidated 
Appropriations Act, 2001 (Public Law 106-554).

Eligible Applicants

    Pursuant to section 1110 of the Social Security Act, any public 
organization, including state and local governments, and private 
nonprofit organizations, including universities and other institutions 
of higher education, may apply. Applications may also be submitted by 
private for-profit organizations, although no funds may be paid as 
profit to grantees or subgrantees.

Available Funds

    ASPE is engaging in a two-part process. The first part of the 
process will be the submission of six page research abstracts. After 
the abstracts are reviewed by an independent review panel, a subset of 
the applicants who submitted abstracts will be invited by ASPE to 
submit full applications. These will be reviewed competitively. 
Financial awards will be made only in the second part of the process; 
no awards will be made based on abstracts submitted. An invitation to 
submit an application is not a guarantee of funding. The following 
information on fund availability is provided for planning purposes for 
applicants.
    Approximately $1,000,000 is expected to be available from ASPE 
funds appropriated for fiscal year 2001. We estimate that this level of 
funding will support between 8 and 12 ASPE awards with total budgets 
ranging from $75,000 to $150,000 for most of these short-term policy 
analyses (to be completed within about 12 months of award). These 
figures are provided as guidance but do not constitute minimum or 
maximum limits. If additional funding becomes available in fiscal years 
2001 or 2002, a greater number of projects may be funded.
    No federal funds received as a result of this announcement can be 
used to purchase computer equipment and no funds may be paid as profit 
to grantees or subgrantees, i.e., any amount in excess of allowable 
direct and indirect costs of the recipient (45 CFR 74.81). Our intent 
is to sponsor research and analytic work and not to fund the provision 
of services. Grant funds awarded in the full-proposal phase of this 
initiative may not be used to pay for programs or services.
    Grantees must provide at least 5 percent of the total approved cost 
of the project. The total approved cost of the project is the sum of 
the Federal share and the non-Federal share. The non-Federal share may 
be met by cash or in-kind contributions, although applicants are 
encouraged to meet their match requirements through cash contributions. 
For example, a researcher with a project with a total budget (both 
direct and indirect costs) of $150,000 may request up to $142,500 in 
federal funds under the announcement.
    If a proposed project activity has approved funding support from 
other funding sources, the amount, duration, purpose, and source of the 
funds should be indicated in materials submitted under this 
announcement. If completion of the proposed project activity is 
contingent upon approval of funding from other sources, the 
relationship between the funds being sought elsewhere and from ASPE 
should be discussed in the budget information submitted as a part of 
the abstract. In both cases, the contribution that ASPE funds will make 
to the project should be clearly presented.

Background

    ``The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation 
Act of 1996'' (PRWORA), a comprehensive bipartisan welfare reform plan 
that dramatically changed the nation's welfare system into one that 
requires work in exchange for time-limited assistance, was signed into 
law in August 1996. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) 
program was created to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent 
Children (AFDC) and Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) 
programs, ending the federal entitlement to assistance and providing 
funds to states to operate time-limited, work-oriented welfare 
programs. PRWORA also effected changes in child support enforcement, 
child care, food stamps, disability benefits for children, and 
immigrant eligibility for federal, state, and local benefits.
    The purpose of TANF, as articulated in the law, is to increase the 
flexibility of states in operating a program that is designed to (1) 
provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for 
in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; (2) end the dependence 
of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, 
work, and marriage; (3) prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-
wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing 
and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and (4) encourage the 
formation and maintenance of two-parent families.
    Given the sweeping changes in the welfare system and the dramatic 
caseload declines since PRWORA was enacted, for the past three years 
the Department has received policy research funds targeted by 
Congressional appropriators to support studies of the outcomes of 
welfare reform. Additional funds were also included in the FY 2001 
appropriation. The Department has used these funds to help create an 
integrated picture of the low-income population by complementing other 
public and private efforts to assess the outcome of welfare reform, 
with a particular focus on low-income families with children. Projects 
funded in fiscal years 1998, 1999, and 2000 include studies that 
measure outcomes for a broad population of low-income families, examine 
diversion practices, and measure family hardship and well-being, 
including the utilization of other support programs. Projects are in 
place to assess the outcomes of welfare reform on current, former and 
potential welfare recipients and other special populations affected by 
TANF policies. ASPE is also studying the workings of the low-wage labor 
markets, where current and former welfare recipients are most likely to 
be employed. A large portion of the welfare outcome funds have been 
spent on competitive grants to states and large counties to study 
families leaving welfare, as well as those who have been diverted 
(formally or informally) from welfare receipt. These projects have 
provided, and continue to provide, valuable data on welfare outcomes 
from a variety of perspectives. New data are becoming available to 
analyze the issues above and there is still more we need to learn about 
how low-income, disadvantaged children and families are faring under 
PRWORA. We are interested in the areas of economic outcomes for poor 
families (e.g., family hardship and well-being); child outcomes 
(including the children of teen parents); youth outcomes (including 
teen parents and teen children); the formation of families (e.g., 
marriage, fatherhood, child support, medical child support); and 
special populations (e.g., cases that involve domestic violence, mental 
health or substance abuse problems, homeless TANF families, 
incarcerated parents, cultural or language barriers, learning 
disabilities, low educational skills, chronic health problems).

Part II. Purpose

    ASPE is again interested in soliciting ideas for studies on various 
aspects of welfare reform outcomes from the research community. ASPE is 
announcing this funding opportunity as

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part of our strategy to encourage field-initiated research on the 
outcomes of welfare reform and the impacts of policy changes on low-
income children and families. These studies should focus on outcomes 
for the broad population of welfare recipients, former recipients, 
potential recipients, and other special populations affected by TANF 
policies. We will support short-term research and data analyses 
designed to be completed within 12 months. This funding is intended for 
research and analytical work, not for the provision of services. Thus, 
grant funds awarded under this initiative may not be used to pay for 
programs or services.
    ASPE is interested in analyses of the economic conditions, health 
and well-being, socio-demographic characteristics, and social service 
needs of low-income individuals, families and children affected by TANF 
policies. We want to cover a wide spectrum of policy interests related 
to welfare reform outcomes, focusing on poverty; working poor families; 
supports for low-income populations; special populations, including 
those with barriers to full participation in the work force or those 
who were made ineligible for federal TANF assistance (such as recent 
legal immigrants); and programs and policies related to low-income 
children and youth. Data from a variety of sources can be used, 
including state and county administrative records or survey data or 
data from a research project already underway. We also encourage the 
use of national surveys (e.g., the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics, the 
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-79, National Longitudinal Survey 
of Youth-97, the Survey of Income and Participation Dynamics, the 
Survey of Program Dynamics, the National Longitudinal Study of 
Adolescent Health, and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System) and 
comprehensive state level administrative and survey databases which 
allow for detailed analytic work on a variety of outcomes of welfare 
reform and the broader policy and economic environment. For example, we 
are interested in determining relationships between welfare policies 
and successful versus unsuccessful transitions to work. (Note: Despite 
the positive aspects of using national surveys, researchers must 
acknowledge and address the limitation that such data may represent 
periods that precede passage of welfare reform legislation or 
implementation of its major provisions.) We also welcome 
multidisciplinary approaches to research questions.
    With this announcement, we are seeking abstracts that propose 
studies of welfare reform outcomes, including:
    1. Researcher-nominated projects: Topics that are identified by the 
researcher as most important for our understanding of welfare reform 
outcomes, but that do not fall into one of the topic categories listed 
below.
    2. Economic Support for Poor Families: We are interested in (1) 
understanding the characteristics and needs of working poor families 
and the low-wage labor market, including supports for families 
transitioning from welfare such as child care, food stamps, Medicaid, 
and EITC, and how these affect their transition from welfare to self-
sufficiency; (2) understanding how the emphasis on work for welfare 
families is affecting adults and their children, and how they are 
faring; (3) identifying state-specific policies for welfare-to-work, 
such as state flexibility in the use of TANF funds for non-traditional 
service providers, and understanding how this is related to successful 
outcomes for families; (4) more fully understanding the economic status 
of low-income families (e.g., credit and debt, recent trends in poverty 
and employment, trends in income mobility); and; (5) understanding the 
interaction between welfare reform and housing; in particular, the 
effect of housing subsidies on the outcomes of welfare reform policies. 
(Note that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has helped 
researchers identify the recipients of housing subsidies in the past).
    3. Children and Youth: We are interested in adolescents affected by 
welfare reform, teen parents on welfare and the children of these teen 
parents, youth who reside in low-income families transitioning from 
welfare, or sub-populations of youth affected by TANF policies. We 
would like to improve our understanding of the impact of welfare reform 
policies and of state TANF/Maintenance of Effort (MOE) funding on (1) 
policies and outcomes for low-income pregnant women and families with 
infants and toddlers; (2) child care and early childhood education for 
low-income populations, including child care for children with 
disabilities; (3) youth development programs for high-risk youth; (4) 
the prevention of teen risk behaviors; (5) the child protection and 
child welfare service systems and their caseloads (for example, is 
there an increasing overlap between child protective caseloads and TANF 
participants, divertees, and leavers, which may influence welfare 
outcomes?).
    4. Family Formation: We are interested in projects that will 
increase our knowledge of the effect of TANF policies on family 
structure and functioning, including family composition, poverty, 
health insurance status, how resources are shared in cohabiting 
households before or after leaving welfare, and fertility issues, such 
as teen pregnancy and out-of-wedlock births. We are also interested in 
understanding the impact of welfare reform on marriage and on the 
living arrangements of children, and in examining how parents are 
fulfilling their economic and emotional responsibilities to their 
children. Issues of fatherhood, fragile families and cohabiting 
households, medical child support and other health care coverage for 
child support-eligible children, and how children are parented are also 
included in this topical area. There may also be issues related to how 
families with immigrant parents and citizen children are faring.
    5. Special Populations: We are interested in (1) examining the 
welfare-eligible populations with serious barriers to succeeding in 
employment, including substance abuse, mental health problems, domestic 
violence, low educational skills, and those with multiple problems; (2) 
examining services for adults and children, including substance abuse 
and mental health treatment, domestic violence services, and programs 
for incarcerated adults and their families; (3) identifying supportive 
services and work strategies, as well as barriers of location, culture, 
language, and eligibility issues for specific low-income groups, such 
as immigrants and Native Americans; (4) understanding how the use of 
outcome-based performance systems, including incentives and penalties, 
affect these populations; (5) examining whether welfare caseloads have 
become more disadvantaged over time; and (6) understanding how newly 
ineligible populations, such as recent legal immigrants and their 
children and family members, have been affected.
    6. Cross-Cutting Topics. We are interested in cross-generational 
issues affecting the low-income population, such as kinship networks, 
cohabitation, housing, intergenerational transmission of poverty, and 
the impact of welfare reform on teen parents and their children (e.g., 
living arrangements, prenatal and other medical care), child care, 
child outcomes, and the child-only caseload. We are interested in 
understanding the impact of local service delivery issues, such as 
privatization of services, integrated service delivery, performance-
based

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contracting, and faith- and community-based service delivery. We are 
also interested in issues of place (e.g., rural, inner-city).

Part III. Abstract Application Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria

    As noted previously, ASPE is engaging in a two-part process. 
Applicants must first submit an abstract as described in the 
application section below. Please read this section carefully. 
Abstracts must comply with the application guidelines. Abstracts that 
do not comply with the application guidelines will not be considered.
    Abstracts must be received in the following format: 12 point font 
size; Single spaced; 1 inch top, bottom, left, and right margins.
    The deadline for receipt of abstracts is April 6, 2001. An abstract 
will be considered as having met the deadline if it is either received 
at, or hand-delivered to, the mailing address on or before April 6, 
2001, or postmarked before midnight three days prior to April 6, 2001 
and received in time to be considered during the competitive review 
process (within two weeks of the deadline).
    Hand-delivered applications will be accepted Monday through Friday, 
excluding Federal holidays, during the working hours of 9 a.m. to 4:30 
p.m. in the lobby of the Hubert H. Humphrey building, located at 200 
Independence Avenue, SW in Washington, DC. When hand-delivering an 
application, call (202) 690-8794 from the lobby for pick up. A staff 
person will be available to receive applications.
    An original and two copies are required, but applicants are 
encouraged to send an additional 4 copies to ease processing, although 
applicants will not be penalized if these extra copies are not 
included. The original and copies of the abstract must be mailed to: 
Adrienne Little, Grants Officer, Office of the Assistant Secretary for 
Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, 200 
Independence Avenue, SW, Room 405F, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 
Washington, DC 20201, Telephone: (202) 690-8794.
    Abstracts must include the material indicated below and in the 
order indicated. The information provided in items 1 through 4 must not 
exceed 6 pages. The title page MUST be the first page in any 
submission. Do not include a transmittal memo.
    1. Title page. This page should include a reference to this program 
announcement: Policy Research and Studies on Welfare Reform Outcomes; 
proposed project title; name of researcher(s); organizational 
affiliation; and the address, telephone number, and e-mail address of 
the lead investigator. (This will be the mailing address and the email 
address used by ASPE to request full proposals from selected 
applicants.) The title page must include an indication of the research 
question(s) being addressed. A description of the proposed data set to 
be used must also be included. The title page must include the total 
number of months needed for completion of the project and the project's 
proposed start and end date. This should be the ONLY information on 
page one.
    2. Statement of research question. The statement should briefly 
discuss the relevance of the proposed work to the purposes of this 
announcement. The statement will be reviewed for policy relevance and 
the importance of the research question. Please indicate clearly which 
research question(s) you are addressing.
    3. Statement of proposed methods. This section should describe the 
conceptual model, the data source and the analytic methods. This 
description should explicitly relate data sources and analytic methods 
to the research issues to be addressed. This section must also contain 
information regarding the researcher's ability to obtain the data and 
information on when data will be available, if they are not already. 
Note that in the final proposal the researcher will have to provide 
assurances that the data are available. If the use of pre-TANF data is 
proposed, the limitation that such data may represent periods that 
precede passage of welfare reform legislation or implementation of its 
major provisions must be addressed.
    4. Experience. The principal investigator's relevant research 
experience must be described. Other key staff must be identified with a 
brief description of their relevant experience and an indication of the 
tasks or activities for which they will be primarily responsible.
    5. Estimated budget. This section must include an estimate of staff 
time and other direct costs. Information about other funding sources 
and the contribution that the ASPE funds will make must be discussed. 
Only a total project budget need be submitted at this time. Funding 
from other sources (non-federal) should also be identified and briefly 
described.

Part IV. The Review Process

    An independent review panel will review and score all abstracts 
that are submitted by the deadline date and which meet the screening 
criteria (all information and in formats required by this 
announcement). The panel will review the abstracts using the evaluation 
criteria listed below to score each abstract. The panel review results 
will be the primary elements, along with the goal of funding research 
on a variety of topics, that will be used by the Assistant Secretary 
for Planning and Evaluation in making decisions regarding full 
application submission. The Department also reserves the option to 
discuss abstracts with other Federal or State staff, specialists, 
experts, and the general public. Comments from these sources, along 
with those of the reviewers, will be kept from inappropriate disclosure 
and may be considered in determining which applicants will be requested 
to submit a competitive application for review.
    1. Research Question(s): The research must address important 
unanswered questions of local or national policy significance. The 
proposed research must contribute significantly to understanding the 
outcomes of welfare reform. ( 8 points)
    2. Methodology/Merits of the Research Design: The research design 
must identify the study population, indicate data sources and 
demonstrate the availability and reliability of proposed data sources 
and the appropriateness and reliability of data collection instruments 
or observational techniques, as well as the validity of analytic 
methods proposed for addressing the research questions and hypotheses. 
The conceptual model and the analysis plan must be clearly explained. 
It is important to explain the time frame for the proposed work and 
that explanation must be clear and reasonable. If the use of pre-TANF 
data is proposed, the limitation that such data may represent periods 
that precede passage of welfare reform legislation or implementation of 
its major provisions must be addressed. (4 points)
    3. Experience. The abstract must provide information on the 
principal investigator's relevant research experience and demonstrate 
capability to use the proposed data and methods. The relevant 
experience and proposed roles of other key staff must be presented. (6 
points)
    4. Budget. Applicants must provide an estimate of the total 
proposed budget, including information about other funding sources. The 
contribution of ASPE funding must be presented. The budget must be 
reasonable for the proposed scope of work. (2 points)

Estimate of Schedule

    ASPE anticipates that abstracts will be reviewed and selected 
applicants notified to submit full proposals approximately 30 days 
following the

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deadline for submission of abstracts. We expect that full proposals 
will be required to be submitted within 45 days of the date of the 
notification letter.

    The Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance Numbers is 93.239.

    Dated: March 1, 2001.
William F. Raub,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation.
[FR Doc. 01-5516 Filed 3-6-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4151-04-P