[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 225 (Friday, November 21, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65768-65769]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-28873]



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Part II





Department of Health and Human Services





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Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration



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Notice of Final Grants Announcements; Notices

  Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 225 / Friday, November 21, 2003 / 
Notices  

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration


Notice of Final Changes to SAMHSA's Discretionary Grant 
Announcements

AGENCY: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice of final changes to SAMHSA's Discretionary Grant 
announcements.

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SUMMARY: On August 21, 2003, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health 
Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced plans to change its approach 
to announcing and soliciting applications for its discretionary grant 
programs in Fiscal Year (FY) 2004. These changes involved the 
publication of four standard grant announcements that would provide the 
basic program design and application instructions for four types of 
grants `` Services Grants, Infrastructure Grants, Best Practices 
Planning and Implementation Grants, and Service-to-Science Grants. The 
four announcements were made available for public review and comment 
for 60 days, with the comment period closing on October 20, 2003. This 
notice describes the comments received on the draft standard grant 
announcements and changes made to the standard grant announcements. 
This notice is followed by four notices that provide the final text for 
SAMHSA's four standard grant announcements.


    Authority: Sections 509, 516, and 520A of the Public Health 
Service Act.

DATES: Use of the standard grant announcement will be effective 
November 21, 2003. The standard grant announcements must be used in 
conjunction with separate Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs) that 
will provide application due dates and other key dates for specific 
SAMHSA grant funding opportunities.

ADDRESSES: Questions about SAMHSA's standard grant announcements may be 
directed to Cathy Friedman, M.A., Office of Policy, Planning and 
Budget, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 12C-26, Rockville, Maryland, 20857. 
Fax: (301-594-6159) E-mail: [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Cathy Friedman, M.A., Office of 
Policy, Planning and Budget, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 12C-26, Rockville, 
Maryland, 20857. Fax: (301-594-6159) E-mail: [email protected]. 
Phone: (301) 443-1910.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Starting in FY 2004, SAMHSA is changing its 
approach to announcing and soliciting applications for its 
discretionary grants. SAMHSA will publish four standard grant 
announcements that will describe the general program design and provide 
application instructions for four types of grants--Services Grants, 
Infrastructure Grants, Best Practices Planning and Implementation 
Grants, and Service-to-Science Grants. These standard grant 
announcements will be posted on SAMHSA's Web page and will be available 
from SAMHSA's clearinghouses on an ongoing basis. The standard 
announcements will be used in conjunction with brief Notices of Funding 
Availability (NOFAs) that will announce the availability of funds for 
specific grant funding opportunities within each of the standard grant 
programs (e.g., Homeless Treatment grants, Statewide Family Network 
grants, HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Prevention Planning Grants, etc.).
    The Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs) announcing the 
availability of funds for specific grant funding opportunities will be 
published separately in the Federal Register, and posted on the Federal 
grants Web site (www.grants.gov) and on the SAMHSA Web site 
(www.samhsa.gov). The NOFAs will:
    [sbull] Identify any specific target population or issue for the 
specific grant funding opportunity,
    [sbull] Identify which of the four standard announcements 
applicants must use to prepare their applications,
    [sbull] Specify total funding available for the first year of the 
grants and the expected size and number of awards,
    [sbull] Specify the application deadline,
    [sbull] Note any specific program requirements for each funding 
opportunity, and
    [sbull] Include any limitations or exceptions to the general 
provisions in the standard announcement.
    Applicants will need to have both the NOFA and the appropriate 
standard announcement to prepare their applications. Both documents 
will be provided, along with application materials, in the application 
kits available from SAMHSA's clearinghouses as well as on SAMHSA's Web 
site.
    SAMHSA anticipates that the four standard grant announcements will 
be used for the majority of its grant funding opportunities. However, 
there will be some funding opportunities that do not fit the standard 
announcements. In those instances, separate stand-alone grant 
announcements will be published and provided to applicants as they have 
been in the past (i.e., in the Federal Register, on the SAMHSA Web 
site, on the Federal grants Web site, and through SAMHSA's 
clearinghouses).
    SAMHSA published the draft standard grant announcements in the 
Federal Register for public review and comment on August 21, 2003. 
SAMHSA received over 50 comments on the standard grant announcements, 
along with numerous requests for additional information about how the 
standard grant announcements would function. The vast majority of the 
comments were positive, indicating that the proposed process could be 
helpful to applicants in laying the groundwork for their applications 
prior to the announcement of specific funding opportunities. At the 
same time, commentors identified several areas where the announcements 
could be clarified and strengthened. The following are key themes 
expressed in the comments received on the standard grant announcements:
    [sbull] Cultural Competence and Consumer Participation--Several 
commentors expressed concern that the standard grant announcements did 
not clearly require applicants to address cultural competence and 
consumer participation. This has been a hallmark of SAMHSA grant 
announcements and many commentors were concerned that these important 
values appeared to have been lost. SAMHSA has revised the standard 
grant announcements to more explicitly address cultural competence in 
each of the standard grant announcements, particularly in the 
requirements for the Project Narrative of the applications.
    [sbull] Clarification of the Evidence Standard--While commentors 
generally agreed that it was important to require evidence-based 
practices in the Services Grants and Best Practices Planning and 
Implementation (BPPI) Grants announcements, they did not feel that the 
evidence standard articulated in the draft announcements was clear.

--Commentors requested that SAMHSA clarify to what extent practices 
could be adapted/modified and that SAMHSA require applicants to justify 
the use of the practice for the target population. SAMHSA agrees that 
this is critical and has, therefore, deleted the ``two-level'' review 
that was initially proposed for Services and BPPI grants. Instead, the 
justification of the evidence-based practice has been incorporated as a 
scored item in the Project Narrative. Applicants will be required not 
only to provide evidence that the practice is effective, but also to 
justify its use for the target population and justify any

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adaptations/modifications to the practice.
--Commentors requested that SAMHSA clarify what, precisely, applicants 
had to say to justify the evidence-base for a practice selected from 
among those SAMHSA has already determined to have met the evidence 
standard. This has been clarified in the revised announcements. Some 
commentors requested that SAMHSA limit evidence-based practices to only 
those documented in the peer-reviewed literature. SAMHSA had considered 
this standard in early (i.e., pre-publication) drafts of the 
announcements and decided not to do so, because there are relatively 
few practices that have been well-researched and documented for a wide 
variety of target populations and in a wide-variety of settings.
--Many commentors requested that SAMHSA provide a definition of the 
``recognized experts'' whose opinions (in the form of consensus 
documents) may be considered acceptable evidence of effectiveness in 
situations where there is little/no research-based evidence of 
effectiveness. Some commentors wanted to see a very broad definition, 
while others wanted SAMHSA to delete consensus documents as acceptable 
evidence of effectiveness. SAMHSA has retained consensus documents as 
acceptable evidence of effectiveness, but has clarified that ``local 
recognition of an individual as a respected or influential person at 
the community level is not considered a `recognized expert' for this 
purpose.''

    [sbull] Clarify Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and 
Performance Measurement Requirements--The draft announcements included 
preliminary GPRA/performance indicators, and many comments were 
received requesting clarification of the data collection requirements 
that would accompany these preliminary GPRA/performance indicators. 
This work is still under development. Therefore, SAMHSA has deleted 
reference to the draft indicators in the standard grant announcements. 
The data collection and performance measurement requirements for each 
funding opportunity will be specified in the NOFA. SAMHSA expects to 
issue modified standard grant announcements once the performance 
indicators and related data collection requirements are finalized.
    [sbull] Award Criteria--Some commentors expressed concern about the 
award criterion limiting awards to no more than two per States. SAMHSA 
has revised the award criteria to be more flexible and indicate that 
SAMHSA will consider a ``balance of awards in terms of geography 
(including urban, rural and remote settings), target populations, and 
program size.''
    [sbull] Ensure adequate application period--Commentors requested 
that SAMHSA distribute publication of NOFAs and receipt dates 
throughout the Fiscal Year in order to minimize the burden on 
applicants. While this is not an issue that is directly addressed in 
the standard grant announcements, SAMHSA does intend to distribute 
publication of NOFAs and receipt dates throughout the Fiscal Year. 
SAMHSA expects that one benefit of publishing brief NOFAs for each 
funding opportunity (rather than full Requests for Application) is that 
SAMHSA will be able to provide applicants with more time to prepare 
their applications.
    [sbull] Submission of Documentation that Projects are Consistent 
with State Priorities--Reaction to this requirement was mixed among 
commentors. While many commentors felt that it was a positive 
requirement, others were concerned about the feasibility of meeting the 
requirement and/or the burden on the State. SAMHSA has modified the 
requirement to include documentation that projects are consistent with 
State or county priorities.
    [sbull] Tribal Comments--SAMHSA received comments from several 
tribal organizations towards the end of the comment period. Many of 
them requested additional time to prepare their comments. However, 
because the timely publication of the FY 2004 NOFAs depends on timely 
finalization and publication of the standard grant announcements by the 
end of November 2003, SAMHSA was not able to extend the comment period. 
SAMHSA has attempted to incorporate the comments received into the 
standard grant announcements and will work with tribal organizations to 
address other comments in future versions of the standard grant 
announcements. While SAMHSA intends the grants to be available on an 
on-going basis, it is likely that SAMHSA will need to make some 
adjustments for FY 2005, based on the first year of experience in FY 
2004. SAMHSA therefore declined to extend the comment period.
    [sbull] Minor Technical Edits--SAMHSA received numerous comments 
regarding minor technical edits on the standard grant announcements. 
SAMHSA has incorporated those comments where possible.
    SAMHSA greatly appreciates the interest and support expressed by 
the field in the comments on the standard grant announcements. The 
comments received were very helpful in clarifying and finalizing the 
announcements, and SAMHSA is hopeful that the final standard grant 
announcements will help potential applicants prepare applications for 
SAMHSA's FY 2004 grant funding opportunities.

    Dated: November 13, 2003.
Daryl Kade,
Director, Office of Policy, Planning and Budget, Substance Abuse and 
Mental Health Services Administration.
[FR Doc. 03-28873 Filed 11-20-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4162-20-P