[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 94 (Tuesday, May 16, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Page 28413]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-7320]


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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION


Program: Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) Program 
Pre-Application Seminars Program Announcement No. SSA-OESP-06-1

AGENCY: Social Security Administration.

ACTION: Notice of meetings.

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DATES: May and June 2006.
    Locations: The seminars will be held at locations in the following 
ten (10) cities: Richmond, Virginia; Sacramento, California; Boise, 
Idaho; Helena, Montana; Austin, Texas; Mobile, Alabama; Des Moines, 
Iowa; Lansing, Michigan; Albany, New York; and Hartford, Connecticut.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Type of meeting: Informational pre-application seminars open to 
potential applicants for the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance 
(WIPA) Program (currently the Benefits Planning, Assistance and 
Outreach (BPAO) Program).
    Purpose: SSA will hold informational pre-application seminars 
throughout the nation to solicit interest and encourage community-based 
organizations to apply for cooperative agreement awards. All interested 
applicants are invited to attend.
    Section 1149(d) of the Social Security Act (as added by Section 121 
of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA) of 
1999, Pub. L. 106-170) required SSA to establish community based 
benefits planning and assistance in every State, the District of 
Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American 
Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. As authorized by TWWIIA, SSA established 
a program, called the Benefits Planning, Assistance and Outreach (BPAO) 
program. Under this program, cooperative agreements (monetary awards) 
were granted to community-based organizations, called BPAO Projects, to 
provide all of SSA's beneficiaries with disabilities access to work 
incentives planning and assistance services. Section 407 of the Social 
Security Protection Act (Pub. L. 108-203) extended the authorization of 
this program through Fiscal Year 2009.
    SSA released a nationwide, competitive Request for Applications in 
May 2006 to announce funding availability for new cooperative 
agreements awards and to change the name of the BPAO program to the 
Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) Program, effective 
September 30, 2006.
    The schedule (including date, time and address of each pre-
application seminar location as it becomes available) will be posted at 
the following Internet site: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/work/WIPARFA.html.
    Agenda: SSA will use the seminars to provide guidance and technical 
assistance to interested parties as they prepare to submit their 
applications. The agenda will be posted on the Internet at http://www.socialsecurity.gov/work one week before commencement of the 
seminars. The agenda can also be requested electronically or by fax 
upon request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Anyone requiring additional 
information should contact SSA Project Officer, Debbie Morrison by e-
mailing [email protected] or calling (410) 965-9054. Interested 
parties requiring reasonable accommodations should also contact Debbie 
Morrison no later than ten (10) business days before the date of the 
seminar to be attended.
     Mail addressed to Social Security Administration, 6401 
Security Blvd., Room 107 Altmeyer Building, Baltimore, MD 21235.
     Fax at (410) 966-1278.
     E-mail to [email protected].

    Dated: May 8, 2006.
Martin H. Gerry,
Deputy Commissioner for Disability and Income Security Program.
 [FR Doc. E6-7320 Filed 5-15-06; 8:45 am]
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