[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 63 (Friday, April 3, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15240-15251]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-7509]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request--Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Federal 
Financial Report (FNS-778) and Financial Status Report Addendum (FNS-
778A)

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is publishing for public comment, a 
summary of a proposed information collection. The collection 
establishes a new financial report that will replace the SF-269 (Food 
Stamp) report currently used by State agencies to report expenditures 
in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food 
Stamp Program).

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before June 2, 2009.

ADDRESSES: Comments are invited 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, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (c) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (d) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who 
are to respond, including use of appropriate automated, electronic, 
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms 
of information technology.
    Comments may be sent to Jane Duffield, Chief, State Administration 
Branch, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Food and Nutrition 
Service, USDA, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 818, Alexandria, VA 22302. 
Comments may also be submitted via fax to the attention of Ms. Duffield 
at 703-605-0795 or via e-mail to [email protected]. Comments will 
also be accepted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting 
comments electronically.
    All written comments will be open for public inspection at the 
office of the Food and Nutrition Service during regular business hours 
(8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday) at 3101 Park Center Drive, 
Room 818, Alexandria, Virginia 22302.
    All responses to this notice will be summarized and included in the 
request for Office of Management and Budget approval. All comments will 
become a matter of public record.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of this information collection should be directed to Jane 
Duffield at (703) 605-4385.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Federal Financial 
Report Forms.
    OMB Number: Not Yet Assigned.
    Expiration Date: Not Yet Determined.
    Type of Request: New collection.
    Abstract: Section 16(a) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (the 
Act) (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.) authorizes the Secretary to pay each State 
agency an amount equal to 50 percent of most allowable administrative 
costs involved in each State agency's operation of the Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance

[[Page 15241]]

Program (SNAP) (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program). In fiscal 
year 2007, FNS paid State agencies $2.8 billion in reimbursement for 
their SNAP administrative costs. Under corresponding SNAP regulations 
at 7 CFR 277.11(c), State agencies are required to use the standard 
Financial Status Report (Form SF-269) on a quarterly basis to report 
program administrative costs to FNS and to support the claims made for 
Federal funding. Since 1980, the SNAP has used a program-specific SF-
269 variant approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that 
captures total SNAP administrative costs and subdivides it into 26 
functional categories. In 1988, OMB published a new version of the SF-
269 that captures only total program costs. The continued use of the 
program-specific variant since then thus represents an exception to the 
general rule approved by OMB.
    The requirement to use the SF-269 for financial reporting 
originated in OMB Circular A-102 (Uniform Administrative Requirements 
for Grants and Cooperative Agreements to State and Local Governments). 
However, on December 7, 2007, OMB published a Federal Register Notice 
announcing the promulgation of a new Federal Financial Report (FFR) and 
directing Federal grant-making agencies to begin requiring their 
grantees to use it not later than September 30, 2008 (72 FR 69248). 
Subsequently, on August 13, 2008, OMB published a Notice which requires 
Federal agencies to transition to the new form no later than October 1, 
2009. The new FFR would replace the SF-269, other standard forms, and 
agency-specific and program-specific financial reports.
    While OMB adopted the new FFR in order to standardize and 
streamline the financial reporting on Federal grants and agreements, 
the new form cannot meet the needs of a program as complex as SNAP. 
This is because:
    1. SNAP consists of numerous functions and components for which 
financial data is needed in order for FNS to maintain a high level of 
program integrity and accountability. All such functions are required 
by SNAP regulations. FNS uses the reported data to monitor the actual 
cost of each function against budgeted amounts approved for each State 
agency. Many of these functions also have a component in the State 
Plan. Where the SF-269 currently used for SNAP financial reporting 
captures financial data on 26 FSP functions, the new FFR captures only 
total program costs. Examples of needs that cannot be met with 
capturing only total program costs include:
    a. Certification. A disproportionate share of total SNAP 
administrative funding supports the cost of certifying households 
eligible for SNAP benefits. Being the largest category in SNAP, changes 
in certification activity and caseload can easily impact both 
certification and total costs, both in the aggregate and in the cost 
per case. This function is also affected by a funding reduction under 
section 16(k) of the Act for common costs allocable to the SNAP but 
built into States' block grants under the Temporary Assistance to Needy 
Families (TANF) Program. FNS monitors to ensure that the offset 
occurred in full. Changes in certification costs and monitoring the 
offset would be lost in the total costs data captured by the new FFR.
    b. Nutrition Education. This area of the program has seen a 
dramatic increase in terms of activity and costs in recent years. The 
goal of SNAP-Ed is to improve the likelihood that persons eligible for 
SNAP will make healthy food choices within a limited budget and choose 
physically active lifestyles consistent with the current Dietary 
Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid. State agencies submit a SNAP-Ed 
plan to FNS for approval each year and FNS monitors the costs against 
the budget and approved plan activities. The SF-269 collection of the 
costs of this vital and increasing activity is necessary for program 
accountability and management. It would be buried in the total costs 
data captured by the new FFR.
    c. Fraud Control. The Food and Nutrition Act authorizes FNS to pay 
the costs of State SNAP investigations and prosecutions. States 
agencies are required to investigate any allegation of a suspected 
intentional program violation by recipients and refer the positive 
cases for administrative hearings or prosecution which can lead to 
disqualification of the recipient. The SF-269 reporting for this 
functional category allows FNS to track and monitor these State costs 
for Federal reimbursement.
    d. For the sake of brevity, we will not go into every functional 
component. However, we should note that many of the cost components are 
tied to individual State Plans. They are also tied to the FNS-366A, 
Budget Projection, which uses the same cost categories as the SF-269.
    2. Costs incurred by State agencies to conduct some SNAP functions 
are reimbursed at rates other than the standard 50 percent rate. For 
example FNS reimburses 100 percent of the costs of administering the 
program's Employment and Training (E&T) component, up to a stated 
ceiling. E&T administrative costs beyond that ceiling are reimbursed at 
50 percent, and some E&T cost items are ineligible for 100 percent 
reimbursement altogether. To monitor State agencies' compliance with 
these requirements, FNS must collect data on State agencies' costs of 
both 100 percent and 50 percent E&T activity. However, these 
distinctions would be lost in the total cost data captured by the new 
FFR.
    3. Since the costs of most SNAP functions are reimbursed at the 50 
percent rate, FNS must capture data on costs supported by resources 
from within each State. That is, FNS must ensure that each State agency 
has met its matching requirement.
    The options available to FNS are limited. They include:
    Option 1: Instructing State agencies to shift to the new FFR.
    Adopting this option would require a sweeping re-tooling of FNS and 
State agency information technology (IT) systems to accommodate the new 
format. FNS recognizes that the re-tooling is inevitable because 
Federal awarding agencies and their grantees will begin using the new 
FFR for financial reporting on most Federal programs. As already noted, 
however, the new FFR may be satisfactory for discretionary project and 
research grants where only total program costs are meaningful, but it 
cannot meet the needs of SNAP. The only way FNS could obtain the data 
needed for SNAP monitoring and oversight would be to require each State 
agency to submit one FFR covering SNAP's total administrative costs and 
another FFR on each component/function (26 in all). Such a procedure 
would be expensive to implement and burdensome for State agencies to 
comply with. The data gathered, thereby, would also be misleading; each 
SNAP function would be reported as if it were a discrete categorical 
program. A State agency would end up submitting 26 FFRs under the same 
grant agreement.
    Option 2: Capturing total SNAP administrative costs on the new FFR 
and devising an addendum to capture the subset applicable to each 
function/component.
    This option would enable FNS to acquire the data needed for SNAP 
monitoring and oversight without requiring State agencies to submit a 
separate FFR on each function. While it would be less burdensome in 
that regard, this option would, nonetheless, suffer from other 
drawbacks of Option 1. Specifically, it would also require the massive 
IT re-tooling. In addition, it would entail extensive developmental

[[Page 15242]]

work to create an addendum, obtain authorization to use it, publish it, 
train State officials on its use, and construct the electronic 
programming to capture, analyze, and store the data. Since the data 
themselves would be substantially the same as those currently 
collected, FNS believes that re-arranging the data solely for the sake 
of change would not add value.
    Option 3: Retaining the existing reporting requirement.
    This option would entail retaining the content of the SF-269 
currently used for SNAP financial reporting, but would require FNS to 
recast that document as an FNS form rather than a government-wide 
standard form. It would have the advantages of the other options 
without their drawbacks. Specifically, it would require little change 
to FNS and State IT systems and no change in the data themselves. It 
would minimize disruption to State agencies, since they could continue 
using the SNAP financial reporting format to which they are accustomed. 
For these reasons, FNS has decided to adopt Option 3.
    Accordingly, FNS is proposing to establish a new program-specific 
financial reporting form that would continue to collect the same data 
in the same sequence as the SF-269 currently used in SNAP. FNS use of 
the SF-269 (FS) for SNAP is currently approved under OMB Control No. 
0348-0039, but that information collection authorization is expected to 
be eliminated government-wide. Therefore, FNS is proposing to assign 
the current SF-269 (FS) report for SNAP a new FNS form number and to 
put the new program-specific form into a new information collection 
package. The new form would look nearly identical to the current SF-269 
(FS) except for the new FNS form number and OMB control number. These 
Federal changes for SNAP would not affect State agencies data 
collection and reporting, or FNS' automated system's budget and cost 
analysis. States would report on the new form which would essentially 
retain the current line items, cost categories, and data sequence but 
will have a new form number. We should note that four categories have 
been removed from the form because they are obsolete (coupon issuance, 
75% fraud, 75% ADP development, and 63% ADP development). FNS proposes 
to seek OMB approval of the new financial reporting form and new 
information collection package as an exception to the FFR.
    The Financial Status Report Addendum (SF-269A (FS)) is used by 
State agencies for quarterly reporting of program cash-out benefits 
where FNS has approved the issuance of checks or electronic cash 
payments in lieu of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) benefits. This 
program benefit report also is a program-specific form approved by OMB. 
Final reports are due December 30 for the preceding Federal fiscal 
year. As with the expenditure report for administrative costs, FNS is 
proposing to give the program benefit expenditure report a new FNS form 
number while keeping the current line items and one program benefit 
cost category on that report. We believe the consistency between the 
line items in the two financial reports (for administrative costs and 
for program benefits) would avoid confusion and would continue to 
promote standardization between the two forms within the State for 
SNAP. The new form would look nearly identical to the current program 
specific SF-269A (FS) used by SNAP, except for the new FNS form number.
    Copies of the proposed new FNS-778, Financial Status Report, and 
FNS-778A, Financial Status Report Addendum, are displayed at the end of 
this notice.
    Currently, the program regulations at 7 CFR 277.11(c) specifically 
mention the use of the ``standard Financial Status Report (Form SF-269) 
to report program costs.'' Since the new forms will report the same 
line items and cost categories as their predecessors and accomplish the 
same purpose as the SF-269 (FS) and SF-269(A) (FS) for SNAP, FNS is 
planning to do a final rule to make a nomenclature change to the 
current regulations to refer to the new forms. Thus, 7 CFR 277.11(c) 
will then read ``State agencies shall use the Form FNS-778 to report 
program costs.'' The final rule will go on to change the other 
references to the SF-269 in 277.11(c) and (d) to conform to the new 
form FNS-778. That change will be made via a final rule, will be on a 
separate track and will not delay the changeover to the new form under 
the Paperwork Reduction Act provisions.
    FNS plans to extend the use of the current SF-269 (FS) and SF-269A 
(FS) through the end of the Fiscal Year 2009 reporting cycle. That is, 
the last reports submitted in the old format will be the final reports 
on State agencies' Fiscal Year 2009 awards; these reports will be due 
December 30, 2009. Use of the new reports FNS-778 and FNS-778A will 
begin with financial reporting for Fiscal Year 2010. As with the 
current financial reports, the new financial status reports will be due 
30 days after the end of the calendar quarters to which they pertain, 
and a final report will be due 90 days after the end of the fiscal 
year. Thus, the first reports using the new FNS-778 and FNS-778A will 
be due January 30, 2010, and the final reports for that fiscal year 
will be due December 30, 2010.
    State agencies should continue to use the old form that was in use 
for a prior year to amend reports for that prior year. State agencies 
may amend a prior year report in FNS' Food Programs Reporting System 
(FPRS).
    Respondents: State agencies that administer SNAP.
    Number of Respondents: 53.
    Estimated Number of Responses per Respondent:
    Financial Status Report (FNS-778): 53 State agencies averaging 5 
responses per respondent for the current fiscal year and an estimated 3 
responses per year for prior year adjustments and corrections (if 
needed).
    Estimated Total Annual Responses (FNS-778): 424.
    Financial Status Report Addendum (FNS-778A): 7 State agencies 
averaging 5 responses per respondent.
    Estimated Total Annual Responses (FNS-778A): 35.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 4,646.
    The State agencies submit the financial status report (FNS-778) for 
the current year for administrative costs at an estimate of 16.8 hours 
per respondent, or 4,452 total hours. The 53 State agencies submit 
revised expenditure reports on the FNS-778 (for prior years) for which 
we estimate 1 hour per respondent for an additional 159 hours annually. 
The use of the electronic system will minimize the burden to State 
agencies for a revised report. Seven (7) State agencies will submit the 
FNS-778A which is estimated at 1 hour per respondent or a total of 35 
hours annually.

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                                                                                                                             Time per
              Affected public                           Forms                Number of     Frequency of    Total annual      response      Annual burden
                                                                            respondents      response        responses         (hrs)           hours
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State Agencies............................  FNS-778 (Initial Submission)              53               5             265            16.8        4,452.00

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                                            FNS-778 (for 2-year                       53               3             159               1          159.00
                                             revisions).
                                            FNS-778A....................               7               5              35               1           35.00
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    Total Burden Estimates................  ............................              53  ..............             459  ..............        4,646.00
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    Dated: March 31, 2009.
E. Enrique Gomez,
Acting Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
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 [FR Doc. E9-7509 Filed 4-2-09; 8:45 am]
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