[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 148 (Tuesday, August 3, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45628-45629]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-19129]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Delayed Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines for the Remainder of 
2010

AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice provides a delayed update of the Department of 
Health and Human Services (HHS) poverty guidelines for the remainder of 
2010, and until the 2011 poverty guidelines are published, which is 
expected to occur in late January 2011. HHS is issuing this delayed 
update due to recent legislation that prohibited the Secretary of HHS 
from publishing 2010 poverty guidelines before May 31, 2010, and 
required that the 2009 poverty guidelines remain in effect until the 
Secretary of HHS published updated guidelines.

DATES: Effective Date: Date of publication, unless an office 
administering a program using the guidelines specifies a different 
effective date for that particular program.

ADDRESSES: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and 
Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and 
Human Services, Washington, DC 20201.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about how the 
guidelines are used or how income is defined in a particular program, 
contact the Federal, State, or local office that is responsible for 
that program. For information about poverty figures for immigration 
forms, the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services Program, and the number 
of people in poverty, use the specific telephone numbers and addresses 
given below.
    For general questions about the poverty guidelines themselves, 
contact Gordon Fisher, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning 
and Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and 
Human Services, Washington, DC 20201--telephone: (202) 690-7507--or 
visit http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/.
    For information about the percentage multiple of the poverty 
guidelines to be used on immigration forms such as USCIS Form I-864, 
Affidavit of Support, contact U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services 
at 1-800-375-5283.
    For information about the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services 
Program (free or reduced-fee health care services at certain hospitals 
and other facilities for persons meeting eligibility criteria involving 
the poverty guidelines), contact the Office of the Director, Division 
of Facilities Compliance and Recovery, Health Resources and Services 
Administration, HHS, Room 10-105, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, 
Rockville, Maryland 20857. To speak to a staff member, please call 
(301) 443-5656. To receive a Hill-Burton information package, call 1-
800-638-0742 (for callers outside Maryland) or 1-800-492-0359 (for 
callers in Maryland). You also may visit http://www.hrsa.gov/hillburton/default.htm.
    For information about the number of people in poverty, visit the 
Poverty section of the Census Bureau's Web site at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html or contact the Census 
Bureau's Demographic Call Center Staff at (301) 763-2422 or 1-866-758-
1060 (toll-free).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Section 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 
1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) requires the Secretary of HHS to update the 
poverty guidelines at least annually, adjusting them on the basis of 
the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). The poverty 
guidelines are used as an eligibility criterion by the Community 
Services Block Grant program and a number of other Federal programs. 
The poverty guidelines issued here are a simplified version of the 
poverty thresholds that the Census Bureau uses

[[Page 45629]]

to prepare its estimates of the number of individuals and families in 
poverty.
    However, provisions in three recent laws prohibited the Secretary 
of HHS from publishing updated poverty guidelines for 2010 before May 
31, 2010, and required that the poverty guidelines published on January 
23, 2009, remain in effect until updated poverty guidelines were 
published. These provisions were section 1012 of the Department of 
Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 (Pub. L. 111-118), section 7 of the 
Temporary Extension Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-144), and section 6 of the 
Continuing Extension Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-157).
    The provisions included in these laws were in response to a 
decrease in the annual average CPI-U for 2009. In the absence of a 
legislative change, this decrease would have required HHS to issue 2010 
poverty guidelines that were lower than the 2009 poverty guidelines, 
resulting in an adverse effect on potential and actual program 
beneficiaries. An explanatory statement in the December 16, 2009 
Congressional Record described the first legislative provision to delay 
the publication of the 2010 guidelines as a ``freeze'' of the 
guidelines at 2009 levels ``in order to prevent a reduction in 
eligibility for certain means-tested programs, including Medicaid, 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and child nutrition * 
* *.'' (Congressional Record (House), December 16, 2009, p. H15370).
    Legislation to further delay the publication of the 2010 poverty 
guidelines beyond May 31, 2010, did not pass Congress. Accordingly, HHS 
is publishing poverty guidelines for the remainder of 2010 in this 
notice. These 2010 guidelines will remain in effect until HHS publishes 
the 2011 poverty guidelines, which is expected to occur in late January 
2011.
    If HHS had published the 2010 poverty guidelines in late January 
2010, on the normal schedule, the update would have been based on the 
2008 Census Bureau poverty thresholds and the percentage change in the 
annual average CPI-U from calendar year 2008 to calendar year 2009 (the 
period from January through December 2009). Since the publication of 
the 2010 poverty guidelines was delayed through May 31, 2010, HHS is 
basing this update on the 2008 Census Bureau poverty thresholds--which 
remain the most recent published thresholds available--and the 
percentage change in the average CPI-U from calendar year 2008 to the 
period beginning with January 2009 and ending on May 31, 2010. The 
average CPI-U for the January 2009-May 2010 period was 0.042 percent 
higher than the annual average CPI-U for calendar year 2008. (The 
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 requires that the starting 
point for the update of the poverty guidelines shall be the latest 
published Census Bureau poverty thresholds, rather than the previous 
HHS poverty guidelines.) The percentage increase in the CPI-U was so 
small that after the rounding procedures used in the guidelines 
calculation, the guidelines for the remainder of 2010 showed no change 
from the 2009 guidelines.
    The poverty guidelines are calculated each year using the latest 
published Census Bureau poverty thresholds as the starting point. They 
are not calculated from the previous year's poverty guidelines. As a 
result, the level of next year's poverty guidelines--the 2011 
guidelines--will not be affected by the way in which these 2010 poverty 
guidelines were calculated.
    The poverty guidelines for the remainder of 2010 are provided 
below. The guideline figures shown represent annual income. These 
guidelines will remain in effect until HHS publishes the 2011 poverty 
guidelines, which is expected in late January 2011.

2010 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of
                                Columbia
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                                                               Poverty
                     Persons in family                        guideline
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1..........................................................      $10,830
2..........................................................       14,570
3..........................................................       18,310
4..........................................................       22,050
5..........................................................       25,790
6..........................................................       29,530
7..........................................................       33,270
8..........................................................       37,010
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    For families with more than 8 persons, add $3,740 for each 
additional person.

                   2010 Poverty Guidelines for Alaska
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                                                               Poverty
                     Persons in family                        guideline
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1..........................................................      $13,530
2..........................................................       18,210
3..........................................................       22,890
4..........................................................       27,570
5..........................................................       32,250
6..........................................................       36,930
7..........................................................       41,610
8..........................................................       46,290
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    For families with more than 8 persons, add $4,680 for each 
additional person.

                   2010 Poverty Guidelines for Hawaii
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                                                               Poverty
                     Persons in family                        guideline
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1..........................................................      $12,460
2..........................................................       16,760
3..........................................................       21,060
4..........................................................       25,360
5..........................................................       29,660
6..........................................................       33,960
7..........................................................       38,260
8..........................................................       42,560
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    For families with more than 8 persons, add $4,300 for each 
additional person.

    Dated: July 30, 2010.
Kathleen Sebelius,
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
[FR Doc. 2010-19129 Filed 7-30-10; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 4151-05-P