[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 177 (Thursday, September 12, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56236-56237]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-22180]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

Proposed Projects

    Title: TANF Quarterly Financial Report ACF-196R.
    OMB No.: New.
    Description: This information collection is authorized under 
Section 411(a)(3) of the Social Security Act. This request is for 
approval to create the ACF-196R form for quarterly financial reporting 
under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. 
Implementation of these changes will entail new costs to ACF, and thus, 
final adoption will depend upon funding availability. States 
participating in the TANF program are required by statute to report 
financial data on a quarterly basis. The forms meet the legal standard 
and provide essential data on the use of federal TANF funds. Failure to 
collect the data would seriously compromise ACF's ability to monitor 
program expenditures, estimate funding needs, and to prepare budget 
submissions and annual reports required by Congress. Financial 
reporting under the TANF program is governed by 45 CFR Part 265.
    Approval of the ACF-196R would result in two basic changes to TANF 
quarterly financial reports. The first is to require respondents to 
allocate annual expenditures among an expanded list of categories on 
the ACF-196R; these categories better reflect the wide range of 
activities on which states are expending TANF funds. The second change 
is to the accounting method used to report expenditures made in a 
fiscal year and monitor cumulative expenditures by grant year award. 
Specifically, effective FY 2015, with each open grant year award, 
respondents will be required to report actual expenditures made in a 
fiscal year rather than updating cumulative totals, using the ACF-196R. 
If a respondent needs to adjust an expenditure reported in a prior 
year, it will revise the report for the fiscal year in which that 
expenditure occurred, rather than the current year's report.
    We will maintain the ACF-196 form (Approved OMB No 0970-0247), only 
for revisions to historical data. Specifically, if a respondent needs 
to adjust or correct an expenditure submitted in a fiscal year prior to 
FY 2015, the respondent will revise the ACF-196 pertaining to the 
relevant grant year for expenditures cumulative through FY 2014. Thus, 
the reporting burden associated with the ACF-196 is greatly reduced.
    Respondents: State agencies administering the TANF program

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                   Instrument                        Number of     responses per     hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACF-196R........................................              51               4              14            2856
                                                 ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours:........  ..............  ..............  ..............            2856
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In compliance with the requirements of Section 506(c)(2)(A) of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Administration for Children and 
Families is soliciting public comment on the specific aspects of the 
information collection described above. Comments may be sent in writing 
to the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, 
Research and Evaluation, 370 L'Enfant Promenade SW., Washington, DC 
20447, Attn: ACF Reports Clearance Officer or emailed to: 
[email protected]. All requests should be identified by the 
title of the information collection. Interested parties can also 
request copies of the proposed collection of information (instructions 
and forms) at the above address or by accessing the Information 
Memorandum TANF-ACF-IM-2013-03 on the Policy page of the OFA Web site, 
available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/programs/tanf/policy.
    ACF specifically requests comments on: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is critical to the proper performance of the 
functions of the agency, including whether the information shall have 
practical utility;

[[Page 56237]]

(b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed 
collection of information; (c) the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of the 
collection of information on respondents, including through the use of 
automated collection techniques or other forms of information 
technology; (e) ability of respondents to categorize and allocate 
expenditures in the more detailed manner that the new categories listed 
on the ACF-196R would require; (f) whether definitions for categories 
are clear, or whether any of the definitions should be revised to 
prevent confusion over how to report an expenditure; (g) whether any 
additional or alternative categories of expenditure reporting should be 
included in order to improve understanding of how TANF and maintenance-
of-effort (MOE) funds are being used; (h) length of time it will take 
for respondents to adapt to the new accounting method, specifically, 
whether a state would be able to accurately report expenditures 
according to the new accounting methodology by February 14, 2016 (the 
date the first quarter FY 2015 report is due), and if not, what 
transition time would be needed in order to report in accordance with 
the revised forms and procedures; (h) any complications that may result 
from the transition to a new accounting method, and if so, how to 
minimize the potential for complications; (i) whether there will be 
costs involved with transitioning to reporting in new expenditure 
categories and accounting method, and if so, what would be the 
anticipated extent of such costs. Consideration will be given to 
comments and suggestions submitted within 60 days of this publication.

Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2013-22180 Filed 9-11-13; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P