[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 79 (Thursday, April 24, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 22818-22819]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-09316]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    Title: Application Requirements for the Low Income Home Energy 
Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Plan
    OMB No.: 0970-0075
    Description: In order to receive federal LIHEAP funds, States, the 
District of Columbia, tribes, tribal organizations, and territories 
applying for LIHEAP block grant funds must first submit an annual 
application (Plan) that meets the LIHEAP statutory and regulatory 
requirements. In prior years, each grantee was also required to submit 
a Program Integrity Assessment Supplement (PIAS) annually with their 
Plan. The proposed revised Plan will combine the content of these two 
forms into one form, eliminating duplicative questions and streamlining 
the submission process. The proposed revised Plan will become an 
electronic form, to be submitted through the On-Line Data Collection 
System (OLDC), which is already being used by all LIHEAP grantees to 
submit other required ACF forms such as the SF-425 Federal Financial 
Report. The revised Plan will also provide grantees the option to 
respond to many questions by selecting one or more check-box responses, 
rather than providing a free-form text response. Grantees will still 
have the ability to enter free form text if none of the provided 
options are applicable. This is particularly true of the questions from 
the Program Integrity Assessment which had previously been all open-
ended questions which resulted in inconsistent interpretation by 
grantees of the information sought and prevented ACF from analyzing 
programs nationwide in a consistent manner. This new re-formatting will 
also reduce the time grantees will spend on completing the form. It 
will also provide the Office of Community Services (OCS) with the 
ability to collect and analyze consistent data across all grantees in a 
streamlined manner. This will improve the information provided by ACF 
in the annual LIHEAP Report to Congress and other related reports to 
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of 
Management and Budget.
    Grantees will no longer have the option of submitting their annual 
application by mail or other methods. This will reduce lost 
submissions. The electronic system also has data validation checks 
programmed to minimize incomplete submissions which reduce time by 
federal and grantee staff in revising submissions. Additionally, 
grantees will no longer have the option to submit an abbreviated Plan. 
All entries from each grantee's first submission of the Plan in OLDC 
will be saved and pre-populated into the form for the following fiscal 
year's application. Thus, after the first year, grantees will only need 
to make updates to the prior year's entries, as needed. The system will 
flag updated data which will reduce the time federal staff spend in 
reviewing Plans and communicating with grantees about their submission. 
Grantees will still be able to submit attachments as needed.
    Presidential Executive Order 13520, reducing Improper Payments and 
Eliminating Waste in Federal Programs,

[[Page 22819]]

issued in November 2009, encourages federal agencies to take deliberate 
and immediate action to eliminate fraud and improper payments. As part 
of the review of programs subsequent to this executive order, HHS has 
determined that additional information from each administering agency 
is necessary to assess grantee measures that are in place to prevent, 
detect or address waste, fraud and abuse in LIHEAP programs. This Plan 
incorporates the data ACF must report to HHS regarding program 
integrity issues such as fraud prevention controls.
    On January 27, 2014, ACF published a Federal Register Notice 
seeking 60 days of public comment on this proposed information 
collection. One state grantee provided comments. ACF revised the Plan 
to address the comments by ensuring that open field boxes and 
attachment capability are available if the answer choices are 
insufficient to address the questions.
    The revised model plan can be viewed on the OCS Web site at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/programs/liheap.
    Respondents: State, tribal and territory governments.

                                             Aunual Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                     Number of    Average burden
                   Instrument                        Number of     responses per     hours per     Total burden
                                                    respondents     respondent       response          hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plan (First year-FY 2015).......................             210               1            2                420
Plan (future years).............................             210               1            0.50             105
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: First year--420; Future 
years--105.
    Additional Information:
    Copies of the proposed collection may be obtained by 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. All requests should be identified by the 
title of the information collection. Email address: 
[email protected].
    OMB Comment: OMB is required to make a decision concerning the 
collection of information between 30 and 60 days after publication of 
this document in the Federal Register. Therefore, a comment is best 
assured of having its full effect if OMB receives it within 30 days of 
publication. Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent directly to the following: Office 
of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project, Email: [email protected], Attn: Desk Officer for the Administration for 
Children and Families.

Robert Sargis,
Reports Clearance Officer.
[FR Doc. 2014-09316 Filed 4-23-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-01-P