[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 17, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4889-4890]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-00880]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration on Community Living


Proposed Information Collection Activity; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Protection and Advocacy Annual Program 
Performance Report and Statement of Goals and Priorities

AGENCY: Office of Program Support, Administration on Intellectual and 
Developmental Disabilities, Administration on Disability, 
Administration on Community Living, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Administration on Disability is announcing that the 
proposed collection of information listed above has been submitted to 
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance as 
required under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Submit written comments on the collection of information by 
February 16, 2017.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments on the collection of information by 
fax 202.395.5806 or by email to [email protected], Attn: OMB 
Desk Officer for ACL.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Clare Huerta, Administration on 
Community Living, Administration on Intellectual and Developmental 
Disabilities, Office of Program Support, 330 C Street SW., DC, 
Washington, DC 20201, by email: [email protected] or by phone: 
(202) 795-7301.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In compliance with section 44 U.S.C. 3507, 
ACL has submitted the following proposed collection of information to 
OMB for review and clearance.
    This notice seeks to collect comments on revisions to two existing 
data collections. The first is the Annual Protection and Advocacy 
Systems Program Performance Report (0985-0027). State Protection and 
Advocacy (P&A) Systems in each State and Territory provide individual 
legal advocacy, systemic advocacy, monitoring and investigations to 
protect and advance the rights of people with developmental 
disabilities, using funding administered by the Administration on 
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Administration on 
Disability, Administration on Community Living, HHS. The Developmental 
Disabilities and Bill of Rights Act (the Act), 42 U.S.C. 15044 requires 
each P&A to annually prepare a Program Performance Report (PPR) that 
describes the activities and accomplishments of the system during the 
preceding fiscal year.
    The Act also requires P&As to submit a Statement of Goals and 
Priorities (SGP) (0985-0034) for each coming fiscal year. P&As are 
required to annually report on ``the activities, accomplishments, and 
expenditures of the system during the preceding fiscal year, including 
a description of the system's goals, the extent to which the goals were 
achieved, barriers to their achievement, the process used to obtain 
public input, the nature of such input, and how such input was used.''
    To meet it statutory reporting requirements, P&As have used 
separate forms for submitting the annual PPR (0985-0027) and the SGP 
(0985-0034). The Department is proposing that the

[[Page 4890]]

two be combined by creating a Protection and Advocacy Annual Program 
Performance Report and Statement of Goals and Priorities form. By 
combining the forms, P&As will have a reduced burden because they will 
only have to submit one annual report. The combined form will also 
allow federal reviewers to analyze patterns more readily between goals 
and priority setting and program performance.
    The annual PPR and SGP are reviewed by federal staff for compliance 
and outcomes. Information in the PPRs and SGPs is analyzed to create a 
national profile of programmatic compliance, outcomes, and goals and 
priorities for P&A Systems for tracking accomplishments against goals 
and to formulate areas of technical assistance related to compliance 
with Federal requirements and program performance. Information 
collected in the unified report will inform AIDD of trends in P&A 
advocacy, collaboration with other federally-funded entities, and 
identify best practices for efficient use of federal funds.

Comments in Response to the 60 Day Federal Register Notice

    A notice was published in the Federal Register in Vol. 81, No. 
57592 on August 23, 2016, announcing that ACL was requesting approval 
of a data collection (ICR New). ACL received two comments expressing 
concern that the combination of the SGP and PPR reporting forms would 
reduce the overall oversight of the P&A program. ACL responds that, 
while the reporting forms are being combined, the content which the 
grantees are reporting remains the same, with the addition of more 
quantitative measures to support the qualitative data that the grantees 
provide every year. The addition of more quantitative measures will 
provide a fuller picture of how the programs are functioning. The 
combined PPR and SGP allow federal staff to review the same information 
from the programs in a streamlined format that reduces the need to 
reenter the same information multiple times. ACL does not plan to make 
any changes in the data collection based on these comments.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In compliance with the requirements of 
Section 506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the 
Administration on Community Living is soliciting public comment on the 
burden related to the information collection described above. The form 
is available at: http://www.acl.gov/Programs/AIDD/Program_Resource_Search/Results_PA.aspx.
    Estimated Burden: The average burden for the 57 Protection and 
Advocacy Systems \i\ was calculated based on consultations with 
selected States.
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    \i\ This number includes the 50 States, District of Columbia, 
Puerto Rico and three Outlying Areas.

                                             Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                  Number of      Average burden
                 Instrument                      Number of      responses per      hours per       Total burden
                                                respondents       respondent        response          hours
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Protection and Advocacy Annual Program                    57                1               75            4,275
 Performance Report and Statement of Goals
 and Priorities.............................
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 4,275.

    Dated: January 10, 2017.
Edwin L. Walker,
Acting Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging.
[FR Doc. 2017-00880 Filed 1-13-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4154-01-P