[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 217 (Thursday, November 8, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55893-55894]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-24458]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Request for Public Comment on the Proposed Adoption of 
Administration for Native Americans Program Policies and Procedures

CFDA Numbers: 93.581, 93.587, 93.612

AGENCY: Administration for Native Americans, Administration for 
Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Notice for public comment.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Native American Programs Act of 1974 (NAPA), 
as amended, the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) is required 
to provide members of the public an opportunity to comment on proposed 
changes in interpretive rules and general statements of policy and to 
give notice of the final adoption of such changes no less than 30 days 
before such changes become effective. In accordance with notice 
requirements of NAPA, ANA herein describes proposed interpretive rules 
and general statements of policy that relate to ANA's funding 
opportunities beginning in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. Changes to FY 2019 
Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) will be based on the following 
previously published programs: Environmental Regulatory Enhancement 
(ERE), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NR-1344; Native American Language Preservation 
and Maintenance-Esther Martinez Immersion (EMI), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NB-
1343; Native American Language Preservation and Maintenance (P&M), HHS-
2018-ACF-ANA-NL-1342; Social and Economic Development Strategies 
(SEDS), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NA-1339; Social and Economic Development 
Strategies-Alaska (SEDS-AK), HHS-2018-ACF-ANA-NK-1340; and Native Youth 
Initiative for Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (ILEAD), HHS-
2018-ACF-ANA-NC-1341.

DATES: Comments are due by December 10, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Comments in response to this notice should be addressed to 
Carmelia Strickland, Director of Program Operations, Administration for 
Native Americans, 330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20201. Delays may 
occur in mail delivery to federal offices; therefore, a copy of 
comments should be emailed to [email protected]. Comments will be 
available for inspection by members of the public at the Administration 
for Native Americans, 330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20201.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carmelia Strickland, Director, 
Division of Program Operations, Administration for Native Americans, 
330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20201. Telephone: (877) 922-9262; 
Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 814 of NAPA, as amended, 
incorporates provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act that 
require ANA to provide notice of its proposed interpretive rules and 
statements of policy and to seek public comment on such proposals. This 
notice serves to fulfill the statutory notice and public comment 
requirement. ANA has also chosen to provide notice of its proposed 
rules of agency practice and procedure. The proposed interpretive 
rules, statements of policy, and rules of ANA practice and procedure 
reflected in clarifications, modifications, and new text will appear in 
the five FY 2019 FOAs: ERE, EMI, P&M, SEDS, and SEDS-AK. This notice 
also reflects ANA's elimination of the ILEAD FOA.
    ANA's current FOAs can be accessed at: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/office/ana or http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/. 
Synopses and application forms will be available on https://www.grants.gov.
    A. Interpretive rules, statements of policy, procedures, and 
practice. The proposals below reflect ANA's proposed changes in rules, 
policy, or procedure which will take effect in the FY 2019 FOAs.
    1. Elimination of the ILEAD FOA. In FY 2019, ANA will no longer 
publish a FOA for the ILEAD program. ILEAD was established in FY 2015 
as a demonstration project with a focus on identifying best practices 
and effective strategies for working with, and developing leadership 
among Native American youth. In the first year, ANA funded five 
cooperative agreements under the program. Due to an overwhelming 
response to the initiative, ANA published subsequent ILEAD FOAs in FY 
2016 and FY 2017, and funded an additional 19 grants. The purpose of 
the ILEAD program was to work with a cohort of recipients to identify 
best practices and youth-driven solutions to enhance the development of 
future leaders for Native communities. In addition, the ILEAD program 
limited the targeted beneficiaries of the youth between 14 and 24 years 
of age. ANA proposes to discontinue publication of the ILEAD FOA for FY 
2019 to ensure that all projects previously funded under the initiative 
have the benefit of working as a cohort, which was established and is 
led by the initial 5 cooperative agreements. Currently, all funded 
ILEAD projects have project periods that end on or before September 29, 
2021. Youth projects previously eligible for funding under the ILEAD 
program are still eligible for funding under ANA's SEDS program, which 
has a higher funding ceiling of up to $400,000 instead of $300,000 per 
budget period.
    2. Assurance of Community Representation on Board of Directors. ANA 
has a long-standing policy to require that applicants, other than 
tribes or Alaska Native villages, must show that a majority of board 
members are representative of a Native American community to be served. 
Applicants

[[Page 55894]]

must submit documentation that identifies each board member by name and 
indicates his/her affiliation or relationship to at least one of ANA's 
three categories of community representation, which include: (1) 
Members of federally or state-recognized tribes; (2) persons who are 
recognized by members of the eligible Native American community to be 
served as having a cultural relationship with that community; or (3) 
persons considered to be Native American as defined in 45 CFR 1336.10 
and Native American Pacific Islanders as defined in Section 815 of 
NAPA. ANA wishes to clarify that the second category of community 
representation requires a ``cultural'' relationship defined as lineage, 
familial, marriage, or other traditional or social connection to the 
community and not a business or work relationship, (e.g. person that 
owns a business or is employed by an organization that serves the 
Native community). Applicants that do not include this documentation 
will be considered non-responsive, and the application will not be 
considered for competition.
    3. Only One Active Award Per CFDA Number. ANA has a long-standing 
policy that organizations can have no more than one active award per 
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number for an ANA program 
at any given time. SEDS, SEDS-AK, Native Assets Building Initiative 
(NABI), and ILEAD have the same CFDA number 93.612. From FY 2016 to FY 
2018, ANA allowed an exception for organizations that were applying for 
the ILEAD FOA to also have an award for SEDS, SEDS-AK, or NABI even 
though they had the same CFDA number as ILEAD. For FY 2019, this 
exception will not be available to any currently funded ILEAD grantees; 
therefore, the policy will remain effective to limit the number of 
awards an organization can have under a single CFDA number. This policy 
change will allow other Native communities without current ANA funding 
to receive an award and therefore increase the impact of funding in 
more communities.
    4. Evaluation Criteria. In FY 2018, ANA made substantial revisions 
to the application requirements and evaluation criteria included in our 
FOAs. The purpose of these revisions were to shift from a deficit-
based, to strengths-based approach for application planning and 
development, as well as to emphasize a community-based approach to 
project planning and implementation. ANA stands behind the revisions 
made in FY 2018 and does not plan to change the information being 
requested. However, during the panel review process, ANA received 
feedback that the revised evaluation criteria was difficult to 
understand and apply. In FY 2019, ANA will reorder the evaluation 
criteria and include sub-criteria with smaller point allotments. We 
will also remove duplications and clarify language. ANA proposes the 
following Evaluation criteria scores for FY 2019:

    Expected Outcomes for a maximum of 35 points, to consist of: 
Long Term Community Goal (2 points), Current Community Condition (5 
points); Project Goal (4 points); Objectives (7 points); Outcomes 
and Indicators (7 points); Outputs (5 points); Outcome Tracking 
Strategy (4 points); and Outcome Tracker (1 point).
    Approach for a maximum of 50 points, to consist of: Planning, 
Readiness and Implementation Strategy (20 points); Community-Based 
Strategy (8 points); Personnel, Partnerships and Organizational 
Capacity (12 points); and the Objective Work Plan (OWP) (10 points).
    Budget and Budget Justification for a maximum of 15 points, to 
consist of: Line Item Budget (5 points) and Budget Justification (10 
points).

    These changes are meant to reorganize the information into smaller 
point allotments in order to make ANA's evaluation criterion more 
approachable, and to build consistency in the number of points being 
allocated for specific application information. As a result of the 
changes to criteria scoring, ANA will not use a Scoring Guide in its FY 
2019 FOAs.
    5. Changes to SEDS-AK FOA. ANA plans to modify the description of 
program purpose for the SEDS-AK FOA to provide an area of interest for 
economic growth. In addition, ANA wants to provide a competitive 
advantage for smaller Alaska Native villages or organizations that have 
never received ANA funding. Therefore, the FOA will state that 
reviewers may add up to 5 bonus points in the scoring criteria if an 
eligible entity that has never received an ANA award. ANA staff will 
confirm during the objective review process whether or not an applicant 
organization for SEDS-AK has received a past ANA award.

    Statutory Authority:  Section 814 of the Native American 
Programs Act of 1974 (NAPA), as amended.

Jean Hovland,
Commissioner, Administration for Native Americans.
[FR Doc. 2018-24458 Filed 11-7-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4184-34-P