[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 13, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28638-28639]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10230]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families


Submission for OMB Review; 2020 Residential Energy Consumption 
Survey (RECS), Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) 
Administrative Data Matching (OMB #0970-0486)

AGENCY: Office of Community Services, Administration for Children and 
Families, HHS.

ACTION: Request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Community Services (OCS) is requesting a 
reinstatement without change for the collection and reporting of 
administrative household recipient data from state LIHEAP grantees. OMB 
approved the original collection under #0970-0486. ACF published a 
Federal Register notice on July 30, 2019 soliciting 60 days of public 
comment on requiring state grantees to provide household-level 
recipient data for this effort. ACF received no comments on that 
notice.

DATES: Comments due within 30 days of publication. 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.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Description: The Low Income Home Energy 
Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant (42 U.S.C. 8621 et seq.) was 
established under Title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 
of 1981, Public Law 97-35, as amended. The Office of Community Services 
(OCS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), within the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), administers LIHEAP at 
the federal level.
    The LIHEAP statute requires HHS to report to Congress annually on 
program impacts on recipient and eligible households. The primary 
program goals, as articulated in the statute, are to ensure that 
benefits are targeted to those households where the greatest program 
impacts are expected, and to assure that timely resources are available 
to households experiencing home energy crises.
    OCS is seeking a reinstatement without change to collect data from 
all state LIHEAP grantees and the District of Columbia that will allow 
OCS to identify LIHEAP recipients that respond to the Residential 
Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), which the U.S. Energy Information 
Administration (EIA) is planning to conduct in 2020. EIA conducts this 
survey to provide periodic national and regional data on residential 
energy use in the United States. OCS uses RECS data to furnish Congress 
and the Administration with important national and regional descriptive 
data on the energy needs of low-income

[[Page 28639]]

households. Specific data elements OCS is seeking to collect are 
detailed below.
    In 2015, state LIHEAP grantees provided household-level data to 
identify LIHEAP recipients that participated in the 2015 RECS. ACF is 
requesting no changes in the type of data or the form of data 
collection for the 2020 reinstatement of the project. State LIHEAP 
grantees will be asked to furnish data for LIHEAP recipient households 
that reside in areas included in the RECS sample.
    For each household, report the following:

 Name
 Address (including ZIP code)
 Gross Income
 Household Size
 Household or Client ID
 Heating assistance awarded
 Amount of heating assistance
 Date of heating assistance
 Cooling assistance awarded
 Amount of cooling assistance
 Date of cooling assistance
 Crisis assistance awarded
 Amount of crisis assistance
 Date of crisis assistance
 Other assistance awarded
 Amount of other assistance
 Date of other assistance
 Presence of children 5 or younger
 Presence of adult 60 or older
 Presence of disabled

    The following are additional optional data items that grantees can 
provide if the data are available in your database:

 Tenancy (i.e., own or rent)
 Type(s) of fuel used
 Heat included in rent

    This data will help ACF to analyze specific information for the 
LIHEAP recipient population in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 8629(b)(2), 
including information related to benefits targeting, energy usage, and 
energy insecurity, and it will support analysis of LIHEAP data for the 
annual Report to Congress and the annual LIHEAP Home Energy Notebook. 
The collection of this data is authorized in 42 U.S.C. 8629(a).
    Respondents: State Governments and the District of Columbia

                                                                 Annual Burden Estimates
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                                                                                        Total number   Average  burden
                             Instrument                              Total number of    of responses      hours  per      Total burden    Annual burden
                                                                       respondents     per respondent      response          hours            hours
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Action Transmittal Reinstatement without Change of the FY 2020 RECS              51                1               24            1,224              408
 LIHEAP Administrative Data Matching...............................
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    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 408.
    As LIHEAP is a block grant, there is varying capacity to collect 
and report data among grantees. The estimated burden hours displayed 
above are for the average LIHEAP grantee. All LIHEAP grantees have 
existing data systems to collect, maintain, and analyze this data to 
complete annual reporting requirements.

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 8629(a).

Mary B. Jones,
ACF/OPRE Certifying Officer.
[FR Doc. 2020-10230 Filed 5-12-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-80-P