[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]
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