[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 175 (Tuesday, September 14, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51110-51111]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-19764]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Food and Nutrition Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request: Additional Information To Be Collected Under the 
Uniform Grant Application Package for Discretionary Grant Programs for 
the Emergency Food Assistance Program Reach and Resiliency Grants

AGENCY: Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), USDA.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This Notice announces that the United States Department of 
Agriculture's (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) plans to add The 
Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) Reach and Resiliency Grants, 
as authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act, to its list of approved 
programs under the Uniform Grant Application for Non-Entitlement 
Discretionary Grants, as approved under OMB Control Number: 0584-0512 
(Expiration Date: July 31, 2022); and that FNS intends to collect 
additional information for the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grants 
outside of what is currently in the uniform package. This Notice 
solicits public comments on the additional information to be collected 
for the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grants.

DATES: To be assured of consideration, written comments must be 
submitted or postmarked on or before September 14, 2021.

ADDRESSES: 
    Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions that were used; (c) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond.
    Comments must be submitted through one of the following methods:
     Preferred method: Submit information through the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the online 
instructions for submissions.
     Email: Send comments to [email protected] with a 
subject line ``TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grant Information 
Collection.''

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rachel Schoenian, Food Distribution 
Division, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, 703-305-2937, or email 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Utilizing funding and authority provided by 
Section 1001(b)(4) of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA, P.L. 117-2), 
USDA is establishing a new grant program for State agencies that 
administer The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), aimed at 
helping strengthen TEFAP infrastructure and expand TEFAP's reach into 
rural, remote, and/or low-income communities that are underserved by 
TEFAP.
    TEFAP Reach and Resiliency Grants will be offered in two rounds. As 
planned, half of the funds ($50 million) will be offered to States in 
Fall 2021. Each TEFAP State agency will be able to apply for a fair 
share portion of the initial funding according to the TEFAP funding 
formula at 7 CFR 251.3(h). FNS will use lessons learned from the first 
round of Reach and Resiliency Grants to determine the best method for 
offering the second round.
    For the first round of grant funding, eligible entities will submit 
an application using FNS' Uniform Grant Application for Discretionary 
Grant Programs (OMB Control Number: 0584-0512, Expiration Date: July 
31, 2022), which will include up to ten additional questions related to 
the goals of the Reach and Resiliency grants. These questions will be 
outlined in the Request for Applications for the TEFAP Reach and 
Resiliency Grant and be incorporated into the grant application 
template. State agencies will have the option to use the optional 
template or any other format to answer the questions. The additional 
questions included will relate to how TEFAP State agencies will utilize 
TEFAP Reach and Resiliency grant funding and how the State's project 
will: (1) Strengthen infrastructure; and (2) expand reach into rural, 
remote, and/or low-income communities currently underserved by TEFAP in 
the State. This will include submission of data that identifies those 
underserved areas. Additional information that State agencies will also 
need to provide includes the names of anticipated partners, the 
percentage of funds that will be kept at the State-level, and other 
information that ensures the proposed use of the grant complies with 
current program regulations.
    To measure impact of the grants and to determine whether the grants 
achieve their intended purposes, grantees will be required to provide 
narrative, biannual progress reports using the FNS-908 Performance 
Progress Report form, as a condition to accepting grant funding. In 
addition to this standard form, grantees will be asked to respond to 
two more questions related to progress made toward achieving the goals 
of the grant program, on a biannual basis. These questions may include 
updates to any data submitted in the grant application. The two 
additional questions will be outlined in the Request for Applications 
for the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency grant. A template submission form 
will be provided to grantees to report this information, but they will 
have the option of reporting the information in any format they choose.
    With the additional information that will be requested, FNS 
estimates that each State agency will spend a total of approximately 
53.58 hours completing the full grant application package. Under 0584-
0512, FNS has 114,431 remaining burden hours and 23,293 remaining 
responses available for use. Under the TEFAP Reach and Resiliency 
Grants, State agencies are expected to use 4,763.99 burden hours and 
1,458 responses for the pre-award, post-award and recordkeeping burden, 
including the additional information to be collected. All three items 
make up the burden for the competitive grants that are submitted under 
0584-0512.
    This purpose of this Notice is to solicit public comments on the 
additional information to be collected for the TEFAP Reach and 
Resiliency Grants through the ten question application questionnaire 
and through the two question biannual progress reports for the grant 
program. Comments are invited on: (a) Whether the proposed collection 
of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions 
of the agency, including whether the information shall have practical 
utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions that were used; (c) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and 
(d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond.

[[Page 51111]]

    FNS will utilize these comments to adjust the information 
collection as necessary.

Cynthia Long,
Acting Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service.
[FR Doc. 2021-19764 Filed 9-13-21; 8:45 am]
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