[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 217 (Monday, November 15, 2021)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 62964-62966]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-24636]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

24 CFR Parts 887 and 984

[Docket No. FR-6114-P-02]
RIN 2577-AD09


Streamlining and Implementation of Economic Growth, Regulatory 
Relief, and Consumer Protection Act Changes to Family Self-Sufficiency 
(FSS) Program; Re-Opening Public Comment Period on the Information 
Collection Requirements

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian 
Housing, HUD, and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Housing--
Federal Housing Commissioner, HUD.

ACTION: Proposed rule; re-opening of comment period.

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SUMMARY: On September 21, 2020, HUD published a proposed rule on 
streamlining and implementing the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, 
and Consumer Protection Act (``the Economic Growth Act''), which would 
make changes to HUD's Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program. After the 
publication of that proposed rule, HUD determined that changes to the 
information collection requirements described in it would be necessary. 
This supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking therefore re-opens the 
public comment period on the Streamlining and Implementation of 
Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act Changes 
to Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program proposed rule (``the 2020 
proposed rule'') for an additional 30 days solely to seek comments on 
revisions to the Paperwork Reduction Act information collection 
requirements from the 2020 proposed rule. HUD is not soliciting comment 
on any other issues related to the 2020 proposed rule.

DATES: The comment period for the proposed rule published September 21, 
2020, at 85 FR 59234, is re-opened. Comment Due Date: December 15, 
2021.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this proposed rule. Copies of all comments submitted are available for 
inspection and downloading at www.regulations.gov. To receive 
consideration as public comments, comments must be submitted through 
one of two methods, specified below. All submissions must refer to the 
above docket number and title.
    1. Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may submit 
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly encourages commenters to submit 
comments electronically. Electronic submission of comments allows the 
commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, ensures timely 
receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to make them immediately available to 
the public. Comments submitted electronically through the 
www.regulations.gov website can be viewed by other commenters and 
interested members of the public. Commenters should follow the 
instructions provided on that site to submit comments electronically.
    2. Submission of Comments by Mail. Comments may be submitted by 
mail to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel, Department 
of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 10276, 
Washington, DC 20410 0500.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Aaron Santa Anna, Associate General 
Counsel for Legislation and Regulations, Office of General Counsel, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 
10282, Washington, DC 20410; telephone number 202-402-5300 (this is not 
a toll-free number). Individuals with hearing- or speech-impairments 
may access this number via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay 
Service during working hours at 1-800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

[[Page 62965]]

I. Background

    On September 21, 2020, at 85 FR 59234, HUD published a proposed 
rule titled ``Streamlining and Implementation of Economic Growth, 
Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act Changes to Family Self-
Sufficiency (FSS) Program.'' The 2020 proposed rule would revise the 
FSS Program regulations to implement statutory requirements, and to 
reduce burden and streamline the program for PHAs, Multifamily owners, 
and eligible families. The public comment period closed on November 20, 
2020, and HUD received 105 public comments in response to the 2020 
proposed rule.
    HUD has since determined that changes to the information collection 
requirements described in the 2020 proposed rule would be necessary for 
implementation of the rule, or would help the program operate more 
efficiently. Specifically, HUD notes that all entities that currently 
operate FSS programs would have to update their Action Plans one time 
after the new rule becomes effective in order to incorporate regulatory 
changes, and that PHAs would be required to complete a monitoring self-
review checklist for program compliance and reporting once every five 
years. Additionally, while the 2020 proposed rule noted that the 
information collection requirements would include paperwork for 
Multifamily owners, it did not explicitly account for Project-Based 
Rental Assistance (PBRA) FSS Program Reporting in the description of 
the information collection.
    Additionally, HUD is revising recordkeeping and recording burden 
estimates for other collection information instruments that were 
discussed in the 2020 proposed rule. First, HUD anticipates that more 
funding may be appropriated for the FSS program than HUD anticipated 
when the 2020 proposed rule was published. Specifically, HUD 
anticipates that funding will be adequate to support 800 grantees. As a 
result, HUD is increasing from 750 to 800 the estimate of responses to 
the SF-424 (``Application for Federal Assistance''). HUD is adjusting 
to 800 the estimate of responses to the Grant Agreement and the Annual 
Report/Performance Report. Of these 800 grantees, HUD estimates that 
approximately 100 will be new grantees. As such, HUD revises the 
estimate for responses for the NOFA narrative and for Form HUD-52651 
(``Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program Coordinator Funding'') to 100. 
Similarly, HUD estimates that 100 new grantees will submit new Action 
Plans and estimates that the development of new plans will take 10 
hours each. Estimating that about half of these 100 new grantees will 
be PHAs and the other half will be Multifamily owners, and therefore 
750 grantees will be PHAs, HUD estimates that there will be 750 annual 
respondents for Form HUD-50058 (``Family Report'') and Form HUD-52652 
(``Sample FSS Escrow Account Credit Worksheet''). As a result of 
expected additional FSS funding, HUD has also adjusted the expected 
number of responses for Cooperative Agreements up to 25 from 15, and 
the number of responses for Form HUD-52650 (``Family Self-Sufficiency 
(FSS) Program Contract of Participation'') up to 1,500 from 1,000. 
Additionally, HUD is removing the burden estimate that appeared in the 
proposed rule for Form HUD-2994-A (``You are Our Client! Grant 
Applicant Survey'') (optional), because the form is not in use and is 
revising the estimated number of responses for Form HUD-52755 (``Sample 
Contract Administrative Partnership Agreement'') down to 5 from 20, 
because this form is used only in rare occasions as a corrective 
action. Finally, HUD is revising the burden hour estimate for this 
collection for the SF-424 and SF-LLL forms to 0, because their burden 
is included in different collections.
    This supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking re-opens the public 
comment period on the Streamlining and Implementation of Economic 
Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act Changes to 
Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program proposed rule for an additional 
30 days solely to seek comments on revisions to the Paperwork Reduction 
Act information collection requirements from the 2020 proposed rule. 
HUD is not soliciting comment on any other issues related to the 2020 
proposed rule.

II. Paperwork Reduction Act

    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
3501-3520), an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not 
required to respond to, a collection of information unless the 
collection displays a valid control number. The information collection 
requirements contained in this supplemental notice of proposed 
rulemaking will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
(OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520).
    The 2020 proposed rule noted that it would require changes to the 
existing approved paperwork to include PBRA, the addition of a Notice 
of Funding Availability (NOFA) (now called a ``Notice of Funding 
Opportunity'' or ``NOFO'') narrative, and the Cooperative Agreement.
    After further review, HUD has determined that the revised overall 
reporting and recordkeeping burden are estimated as follows:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Description of information        Number of     Responses per   Total annual      Hours per
           collection                responses         year          responses       response       Total hours
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SF-424--Application for Federal              800               1             800               0               0
 Assistance.....................
SF-LLL--Disclosure of Lobbying                40               1              40               0               0
 Activities.....................
Form HUD 2880--Applicant,                    800               1             800               0               0
 Recipient, Disclosure, Update
 Form (OMB No. 2510-0011) \1\...
NOFO Narrative..................             100               1             100              10           1,000
Cooperative Agreements..........              25               1              25               2              50
Form HUD-52755--Sample Contract                5               1               5            0.17             .85
 Admin. Partnership Agreement...
Form HUD-52651--FSS Application.             100               1             100             1.5             150
Action Plan--New Grantees.......             100               1             100              10           1,000
Action Plan--One time Update for             700               1             700               5           3,500
 One year Only After the new
 Regulation is effective........
Form HUD-52650--Contract of                1,500               1           1,500             .25             375
 Participation..................
Form HUD-52652--Sample Escrow                750             100          75,000             .85          63,750
 Account Credit Worksheet.......
Notice of Award and Terms &                  800               1             700             N/A             N/A
 Conditions (AKA Grant Agreement
 *).............................
Annual Report (Narrative)/                   800               1             800               1             800
 Performance Report.............

[[Page 62966]]

 
Form HUD-50058--Family Report                750             100          75,000               0               0
 (OMB No. 2577-0083)............
Monitoring Review Self-                      750             .20             150               2             300
 Assessment Checklist...........
PBRA FSS Program Reporting......             200               1             200               1             200
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    Total.......................  ..............  ..............  ..............            33.7          71,126
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* HUD-1044, Award/Amendment is completed by HUD staff, signed by the recipient of the grant, and returned to
  HUD. This form is a certification, and HUD ascribes no burden to its use.
\1\ Burden hours for forms showing zero burden hours in this collection are reflected in the OMB approval number
  cited or do not have a reportable burden.

III. Questions for Public Comment

    In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), HUD is soliciting comments 
from members of the public and affected agencies concerning the 
information collection requirements in this supplemental notice of 
proposed rulemaking regarding:
    (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information;
    (3) Whether the proposed collection of information enhances the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and
    (4) Whether the proposed information collection minimizes the 
burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond; 
including through the use of appropriate automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology (e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses).

Aaron Santa Anna,
Associate General Counsel for Legislation and Regulations.
[FR Doc. 2021-24636 Filed 11-12-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P