[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 80 (Tuesday, April 26, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24648-24650]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-08858]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Application, Evaluation Design Plan, Reports, and 
Recordkeeping for the Social Impact Partnerships To Pay for Results Act 
(SIPPRA) Grant Program

AGENCY: Office of Economic Policy, Department of the Treasury 
(Treasury).

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork 
and respondent burden, invites the general public and affected federal 
agencies to comment on the proposed information collections listed 
below, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. 
Treasury's Office of Economic Policy is soliciting comments concerning 
the application, evaluation design plan, report, and recordkeeping 
forms to be used for the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results 
Act (SIPPRA).

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before June 27, 2022 to 
be assured of consideration. This process is conducted in accordance 
with 5 CFR part 1320.

ADDRESSES: Send comments regarding the burden estimate, or any other 
aspect of the information collection, including suggestions for 
reducing the burden, to Treasury PRA Clearance Officer, 1750 
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 8100, Washington, DC 20220, or email at 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Copies of the submissions may be 
obtained from Spencer W. Clark by emailing [email protected], calling 
(202) 927-5331, or viewing the entire information collection request at 
www.reginfo.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed 
Collection; Comment Request; Application, Evaluation Design Plan, 
Reports, and Recordkeeping for the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay 
for Results Act (SIPPRA) Grant Program.
    Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number: 1505-0260.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Description: SIPPRA, enacted February 9, 2018, amends Title XX of 
the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1397 et seq., to provide $100 
million in funding to implement social impact partnership projects'' 
(projects) and feasibility studies for such projects. SIPPRA authorizes 
the Secretary of the Treasury to enter into award agreements with state 
or local governments for projects or feasibility studies. Treasury, in 
consultation with other federal agencies, administers the SIPPRA grant 
program.
    SIPPRA authorizes Treasury to conduct a request for proposals for 
projects, make award determinations, and enter into project award 
agreements. Treasury intends to publish a Notice of Funding 
Availability (NOFA) seeking applications for projects and anticipates 
that ten or more persons will respond to its NOFA announcing 
availability of funding for SIPPRA projects.
    Although Treasury is asking applicants to use the SF-424 and SF-425 
families of common forms for their applications and reports, Treasury 
also expects to solicit additional detailed information from applicants 
to effectively and efficiently assess and evaluate whether applications 
for projects comply with statutory requirements. This request includes 
only the burden for this additional information. The burden for the SF-
424 forms is covered under OMB Control Numbers 4040-0004, 4040-0006, 
4040-0007, 4040-0008, 4040-0009, 4040-0010, and 4040-0013. The burden 
for the SF-425 form is covered under OMB Control Number 4040-0014. The 
additional information includes the following components:
     SAM.gov registration;
     Notice of Intent to Apply (optional);
     Project Narrative, to include an Executive Summary;
     Project Narrative Attachments, to include project budget, 
narrative statement addressing partnership agreements, an estimate of 
the value to the federal government of the interventions being proposed 
in the project, partner qualifications, independent evaluator 
qualifications, evaluation design plan, independent evaluator contract, 
outcome valuation (for which Treasury's SIPPRA website will provide 
guidance to assist applicants), legal compliance, and (optional) 
additional supporting documentation such as a preexisting feasibility 
study;
     Treasury Office of Civil Rights and Diversity Assurances 
and Certifications, Terms and Conditions, and Compliance Data;
     Additional documentation related to Title VI of the Civil 
Rights Act;
     Copy of application proposing privileged or confidential 
information to be redacted;
     Administrative Reporting, including a Quarterly 
Performance Report, Evaluation Progress Reports, and Final Evaluation 
Report; and
     Records Retention requirements.

Use of the Data

    The information collected under this NOFA: (1) Identifies eligible 
recipients and activities; (2) helps identify which applications 
sufficiently address all statutory requirements and which proposed 
projects are the most competitive; (3) determines the appropriate 
amount of funding; (4) allows evaluation of compliance with SIPPRA and 
Federal laws and policies on grants (e.g., Office of Management and 
Budget's Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and 
Audit Requirements for Federal Awards 2 CFR part 200, (herein OMB 
Uniform Guidance); Title VI of the Civil Rights Act); (5) tracks 
recipients' progress; and (6) collects statutorily mandated reports 
prepared by recipients' contracted independent evaluators.
     The Notice of Intent is optional; it will assist Treasury 
and the Federal Interagency Council on Social Impact Partnerships 
(Interagency Council) in estimating the number of applications to be 
received, and thus, enable them to conduct intake and evaluation of 
applications as efficiently and economically as possible.
     The application Executive Summary will assist Treasury and 
the Interagency Council in streamlining the processing of applications 
and in optimizing the eligibility phase of application review. The 
application standard forms, Project Narrative, and Project Narrative 
attachment components of the grant application are intended to provide 
Treasury with the information necessary to properly evaluate and assess 
whether applications include statutorily mandated information. 
Additionally, certain components of the application, in particular the 
evaluation design plan and outcome valuation, will enable the 
Interagency Council to determine whether to make statutorily mandated 
certifications regarding the proposed projects.
     SAM.gov registration is required under the OMB Uniform 
Guidance.
     To comply with the OMB Uniform Guidance performance and 
financial monitoring and reporting requirements, 2 CFR 200.328-200.330, 
Treasury intends to require a quarterly

[[Page 24649]]

performance and annual financial report from grant recipients. SIPPRA 
requires that recipients submit progress reports prepared by an 
independent evaluator on a periodic basis and before the scheduled time 
of outcome payments. 42 U.S.C. 1397n-4(d). SIPPRA also requires that 
recipients submit a final report prepared by an independent evaluator 
within six months of a project's completion. 42 U.S.C. 1397n-4(e). Per 
the statute, Treasury will use these reports to determine if outcome 
payments are warranted.
     Treasury intends to require recipients under this NOFA to 
comply with the OMB Uniform Guidance's record retention requirement, 2 
CFR 200.334, which requires them to maintain records for three years 
after grant close-out.
    SIPPRA establishes a Commission on Social Impact Partnerships 
(Commission) whose principal obligation is to make recommendations to 
Treasury regarding the funding of SIPPRA projects and feasibility 
studies. 42 U.S.C. 1397n-6. The Commission is subject to the provisions 
of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which generally requires 
that documents made available to the Commission be made available for 
public inspection and copying. 5 U.S.C. app. section 10(b). Treasury 
may provide to the Commission all complete applications received under 
this NOFA from eligible applicants and would make all such applications 
available for public inspection and copying. However, FACA also 
provides that trade secrets and commercial or financial information 
that is privileged or confidential (confidential business information) 
under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) need not be made publicly 
available. 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4). To assist Treasury in complying with 
FACA's public disclosure requirements while protecting confidential 
business information in accordance with FOIA, Treasury expects to 
request applicants to propose redactions of confidential business 
information. An applicant may omit pages for which it does not propose 
any redactions. Treasury expects to review the redactions proposed by 
each applicant.
    Also, applicants must provide qualifications of key project 
personnel and partners. Applicants may voluntarily provide curriculum 
vitae for key project personnel and partners, but the application will 
not require that personally identifiable information (PII) is 
collected.

Planned Revisions to the Data Collection

    For several reasons, Treasury expects to make a number of changes 
in the second SIPPRA NOFA relative to the first SIPPRA NOFA. Treasury 
understands that Congress intended for SIPPRA to be a demonstration 
program, which suggests that trying different strategies and approaches 
in the second NOFA and comparing them to those used in the first NOFA 
may be consistent with congressional intent. Treasury also believes 
that the revisions it plans may increase the number of applications it 
receives, reduce the burden on applicants and stakeholders, reduce 
application review time, and enhance the success of projects. Treasury 
is interested in receiving comments on applicants' experiences with the 
application process under the first NOFA and suggestions on revisions 
Treasury should consider in the second NOFA to make the application and 
application review process more user-friendly and efficient. The most 
salient revisions Treasury plans to make in the second NOFA are 
addressed below.
     Treasury anticipates providing more guidance, expanded 
FAQs, and additional online resources to prospective applicants for the 
second NOFA. More specifically, Treasury plans to expand its guidance 
on evaluation plan design, causal impact measurement requirements, and 
quasi-experimental design criteria. Treasury anticipates the guidance 
it plans to provide in the second NOFA will reduce applicants' burden 
during the application process and recipients' burden throughout the 
project performance period. Treasury also anticipates this guidance 
will be one means by which Treasury and the Interagency Council may be 
able to reduce application review time.
     Treasury also plans to replace the outcome valuation 
methodology, budget impact analysis, required in the first NOFA, with a 
different methodology, benefit-cost analysis. Treasury is planning on 
making this change because testing different approaches to value 
determination may help broaden insights in valuation practices in the 
pay for success field.
     Through its outreach with Federal agencies and external 
stakeholders, Treasury has identified the need to make the application 
and the application review process more efficient for all parties. 
Treasury invites suggestions and specific strategies and efficiencies 
that Treasury may incorporate into the second NOFA that will increase 
administrative efficiencies to the extent permitted under the statute 
and other federal laws and regulations.
     Under the first NOFA, Treasury provided applicants three 
months from the date of NOFA publication in the Federal Register to 
submit their applications. In the second NOFA, Treasury anticipates 
providing approximately five months from the date of publication for 
applicants to submit their applications. Treasury is interested in 
learning whether prospective applicants favor a shorter window of time 
to submit their applications, which would leave more time for project 
implementation, or conversely, if they favor a longer application 
timeframe (e.g., five or six months), which would give applicants more 
time to submit their applications, but less time for project 
implementation. (The statute does not permit Treasury to obligate funds 
beyond February 2028. Treasury is interested in an approach that 
provides an applicant sufficient time to submit an application while 
still providing sufficient project implementation time.)
    Affected Public: State, Local, or Tribal Governments.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: 25.
    Frequency of Response: Once; on occasion.
    Estimated Total Number of Annual Responses: 25.
    Estimated Time per Response: 359 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 8,975 hours.
    Request for Comments: Comments submitted in response to this notice 
will be summarized and included in the request for OMB approval. All 
comments may become a matter of public record. Comments are invited on: 
(a) Whether the 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 collection of information; (c) 
ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; (d) ways to minimize the burden of the collection of 
information on respondents, including through the use of technology; 
and (e) estimates of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, 
maintenance, and purchase of services required to provide information.

[[Page 24650]]

    Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.

Catherine Wolfram,
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Climate and Energy Economics.
[FR Doc. 2022-08858 Filed 4-25-22; 8:45 am]
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