[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 32 (Thursday, February 15, 2024)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 11798-11800]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-03160]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

45 CFR Part 1336

[Assistance Listing Numbers: 93.581, 93.587, 93.612]


Notice for Public Comment on Administration for Native Americans' 
Program Policies and Procedures

AGENCY: Administration for Native Americans, Administration for 
Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Request for public comment.

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 814 of the Native American Programs Act of 
1974 (NAPA), as amended, the Administration for Native Americans (ANA) 
is required to provide members of the public an opportunity to comment 
on proposed changes in interpretive rules and general statements of 
policy and to give notice of the proposed changes no less than 30 days 
before such changes become effective. In accordance with notice 
requirements of NAPA, ANA herein describes proposed interpretive rules 
and general statements of policy that relate to ANA's Notices of 
Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) in fiscal year (FY) 2024. Changes to FY 
NOFOs will be based on the previously published programs: Environmental 
Regulatory Enhancement (ERE), HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NR-1907; Native American 
Language Preservation and Maintenance-Esther Martinez Immersion (EMI), 
HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NB-1958; Native American Language Preservation and 
Maintenance (P&M), HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NL-1924; Social and Economic 
Development Strategies (SEDS), HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NA-1906; Social and 
Economic Development Strategies-Alaska (SEDS-AK), HHS-2021-ACF-ANA-NK-
1902.

DATES: Comments are due by March 18, 2024. If ANA does not receive any 
significant comments within the 30-day comment period, ANA will proceed 
with the proposed changes in the respective published NOFOs. The NOFOs 
will serve as the final notice of these proposed changes.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted to: Carmelia Strickland, Director 
of Program Operations, Administration for Native Americans, 330 C 
Street, SW, Washington, DC 20201 or via email to: 
[email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carmelia Strickland, Director, 
Division of Program Operations, Administration for Native Americans, 
330 C Street SW, Washington, DC 20201; Telephone: (877) 922-9262; 
Email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 814 of NAPA, as amended (42 U.S.C. 
2992b-1), incorporates provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act 
that require ANA to provide notice of its proposed interpretive rules 
and statements of policy and to seek public comment on such proposals. 
This notice serves to fulfill the statutory notice and public comment 
requirement. ANA voluntarily includes rules of practice and procedures 
in this notice to be transparent. The proposed interpretive rules, 
statements of policy, and rules of ANA practice and procedure reflected 
in clarifications, modifications, and new text will appear in the five 
FY 2024 NOFOs: SEDS--HHS-2024-ACF-ANA-NK-0050; SEDS-AK--HHS-2024-ACF-
ANA-NA-0051; ERE--HHS-2024-ACF-ANA-NR-0061; P&M--HHS-2024-ACF-ANA-NL-
0059; EMI--HHS-2024-ACF-ANA-NB-0054.
    A. Interpretive rules, statements of policy, procedures, and 
practice. The proposals in this section reflect ANA's proposed changes 
in rules, policy, or procedure that will take effect in the FY 2024 
NOFOs.

1. Fully-Funding Awards

    ANA regulations state that awards will ``generally . . . be made 
available for a one-year budget period and subsequent non-competing 
continuation awards with the same project period will also be for one 
year''. 45 CFR 1336.32 (emphasis added). In accordance with the 
regulation, ANA awards are currently awarded in 12-month increments and 
recipients with multi-year awards must submit a non-competitive 
continuation application to receive funding for the next budget period. 
In addition, if a recipient is unable to complete all activities within 
a budget period, they must request approval of a carryover budget 
amendment to use the funds from a previous budget period. In FY 2024, 
ANA will fully fund all competitive awards for the programs SEDS, ERE, 
P&M, and SEDS for Alaska for up to 36 months. This will promote self-
governance and self-determination of tribes, Alaska Natives, and other 
Native American organizations; reduce the administrative burden of 
recipients by not requiring annual non-competing continuation 
applications for multi-year projects; and reduce the need for post-

[[Page 11799]]

award amendments such as carryover budget requests. In addition, this 
will reduce administrative burden for ANA and Office of Grants 
Management staff and allow more time to support recipients. ANA will 
consider amending its regulations to fully fund competitive awards 
instead of incrementally fund awards in future award cycles. Applicants 
should be aware that fully funding awards in FY 2024 for the entire 
project period will result in fewer awards in this cycle. However, the 
number of non-competing continuations in future years will decline, 
leaving more annual appropriations funding available for new, fully 
funded awards.
    The EMI program's authorizing statute allows for a 5-year or 60-
month project period. ANA will fully fund EMI projects for the first 36 
months with a 36-month budget period. EMI awards with a project period 
of 48 or 60-months will need to submit a non-competing continuation 
application for the remaining budget period(s), if applicable. This 
will mitigate financial risk and allow ANA to fund more projects with 
annual appropriations.

2. Modify Policy for ANA Disqualification Factor for ``Assurance of 
Representation on Board of Directors'', Also Known as ``Assurance''

    ANA has a long-standing requirement that all applicants, other than 
tribes and Alaska Native village governments, include documentation in 
the application that identifies Board members by name and their 
affiliation to the communities that ANA serves. This policy ensures 
that organizations applying for an ANA award have a majority of the 
members on its governing board that have a personal affiliation or 
relationship to federally or state recognized tribes, have a cultural 
relationship with a Native community, or are considered Native American 
as defined by ANA regulations and Native American Pacific Islanders. 
Without this assurance, an application is disqualified from competing. 
ANA will modify this policy by exempting state recognized tribes from 
the Assurance disqualification factor. In addition, the current policy 
requires applicants from public agencies serving Native people from 
Guam, American Samoa, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands to submit the Assurance documentation. The revised policy will 
exempt public government agencies within the Pacific territories from 
this disqualification factor. Schools and universities that are 
governed by a board independent from their respective territorial 
governments remain subject to the Assurance requirements. Over the 
years, ANA has disqualified applications from state-recognized tribes 
and public governmental agencies in the territories because they did 
not include the Assurance documentation in the application. The policy 
modification will no longer require state-recognized tribes and public 
governmental agencies in Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of 
the Northern Mariana Islands to submit the Assurance documentation 
requirement. ANA's intent is to disqualify fewer applications. 
Disqualified applications are considered non-responsive and the 
application is not included in the merit review or funded.

3. Change Reference in ANA Policies That Reference the Catalog of 
Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) to ``Assistance Listings''

    The name for the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) 
changed to Assistance Listings on www.SAM.gov. ANA has several long-
standing administrative policies and one disqualification factor 
included in all five NOFOs that include references to the CFDA. The 
administrative policies are known as the ``Limitation on the Number of 
Award Under a Single CFDA Number'' and ``Limitation on the Number of 
Awards Based on Two Consecutively Funding Projects'' with the same CFDA 
Number. The disqualification factor is known as the ``Only One Active 
Award Per CFDA''. An eligible entity can have no more than one active 
award per CFDA number for an ANA program at any given time. This policy 
disqualifies any applicant that has an active ANA award with the same 
CFDA number that will continue beyond the start date of a possible new 
award to not apply for a new award. The policies regarding the 
limitation of awards per CFDA number ensures that ANA funding can reach 
other organizations that do not have an ANA award. The CFDA-related 
policies help to preserve resources and maximize the reach of ANA's 
limited funding by precluding the review of applications that would be 
ineligible for funding based on ANA's administrative policies. The 
policies are not changing; however, due to the government's name change 
of the CFDA to Assistance Listings, ANA is updating the related policy 
names in the NOFOs.

4. SEDS NOFO Specific Changes

    ANA intends to fully fund awards upfront starting in FY24 and 
adjust the annual awards ceiling from $400,000 to $300,000 resulting, 
for example, total funding of $900,000 per grantee for a project period 
of 36 months. This change will allow ANA to fund additional projects 
with its annual appropriations, support management of fully funded 
projects, make funding more equitable across ANA's programs and 
positively impact more Native communities and organizations.
    Since 2020, the SEDS NOFO set out bonus points in the evaluation 
criteria for projects that address Native American community priority 
areas such as veterans, emergency preparedness, and Missing and 
Murdered Indigenous People. Since 2021, the SEDS NOFO provided bonus 
points in the evaluation criteria for certain types of economic 
development projects that were mandated by the Indian Community 
Economic Enhancement Act of 2020. In this NOFO ANA intends to continue 
to fund projects that promote social and economic development; however, 
the SEDS NOFO will no longer include bonus points. This change will 
allow all types of proposed community-based projects in the SEDS 
competition to receive equal consideration while also allowing 
applicants to choose their own priorities that best meet the needs of 
their community.

SEDS-AK NOFO Specific Changes

    Since 2020, the SEDS-AK NOFO allowed reviewers to add bonus points 
in the evaluation criteria for applications that documented that the 
applicant organization has never received a past award from ANA. Since 
2021, the SEDS-AK NOFO provided bonus points in the evaluation criteria 
for certain types of economic development projects that were mandated 
by the Indian Community Economic Enhancement Act of 2020. In this NOFO 
ANA intends to continue to fund projects that promote social and 
economic development; however, the SEDS-AK NOFO will no longer include 
bonus points. This change will allow all proposed community-based 
projects in the SEDS-AK competition to receive equal consideration 
while also allowing applicants to choose their own priorities that best 
meet the needs of their community.

5. Changes to Required Application Elements

    ANA has received applicant feedback for many years that the NOFOs 
are burdensome, too long, and difficult to understand. For FY24, HHS 
announced a Simpler NOFO pilot project to make NOFOs easier to 
understand and navigate as part of its efforts to increase equity and 
inclusion for underserved and marginalized communities. All five ANA 
NOFOs were selected to

[[Page 11800]]

participate in the Simpler NOFO project. Therefore, the application 
requirements and evaluation criteria will change in FY24 to lessen the 
burden and make it easier to read, understand, and write an 
application. The ANA Project Framework, used in NOFOs from FY 2018-
2023, will no longer be used, although some elements will remain. The 
required elements for an ANA application across all five NOFOs that 
will be evaluated will include: Project Narrative (for 75 points) to 
include the Current Community Condition (5 points), Project Goal (7 
points), Objectives (8 points), Project Strategy and Implementation 
Plan (15 points), Community Based Strategy (12 points), Population to 
be Served (7 points), Outcomes (6 points), Objective Work Plan (15 
points). The Organizational Capacity (total of 15 points) includes a 
Staffing Plan (5 points), Data Management Plan (3 points), Partnerships 
and Consultants (2 points), and Oversight Plan (5 points). The Line-
Item Budget and Budget Narrative will be combined for a total of 10 
points. A total of 100 points will be available for each NOFO. As 
mentioned earlier, no bonus points will be provided for any NOFO.

6. Reduction in Application Page Limits

    ANA's previous application total page limit was 150 pages, 
excluding Standard Forms such as the SF-424, SF-424A, and other OMB-
approved forms including ANA's Objective Work Plan. Applicant feedback 
informed ANA that 150 pages is too much. While ANA limits rather than 
requires 150 pages, applicants sometimes feel that it is a requirement 
to provide 150 pages to have a competitive application. Therefore, ANA 
will reduce the total page limit from 150 to 100 pages to reduce the 
burden to apply for ANA funding. To accommodate the lower page limit, 
business plans will no longer be required at the time of application 
submission. However, if a proposed project is subject to a business 
plan, ANA staff will request an applicant to provide a business plan 
during the Internal Review of Proposed Projects process of finalizing 
and negotiating grant awards.

    Statutory Authority: Sections 803 and 814 of the Native American 
Programs Act of 1974 (NAPA), as amended (42 U.S.C. 2291b; 2992b-1).

Patrice H. Kunesh,
Commissioner, Administration for Native Americans.
[FR Doc. 2024-03160 Filed 2-14-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4184-34-P