Supporting Statement Tribal PRA 6.3.2016

THE SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A. Justification

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

42 U.S.C. 612 (section 412 of the Social Security Act) requires each Indian tribe that elects to administer and operate a TANF program to submit a TANF Tribal plan. The Tribal plan is a mandatory statement submitted to the Secretary by the Indian tribe, which consists of an outline of how the Indian tribe's TANF program will be administered and operated. It is used by the Secretary to determine whether the plan is approvable and to determine that the Indian tribe is eligible to receive a TANF assistance grant. It is also made available to the public.

42 U.S.C. 612

45 CFR 286.70

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

The information has been used and will continue to be used to assist Tribes in obtaining approval of their Tribal TANF Plans so that they can operate a TANF program and serve their populations.

3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction

An Indian tribe may prepare the TANF Tribal plan in Microsoft Word and submit it by email to reduce the submittal burden.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

No similar or duplicate information is available.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

This collection of information does not impact small businesses or other small entities.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

The Indian tribes will only be required to respond to this information collection once every three years. Without this information, TANF Tribal plans cannot be approved and therefore, Tribes would be unable to operate TANF programs and serve their populations.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5

This collection of information does not involve any special circumstances.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside the Agency

We published a Federal Register Notice on December 23, 2016, vol. 81 on page 94382, and received no comments.

9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents

No payments and/or gifts will be given to respondents other than the grant to administer and operate a TANF program.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents

This data collection does not constitute a Privacy Act System of Records and no assurance of confidentiality will be provided to respondents.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

This data collection does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimates of Annualized Burden Hours and Costs

Annual Burden Estimates

Instrument	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden Hours per Response	Total Burden Hours
Guidance For The Tribal Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) Program	24	1	68	1,632

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 1,632

Indian tribes are required to respond to this information collection only once every three years in order to obtain approval of their Tribal TANF plans. We expect an average of 24 Tribes per year will apply to operate a TANF program or to continue their TANF program. We estimate that it will take approximately 68 hours for each Tribe to respond to this information request for a total burden of 1,632 hours per year. Based on an estimated average hourly Indian tribe salary of $100 per hour (including fringe benefits, overhead, etc), the total estimated annual burden cost is estimated to be $163.200.

12. Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents and Record Keepers

The following is an estimate of the annual cost burden to respondents resulting from this collection of information. (The estimate does not include the cost of any hour burden shown in items 12 and 14 of this supporting statement).

For this information collection, we estimate there to be no change in the average annualized capital/start-up and operational and maintenance costs of zero dollars. The respondents will not have to invest in any new technologies for the purpose of producing and providing this information.

12. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

This item does not reflect any of the costs shown in items 12 and 13 of this supporting statement.

We estimate total annual Federal burden to be 1,042 hours. This includes the costs of information collection, mailing list compilation and maintenance, mailing, editing, analysis, evaluation, negotiation, publication of results, technical assistance, and monitoring. Based on an estimated average hourly federal salary of $100 per hour (including fringe benefits, overhead, etc), the total estimated average annual Federal cost is $104,200.

12. Explanation for Program Changes or Adjustments

There are minor clarifications to the existing content included in the instrument related to removal of outdated information and clarifying the certifications submission. Over the years, there have been several questions from grantees related to the instrument, as well as statute updates (not regulatory changes) that required adjustments. The will be no adjustment to the burden effects based on the clarification regarding submission of the certifications that was included in the instrument.

Number of burden hours and response time was updated because of adjustments in the demographics of the program due to the number of Tribal TANF grantees.  Tribal TANF is a program that allows tribes to apply to administer programs and be directly funded by ACF.  With this allowance, the number of grantees and burden hours will require adjusting periodically. There have been additional tribes that now have approval to administer the Tribal TANF program, so this is the reason for the adjustment in burden hours. The burden hours are now 1,632 an increase of 68 and the number of responses increased to 24 an increase of 1 based on an increase in Tribal TANF grantees.

12. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule

Much of the information is published in the TANF Annual Report to Congress, which is also posted on the HHS/ACF Website.

12. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

Not applicable

12. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions

Not applicable

B. Statistical Methods (used for collection of information employing statistical methods)

Not applicable