Supporting Statement for Request of OMB Approval of the Extension of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Annual Report on Households Assisted
October 18, 2018
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant (42 U.S.C. 8621) was established under Title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, Public Law 97-35. The Office of Community Services (OCS) within the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families (ACF) administers LIHEAP at the Federal level.
The LIHEAP statute requires the collection of data on the number of households assisted, their income levels, and vulnerability group, by type of LIHEAP assistance, for inclusion in the Secretary’s annual LIHEAP Report to Congress. Over the years, the LIHEAP statute, as amended, has expanded the household data requirements. The data are collected through the LIHEAP Household Report which consists of the following: (1) a Long Format for state grantees, the District of Columbia, and selected territory grantees, and (2) a Short Format for tribal grantees and selected territory grantees.
The LIHEAP Household Report is an annual data collection effort conducted by the U.S. Office of Community Services (OCS) to collect information from LIHEAP grantees to meet statutory requirements and program objectives. The purpose of this Supporting Statement is to request the renewal of the LIHEAP Household Report without any changes to meet statutory requirements and maintain annual reporting of these data to Congress.
The statutory purpose and use of the information collection include the following:
• LIHEAP grantees are required to report the estimated or final data contained in the previously approved LIHEAP Household Report as part of their annual application for LIHEAP funds, as required by Section 2605(c)(1)(G) of the Act (42 U.S.C. 8624). If reporting estimated data, the grantee is required to submit a final Household Report no later than December 15th.
• OCS prepares the data on assisted households for inclusion in the Department's annual LIHEAP Report to Congress, as required by Section 2610(a)(4) and (5) and section 2610(b) of the Act (42 U.S.C. 8629). The data are used for Congressional oversight and in response to Congressional and White House queries on case load statistics and demographic characteristics of LIHEAP households.
• Finally, the data on heating assisted households containing at least one member who is elderly or a young child are used in calculating LIHEAP recipiency targeting performance measures, under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 (31 U.S.C. 1101) and the President’s annual Congressional Justification.
All grantees reports are submitted through the Administration of Children and Families’ On-Line Data Collection System (OLDC). Instructions for completing the form are built into the form itself, through hyperlinks.
Household income levels and presence of elderly, disabled, or young children can be estimated at the national and regional levels for the households receiving heating assistance from two national household surveys–the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census) and the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (conducted by the U.S. Energy Information Administration). However, national household surveys do not provide reliable State-level data on any type of LIHEAP assistance, or data in a timely manner to comply with LIHEAP statutory reporting requirements. Also, these surveys underestimate the number of households receiving heating assistance due to underreporting and sampling error. There is no other similar information collection that can be modified to provide the data.
No small business entities are involved in the data collection.
The deadline for LIHEAP grantees to submit their block grant applications/plans for the following fiscal year is September 1st of the current fiscal year. Part of the block grant application requires the annual fiscal year data that are reported in the LIHEAP Household Report. Consequently, grantees would be unable to comply with statutory requirements in section 2605(c)(1)(D of the LIHEAP statute (42 U.S.C. 8624(c)(1)(G) and 8629(a)(4), (a)(5), (b), and (c)) if the data were collected less frequently.
Without the grantees’ annual reporting of the LIHEAP household data, HHS would be unable to complete its annual LIHEAP Report to Congress, as required by section 2610(b) of the LIHEAP statute (42 U.S.C. 8629).
There would be no way for OCS to track annual LIHEAP performance output.
Finally, OCS also would be unable to obtain data that are necessary in calculating LIHEAP recipiency targeting and outcome developmental performance measures that are included in the President’s annual Congressional Justification.
There are no special circumstances that require the collection to be conducted in a manner inconsistent with the guidelines in 5 CFR 1320.5.
OCS sought comments on the renewal of OMB approval of the LIHEAP Household Report through the following action:
• On August 17, 2018, a notice was published in the Federal Register (83 FR 41075) requesting comments about the LIHEAP Household Report.
OCS has not received any comments.
No payment or gifts to respondents are involved.
Confidentiality is not an issue as only aggregated household data are collected.
There are no questions of a sensitive nature that are commonly considered private.
Estimates of the hour burden of the collection of information are based on the number of LIHEAP grantees (50 States, the District of Columbia, 160 Indian Tribes/Tribal Organizations, and five Insular Areas) completing the information collection annually.
The response burden on respondents varies based on the following:
The LIHEAP Household Report – Long Format for the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and selected territory grantees (average burden per respondent of 39 hours).
The LIHEAP Household Report – Short Format for the 160 Indian Tribes/Tribal Organizations and and selected territory grantees (average burden per respondent of 1 hour).
Annual Burden Estimates for LIHEAP Household Report
Instrument |
Number of Respondents |
Number of Responses Per Respondent |
Average Hour Burden Per Response |
Total Burden Hours |
Long Format |
56 |
1 |
39 |
2,184 |
Short Format |
160 |
1 |
1 |
160 |
Total Annual Burden Hours |
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The variance in burden is due to the Department waiving most of the reporting requirements for small LIHEAP grantees, given the small grant amounts involved and the overall difficulty in obtaining reliable demographic data from small grantees. In reducing the burden on small LIHEAP grantees, all Indian Tribes and Tribal Organizations and selected territory grantees will continue to be exempted from most of the reporting requirements. These grantees report only on the number of households assisted by type of LIHEAP assistance through the LIHEAP Household Report–Short Format.
The annual costs for respondents for each format of the LIHEAP Household Report are estimated as follows:
For the LIHEAP Household Report–Long Format, OCS estimates that the total annual respondent cost to be $77,280.
Staff
|
Number of respondents
|
Average # hours per respondent |
Average $ per hour |
Total cost |
Reporting |
56 |
27 |
$44 |
$66,528 |
Recordkeeping |
56 |
12 |
$16 |
$10,752 |
Total Cost |
$77,280 |
|||
For the LIHEAP Household Report–Short Format, OCS estimates the total annual respondent cost to be $4,800.
Staff |
Number of respondents
|
Average # hours per respondent |
Average $ per hour |
Total Cost |
Reporting |
160 |
0.5 |
$44 |
$3,520 |
Recordkeeping |
160 |
0.5 |
$16 |
$1,280 |
Total Cost |
$4,800 |
|||
Respondents will not incur any additional record keeping costs.
Cost Item |
Hours |
Salary (per hour) |
Total |
GS-13: (a) update LIHEAP Household Report and instructions to reflect the current Federal Fiscal Year (b) prepare an Action Transmittal reminding grantees of the reporting requirement, (c) oversee the work of the contractor. |
353 |
$47.71 |
$16,842 |
Contractor Cost: (a) oversee the collection effort and prepare statistical tables (b) prepare tables with footnotes for final publication in the Report to Congress. |
176 |
$83.79 |
$14,747 |
Total |
$31,589 |
||
There is no adjustment from the previously approved collection.
The results of the information collection are published in the Department's annual LIHEAP Report to Congress. State-level data are prepared as tables in Part III of the LIHEAP Report to Congress. The aggregation of State-level data also is reported in Part III of the LIHEAP Report to Congress. Complex analytical techniques will not be used as national totals, percentages, and percent distributions will be tabulated only. Selected results of the information collection also are published as part of the Department’s annual Congressional Justification.
The LIHEAP Household Report needs to be available before the end of each fiscal year to allow grantees time to submit their completed reports as part of their application for LIHEAP funds for the following fiscal year in accordance with 45 CFR 96.10. This regulation establishes September 1st as the deadline for State, Tribal, and Insular Area grantees to submit their block grant applications/plans for the following fiscal year. The projected time schedule for the annual LIHEAP Household Report is shown below.
Activity |
Weeks following September 1st Submission Deadline |
LIHEAP Household Reports (household data can be estimated so as not to delay issuance of new grant awards) reviewed for completeness as part of the LIHEAP grant application process |
4 |
Final (non-estimated) household data inputted and edited |
15 |
Final household data checked and edited for consistency with benefit data from the LIHEAP Performance Data Form – Module I (Grantee Survey), previous fiscal year LIHEAP Household Reports, the LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment reports, and LIHEAP state plans. |
25 |
Draft of statistical tables for inclusion in annual LIHEAP Report to Congress – text and appendices |
34 |
Final statistical tables for inclusion in annual LIHEAP Report to Congress |
40 |
Publication of annual LIHEAP Report to Congress** |
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**Publication is dependent upon the Department’s clearance process of the annual LIHEAP Report to Congress.
The expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection will be displayed on the report forms and instructions.
There are no exceptions indicated to the certifications required by 5 CFR 1320.9.
The information collection does not employ statistical methods.
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| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | FRN LIHEAP HHR Supporting Statement 2018 |
| Author | ACF |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-20 |