FOA Supplemental Supporting Statement

Funding Opportunity Announcement

Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC):

A Grant Initiative for the Appalachian and Delta Regions

Supplemental Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the unique information collection requirements in the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC): A Grant Initiative for the Appalachian and Delta Regions.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), in partnership with the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) (www.arc.gov) and the Delta Regional Authority (DRA) (www.dra.gov), announces the availability of approximately $29.2 million in grant funds authorized by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) for the Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) Initiative demonstration grants round 2. The funding, appropriated under Title I, Division B of the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Act 2019 and the Continuing Appropriations Act 2019 (Pub. L. 115-145), will fund projects supporting rural communities in aligning workforce development efforts with economic development plans, serving the following areas hard-hit by economic transition and recovering slowly:

• The Appalachian region, as defined in 40 U.S.C. 14102(a)(1), and

• The Lower Mississippi Delta (Delta) region, as defined in 7 U.S.C. 2009aa(2).

Applications will include the following information collections: 1) Form SF-424 “Application for Federal Assistance,” separately cleared under OMB control number 4040-0004, 2) Project Budget, 3) Project Narrative, and 4) Attachments to the Project Narrative.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov website and 100 percent of responses will be submitted electronically. No applications submitted in hardcopy by mail or hand delivery (including overnight delivery) will be accepted for this funding opportunity.

Small Entities:

This information collection will not have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.

Assurances of confidentiality:

These grant solicitations do not offer applicants assurances of confidentiality.

Special circumstances:

This FOA implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 250 applications from an equal number of respondents.  The ETA estimates public reporting burden for the information collection to average 20 hours per response for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining needed data, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.

250 applications x 20 hours = 5,000 hours

The DOL uses the average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $34.29 per hour to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—March 2020, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf at page 35.

5,000 hours x $34.29 = $171,450

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee will be required to submit quarterly financial, performance, and narrative reports to the ETA. Those information collection requirements will be cleared under a separate control number.

Total burden: 250 respondents, 250 responses, 5,000 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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