H-1B Rural Healthcare Grant Program Supporting Statement

Funding Opportunity Announcement

Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants

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 H-1B Rural Healthcare Grant Program. The Employment and Training Administration (ETA), U.S. Department of Labor will announce the availability of approximately $40 million in grant funds authorized under the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act of 1998 (ACWIA), as amended (codified at 29 USC 3224a) for the H-1B Rural Healthcare Grant Program. The intent of this grant program is to alleviate healthcare workforce shortages by creating sustainable employment and training programs in healthcare occupations (including behavioral and mental healthcare) serving rural populations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for healthcare workers, particularly in rural areas where there was already an acute need. Expanding employment and training models for the healthcare industry will help individuals gain the skills necessary to provide needed services, fill vacancies, and allow employers to find skilled workers more readily. This grant program will result in increasing the numbers of individuals in healthcare occupations. Employment and training programs funded through this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) can propose a wide range of training models, including Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) and Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). Pre-apprenticeships are permitted only as on-ramps to apprenticeship programs proposed in response to this FOA and must result in placement in apprenticeships during the life of the grant.

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. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates that at least 80 percent of responses will be submitted electronically.

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 50 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.

50 applications x 20 hours = 1000 hours

The DOL uses the average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $35.15 per hour to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—August 2020, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf  at page 35.

1000 hours x $35.15 = $35,150

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: 50 respondents, 50 responses, 1000 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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