Monitoring GenIC Submission Form - LIHWAP Grantee Forecast

Request for Approval under the clearance of the “Generic for ACF Program Office Monitoring Activities” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control Number: 0970-0558

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) Grantee Forecast

PURPOSE: The Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) provides funds to assist low-income households with water and wastewater bills. The priority is to ensure that households whose services have been disconnected due to non-payment, or are about to be disconnected, are able to have their services restored as quickly as possible. LIHWAP grants are available to States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, U.S. Territories, and Federally and state-recognized Indian Tribes and tribal organizations.

The purpose of this data collection effort is to gain understanding for how much grantees have spent down of their allotted LIHWAP funds, and to forecast how many of their remaining funds they will be able to spend down before the program expires. Since 2021, a total of 152 LIHWAP grantees have been awarded funding to implement LIHWAP. The Office of Community Services (OCS) will use the information collected in the following ways:

• Enhancement of oversight and evaluation of grantee performance and progress.

• Verification that the program is carried out in a manner consistent with their OCS-approved LIHWAP Implementation Plans.

• Assessment of the program through the collection of additional information on the status, activities, and accomplishments of grant recipients in spending down their funds.

• Inform the program design as the office pursues permanent authorization.

• Determine if additional actions/support (e.g., T/TA) are needed to increase the potential for success or to protect federal interests (e.g., enforcement actions). LIHWAP now has less than one year left in its program life and this check-in will allow any necessary intervention or course correction to project implementation.

From this information, OCS will be able to assist grantees in developing and monitoring spending targets that support full obligation before program end. This information will also help OCS identify funds that are likely to remain unobligated at the end of the currently authorized expenditure period and the potential to reallot these funds to grant recipients that have demonstrated the ability to obligate additional LIHWAP funds for benefit payments within the authorized expenditure period.

This information collection aligns with the overarching generic for monitoring activities, which specifically states that ACF will collect the information for:

• monitoring of compliance with federal practice, guidelines and requirements,

• quick understanding of and remediation to national, regional, and/or site-specific issues,

• provision of support as needed,

• accurate assessment of the efficiency and efficacy of recipient activities

• flexible and responsive oversight of federal funds

The proposed uses of the data also align with the overarching generic, which specifies that program offices will use information collected under this generic clearance to monitor the efficiency and efficacy of funding recipient activities and to provide support or take appropriate action, as needed.

The findings are meant to inform ACF activities and may be incorporated into documents or presentations that are made public. As appropriate, information may be published for purposes of transparency and to provide information to those with an interest in ACF programs, such as grantees, policymakers, or clients.

DESCRIPTION OF RESPONDENTS: The respondents in this data collection effort are the 152 grantees currently implementing LIHWAP, including States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, U.S. Territories, and Federally and state-recognized Indian Tribes and tribal organizations.

CERTIFICATION:

I certify the following to be true:

1. The collection is in compliance with U.S. Health and Human Services regulations.

2. The collection is low-burden for respondents and low-cost for the Federal Government.

3. The collection is non-controversial and does not raise issues of concern to other federal agencies.

4. Information gathered will not be used for the purpose of substantially informing influential policy decisions.

Name: Olivia Barfield, Program Specialist, Office of Community Services

To assist OMB review of your request, please provide answers to the following question:

PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION:

1. Is personally identifiable information (PII) collected? [ ] Yes [X] No

2. If Yes, will any information that is collected be included in records that are subject to the Privacy Act of 1974? [ ] Yes [ ] No

3. If Yes, has an up-to-date System of Records Notice been published? [ ] Yes [ ] No

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	No. of Responses per Respondent per year	Burden per Response	Annual Burden
LIHWAP grantees	152	1	2 hours	304 hours

FEDERAL COST: The estimated annual cost to the Federal Government is _$61,803.20_.

The estimated annual cost to the Federal Government is based on the average hourly salary for social and community service specialist, job code 21-0000 based on 2021 Occupational Employment Statistics from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The base wage is equal to the mean salary of $40.66 per hour.  The base wage was multiplied by two ($81.32) to calculate wage plus fringe benefits and overhead. After, this wage was multiplied by 760 hours, which is the estimated burden hours to staff for the collection and analysis of the information.

TYPE OF COLLECTION:

How will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)

[ ] Web-based

[X] E-mail

[ ] Paper mail

[ ] Other, Explain

Please make sure to submit all instruments, instructions, and scripts with the request.

3