Att_cap assur-supp stmt-

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A. Justification:

1. Legal Requirement:

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (Act), requires each state to have in effect a Client Assistance Program (CAP) in order to receive payments from its Section 110 allotments under the Act. The approved application prescribed by the commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) is the state's written request for grant funds and assurances that the CAP can carry out its statutorily prescribed purposes and functions.

This preprint is based on the following:

(1) Title I, section 112 of the Act, as amended;

(2) the regulations (34 CFR Part 370) published November 2, 1995, in the Federal Register implementing section 112 of the Act, as amended; and

(3) general requirements for all state plans, including written requests for assistance under section 112 of the Act, pursuant to the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (34 CFR Part 76).

The written request for a CAP requirement flows directly from statutory and regulatory requirements for the CAP.

2. Purpose of the Information:

An approved written request is a condition for receipt of federal funds for vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs under Title I of the Act and for receipt of funds for a state to establish and carry out a CAP. In order for a state to receive federal funds to establish a CAP, the state must complete the Application for Client Assistance Program and provide assurances that the CAP can carry out its statutorily prescribed purposes and functions. Title I of the Act contains the authority for funding statewide VR programs and a CAP in every state.

The CAP application package consists of the following documents:

(1) A cover letter from the commissioner of RSA to the governor of each state;

(2) the CAP assurances;

(3) Certifications of Lobbying, Debarment, and Drug-Free Workplace; and

(4) a sample letter from the governor of each state to the commissioner to accompany the completed package.

This preprint being submitted for approval contains no substantive changes from the currently approved application package. However, the letter from the commissioner of RSA to the governor of each state has been modified to clarify the purpose of the application and the process for requesting CAP funds. The current version of the CAP assurances expires on January 31, 2007.

3. Burden:

The States Assurances is a legal document, which requires an authoritative signature and minimal reporting burden. States do not submit responses electronically because an authoritative signature is required. The possibility of submitting responses electronically, with just a hard-copy signature page, was considered. However, because of the reporting requirements is so minimal a second submission was considered not to be cost effective.

4. Duplication:

This document collects unique information that is not collected under any other instrument. The written request is required by federal statute and is not obtained through any other data source.

5. Small entities:

The collection of this information does not involve small businesses or other small entities.

6. Consequences of less frequent collection:

Section 112(f) of the Act requires the state to submit an application in such manner and containing or accompanied by such information as the secretary deems necessary. If the state fails to complete the application as required, the state will not be eligible for federal funds for the CAP program and subsequently for the basic state grant funds under section 110 of the Act. This method has been established as the required procedure.

7. Special circumstances:

There are no special circumstances that would require this information to be collected in a different manner than set forth in the Act.

8. Solicitation of public comments:

We received recommendations on this collection of information from the National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems (NAPAS), RSA regional staff, CAPs, and others. Suggestions received from all sources were considered during the revision of this form and are reflected therein.

9. Payment to respondents:

No payment or gift has been provided to respondents.

10. Confidentiality:

The written request does not contain specific or personal information.

11. Sensitive questions:

The written request does not contain any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimates of hour burden to respondents:

a. Number of respondents -- 56

b. Frequency of response -- 1

c. Total annual responses (axb) -- 56

d. Hours per response -- .16*

e. Total burden hours (cxd) -- 9

f. State hourly rate of salary -- -- $25

g. Total cost (exf) -- $225

* The burden hours associated with the written Request for a CAP is estimated at 10 minutes, or .16 hours, per state or Territory. The estimated hour burden per state or Territory is not expected to vary significantly. Estimated burden hours are founded on judgments from previous state written request submittals for CAP grants.

13. Additional cost burden to respondents:

There is no additional cost burden to states and Territories when submitting a written Request for a CAP.

14. Cost burden to Federal government:

a. Review of each written request -- .16 hour

b. Number of written requests to review -- 56

c. Total time to review written requests -- 9 hours*

d. Federal hourly rate of salary -- $35

e. Total cost (cxd) -- $315

* The estimated burden hours to the Federal Government does not include time needed for negotiations when a written request is not approvable. Given the perfunctory nature of this written request, it would be unusual for a request to not be approvable.

15. Program changes:

There are no program changes or adjustments reported.

16. Information to be published:

The information collected will not be published for statistical use.

17. Approval not to display expiration date:

This document is not seeking OMB approval not to display the expiration date.

18. Exceptions to the certification statement:

This document meets each of the criteria outlined in the "Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions".

B. Collection of information employing statistical methods:

The written request for a CAP is a legal document and does not require the use of any statistical methods in obtaining information.