AC Supporting Statement 6.10.09

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSIONS

 

A. Justification

A1.  Need for Information Collection

The Corporation for National and Community Service (the Corporation) awards grants to states, institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, Indian tribes, and U.S. Territories to operate AmeriCorps State, AmeriCorps National, AmeriCorps VISTA, Learn and Serve America, and Senior Corps programs. This information collection comprises the questions applicants will answer to compete for Recovery Act funding through AmeriCorps State and National, which includes State Competitive, State Education Award Program, National Direct, National Education Award Program, Indian Tribes, and State and Territories without Commissions. It also includes reporting requirements for this one-time competition. The Recovery Act can be found here and the relevant citation is attached to this Justification.

A2.  Indicate how, by whom, and for what purpose the information is to be used.

Applicants will respond to the questions included in these instructions in order to apply for Recovery Act funding in a one-time only AmeriCorps State and National grant competitions. Applicants will include states, institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, Indian tribes, and U.S. Territories. Successful applicants will respond to these questions on a quarterly basis to report on their progress, as required by the OMB Implementation Guidance for the American Reovery and Reinvestment Act.

 

 A3.  Minimize Burden: Use of Improved Technology to Reduce Burden

The Corporation will be eliciting and accepting applicants and grantees response to these questions electronically via eGrants, the Corporation’s secure online application system, or via e-mail. If applicants are unable to apply or report on-line, they can use the attached forms and instructions to submit their application.

A4.  Non-Duplication

There are no other sources of information by which the Corporation can meet the purposes described in A2 (above).

 

A5.  Minimizing for economic burden for small businesses or other small entities.

This collection of information does not impact small businesses because they are not eligible to apply for grants. There is no economic burden to any other small entities beyond the cost of staff time to collect and report the data. This is minimized to the degree possible by only asking for the information absolutely necessary to measure progress towards the Corporation’s strategic initiative benchmarks.

A6.  Consideration of Collection

 The Corporation will be unable to conduct the AmeriCorps State and National Recovery Act Funding competitions authorized by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or report on the impact of these funds without approval of this collection.

A7.  Special circumstances that would cause information collection to be collected in the specified ways.

There are no special circumstances that would require the collection of information in any other ways specified.

A8.  Provide copy and identify the date and page number of publication in the Federal Register of the Agency’s notice.

The 60 day Notice soliciting comments was published on April 1, 2009. No comments were received.

 

 A9.  Payment to Respondents

There are no payments or gifts to respondents

  

A10.  Confidentiality

Information provided by this collection may be shared with federal, state, and local agencies for law enforcement purposes. Information provided by respondents is subject to the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act.

A11.  Sensitive Questions

 The information collection does not include questions of a sensitive nature.

 

A12. Hour burden of the collection

These are the application instructions and reporting questions for the one-time Recovery Act funding for 2009.

We expect approximately 250 respondents to use these instructions to apply for funding in the AmeriCorps State Competitive, State Education Award Program, National Direct, National Education Award Program, National Professional Corps, Indian Tribes, State and Territories without Commissions, and National Planning grant competitions and then to report four times during the year.

The frequency of response for applications will not be greater than annually for applications and quarterly for reports, and should not exceed 8 hours of effort per response. There is no estimated annual hour burden outside of the customary and usual business practices.

A13. Cost burden to the respondent

The total cost burden for applications based on an average cost of $18.77 per hour (value of a volunteer hour according to Independent Sector) is $187,700. The cost of reporting ($750.80 per applicant) is covered by the grants awarded by the Corporation to successful applicants.

 

A14. Cost to Government

The Corporation is required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to require grantees to complete quarterly progress reports. The Corporation’s review of the data will be accomplished by internal teams of staffs as part of their regular job functions. Estimated cost in staff time and systems expense is $35 per hour for two hours of review per report submitted from approximately 173 grantees is $36,300.

A15. Reasons for program changes

Not applicable.

 

 A16.  Publication of results

Data and reports are used both internally and externally. The collection will be the primary vehicle to update and inform the Corporation about each Recovery Act grantees’ progress. Externally, data gathered will be reported to OMB and made public through the Recovery.gov website.

 

A17.  Explain the reason for seeking approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval of the information collection.

Not applicable.

 

 A18.  Exceptions to the certification statement

There are no exceptions to the certification statement in the submitted ROCIS form.

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