ORR-1 Supporting Statement

THE SUPPORTING STATEMENT

Specific Instructions

A. Justification.

1. Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary

The Refugee Cash and Medical Assistance (CMA) program, implemented by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Administration for Children and Families, DHHS, is a reimbursement program for costs incurred by States in providing benefits and services to refugees, Amerasians, Cuban and Haitian entrants, asylees, Afghans and Iraqis with Special Immigrant Visas, and victims of a severe form of trafficking. The types of costs that are reimbursed are: (1) cash assistance, (2) medical assistance, (3) medical screening, (4) administrative costs, and (5) services for unaccompanied refugee minors. Reimbursement is provided through mandatory grant awards. Currently, reimbursement is provided for benefits and services provided during the first eight months after arrival of an eligible recipient. The number of months of assistance for which reimbursement is provided is determined by the available appropriation.

The ORR-1, Cash and Medical Assistance (CMA) Program Estimates, is the State application for quarterly grant awards under this program. ORR regulations at 45 CFR 400.11(b) specify that a State must submit yearly estimates of reimbursable costs, identified as cash assistance, medical assistance, related administrative costs, and services to unaccompanied minors, in order to receive grants under this program. The application for quarterly CMA grants is due 45 days prior to the start of the fiscal year.

The ORR-1, CMA Program Estimates, fulfills three important functions. First, as noted above, it is the annual application for this program, as required by ORR regulations. Second, since CMA reimbursement is available only to the extent that appropriations are available, it is essential that ORR be able to project accurately what the costs of the program will be for each fiscal year. The estimates submitted by States in the ORR-1 provide one source of information on expected costs and contribute to ORR’s determination each year of the number of months of assistance that can be reimbursed. Finally, the estimates contribute to effective monitoring by providing a fiscal baseline for desk and on-site monitoring of States.

2. Purpose and Use of the Information Collection

As noted above, the information collected through the ORR-1 application will be used for three purposes: (1) to serve as the annual application for the Cash and Medical Assistance program, as required by the ORR regulation; (b) to provide estimated costs for the subsequent year of the program; and (3) to provide baseline information for fiscal monitoring of States.

These data will be used internally within ORR, DHHS, and OMB only.

3. Use of Improved Information Technology and Burden Reduction

This data collection form will be made available to States both in hard copy form and through ACF’s online data collection system. States already use the online data collection system (OLDC) to report financial data for other ORR formula grants. In FY 2010, 25 States and the District of Columbia submitted the ORR-1 CMA Program Estimates for FY 2011 through OLDC. This form will continue to be made available to States through OLDC to simplify the application process.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication and Use of Similar Information

No similar information collection exists that could be substituted as an application form for the CMA program. In addition, there is no other information collection form for States’ annual estimates of what their costs will be.

5. Impact on Small Businesses or Other Small Entities

The information to be collected is the minimum needed to meet the requirements of an application form that will provide relevant cost projections for the CMA program.

There will be no impact on small businesses.

6. Consequences of Collecting the Information Less Frequently

The purpose of this information collection form is to be the annual application form for quarterly awards under the Cash and Medical Assistance program. The ORR regulations at 45 CFR 400.11(b) mandate that States submit an application form that provides cost estimates annually. Less frequent collection would not fulfill the regulatory requirement of an annual application.

7. Special Circumstances Relating to the Guidelines of 5 CFR 1320.5

There are no special circumstances pertaining to this form. Respondents will report annually. Respondents have more than 30 days to prepare responses, since the form may be submitted at any time up to 45 days prior to the beginning of the next fiscal year. The data collection form will be available continuously to grantees thus allowing ample time to grantees for collecting the data and applying for the next year’s grant. Respondents submit either one original and one copy in hard copy or respondents submit one form electronically through ORR’s online data collection system. Respondents do not need to retain records for more than three years. There is no requirement for confidential information. The data collection is not a statistical survey.

8. Comments in Response to the Federal Register Notice and Efforts to Consult Outside the Agency

The 60 day Federal Register notice was published 2/25/2011, Vol. 76, page 10605. There have been no comments in response to the Federal Register notice. Since this data collection is intended to continue to fulfill the data collection already required by 45 CFR Part 400.11(b), no additional consultations have been conducted.

9. Explanation of Any Payment or Gift to Respondents

There will be no payment or gift to respondents.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality Provided to Respondents

Since the respondents will be State agencies, rather than individuals, and since the reporting will be on cost estimates for reimbursement by federal grant funds, there will no assurance of confidentiality; and no Privacy Act System of Records will be established.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

There are no sensitive questions in this data collection. The collection is an application that requires grantee cost estimates. No personal identification numbers are required.

12. Estimates of Annualized Burden Hours and Costs

There will be approximately 46 respondents. The respondents consist of the State agencies that implement refugee resettlement programs. (Rarely, when a State agency withdraws from the refugee resettlement program, the director of ORR may select a State Replacement Designee to implement the State-wide refugee resettlement program. The State Replacement Designee may be a non- profit organization. Currently, there are no State Replacement Designees in the program.)

The total annual hour burden for all participating States is 28 hours. The total annualized cost of the hourly burden is 28.8 hours times $40 or $1,152.

ANNUAL BURDEN ESTIMATE

Instrument	Number of Respondents	Number of Responses per Respondent	Average Burden Hours per Response	Total Burden Hours
ORR-1	48	1 per year	0.6 hour	28.8

This reporting requirement will not involve any additional data collection burden on States since the actual cost data on which the estimates in the ORR-1 are based are currently being collected, cumulated, and then reported on the SF-425 Federal Financial Report.

13. Estimates of Other Total Annual Cost Burden to Respondents and Record Keepers

It is not anticipated that there will be any Other Annual Cost Burden to Respondents and Record Keepers. The actual cost data on which the estimates in the ORR-1 will be based are already collected and reported on the SF-425 Federal Financial Report.

14. Annualized Cost to the Federal Government

There is no cost to the Federal Government.

15. Explanation of Program Changes or Adjustments

There is a program change which increases the annual burden from 24 hours to 28 hours. There are no adjustments.

This data collection instrument adds two new line items to the application. Previously, the ORR-1 had required that States provide an estimate for the cost of the administration of Refugee Cash Assistance and Refugee Medical Assistance combined. Due to increases of 12 to 18 percent in CMA reimbursements for administrative costs over the last three years, the ORR-1 now requires that States break down the cost of administration between Refugee Cash Assistance, Refugee Medical Assistance, and Refugee Medical Screening and provide separate estimates. ORR anticipates that more detailed estimates on administrative costs will allow better forecasting of these costs and better baseline information on this component of the program for desk and on-site monitoring.

16. Plans for Tabulation and Publication and Project Time Schedule

There are no plans to publish these data. These data are for internal use only as an application for grant awards. These data will be entered into an Excel spreadsheet and tracked by program component and total estimated cost. Refugee Resettlement Program Specialists will have access to the forms as submitted and to the program-wide spreadsheet to assist them in financial monitoring of the States for which they are project officers.

17. Reason(s) Display of OMB Expiration Date is Inappropriate

The OMB Expiration Date will be displayed on the information collection.

18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

No exceptions.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

Statistical methods are not applicable.

1. Describe (including numerical estimate) the potential respondent universe and any sampling or other respondent selection method to be used. Data on the number of entities (e.g., establishments, State and local government units, households or persons) in the universe covered by the collection and in the corresponding sample are to be provided in tabular form for the universe as a whole and for each of the strata in the proposed sample. Indicate expected response rates for the collection as a whole. If the collection had been conducted previously, include the actual response rate achieved during the last collection.

2. Describe the procedures for the collection of information including:

3. Describe methods to maximize response rates and to deal with issues of nonresponse. The accuracy and reliability of information collected must be shown to be adequate for intended uses. For collections based on sampling, a special justification must be provided for any collection that will not yield "reliable" data that can be generalized to the universe studied.

4. Describe any tests of procedures or methods to be undertaken.

5. Provide the name and telephone number of individuals consulted on statistical aspects of the design and the name of the agency unit, contractor(s), grantee(s), or other person(s) who will actually collect and/or analyze the information for the agency.

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