Employer Policy, Research, and Technical Assistance Center for the Employment of People with Disabilities SGA Supplemental Suppo

Solicitation for Cooperative Agreement Applications

National Employer Policy, Research, and Technical Assistance Center

Supplemental Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act for a Cooperative Agreement (SCA). The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), will announce the availability of approximately $1,850,000 million in grant funds to fund one cooperative agreement to manage a National Employer Policy, Research, and Technical Assistance Center (Center). This solicitation is a re-competition of an existing cooperative agreement. The Center will build upon the work of ODEP’s prior National Employer Technical Assistance Center (NETAC) to identify, develop, implement, and promote employer policies and practices that advance employment outcomes of people with disabilities. The successful applicant will carry forward some initiatives from NETAC, as well as develop and implement innovative new initiatives.

This announcement will solicit applications from eligible organizations. To be considered eligible for this cooperative agreement, an applicant must represent one of the following four (4) types of entities: a) a business membership association; b) an institution of higher education; c) an employment service provider; or d) a national disability-serving organization. Applicants are required to have a partnership with entities from each of the other eligible applicant categories as well as with a top-tiered business school and a state policy association. The goal of the Center is to increase the commitment and capacity of employers to recruit, hire, retain, and advance people with disabilities by: 1) analyzing employer research, policies, and practices related to disability employment; 2) conducting research on employer engagement strategies; and 3) developing and providing outreach and technical assistance to targeted employers (i.e., Federal agencies, Federal contractors (including small businesses and state governments).

Applications will include the following information collections: 1) Form SF-424 “Application for Federal Assistance;” and Form SF-424A, separately cleared under OMB control number 4040-0004, and Form SF-424B, separately cleared under OMB control number 4040-0007; 2) Project Budget Narrative; 3) Project Narrative; and 4) Attachments to the Project Narrative.

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov Web site. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates 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 SCA implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 10 applications from an equal number of respondents. ODEP 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.

10 applications x 20 hours =200 hours.

The DOL has increased the October 2013, average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $30.38 by 40 percent (total $42.53) to monetize this burden. See The Employment Situation—December 2013, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_01102014.pdf at 35.

200 hours x $42.53 = $8,506.

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, the cooperative agreement awardee 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: 10 respondents, 10 responses, 200 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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