FOA Supplemental Supporting Statement

Funding Opportunity Announcement

Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP)

National Grants for Program Year (PY) 2020

Supplemental Justification

Supplemental Supporting Statement A: Justification

This request seeks OMB approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act for the unique information collection requirements in the “Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP)

National Grants for Program Year (PY) 2020” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The Department will announce the availability of approximately $312 million in grant funds authorized by Title V of the Older Americans Act (OAA), as amended (42 USC §3056 et seq.) for the Senior Community Service Employment for Older Americans program commonly referred to as the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), for National Grants for Program Year (PY) 2020.

This FOA is being issued for eligible SCSEP PY 2020 National applicants to compete for SCSEP National funding. SCSEP is the only Federally-sponsored employment and training program targeted specifically to low-income older individuals who seek to enter or re-enter the workforce. Program participants receive paid work experience at local public or non-profit agencies and are paid the higher of the Federal, State, or local minimum wage; or the most nearly comparable wage for similar employment; for approximately 20 hours per week while in community service assignments and other job training (OAA Amendments § 502(b)(1)(J); 20 CFR 641.565(a)). The dual goals of the program are to promote useful opportunities through work experience training in community service activities and to move SCSEP participants into unsubsidized employment.

To be eligible for funds under this grant program, an applicant must be a non-profit organization, Federal public agency, or Tribal organization that has the ability to administer a multi-State program.

We anticipate awarding approximately 10-22 grants ranging from $2 million to $50 million each under this FOA. Awards made under this announcement are subject to the availability of Federal funds. This grant is renewable annually for a total of four years based on annual Departmental application requirements and subject to the availability of funds. The grant may be extended for a fifth year at the Department’s discretion, contingent upon the grantee meeting or exceeding the minimum negotiated performance measures, as required by section 514(a) of the OAA Amendments and 20 CFR 641.700.

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

Electronic availability:

This grant solicitation is available on the grants.gov website. Based on past DOL experience, the Department anticipates that at least 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 FOA implicates no special circumstances.

Burden:

Based on past experience, the DOL expects to receive approximately 25 applications from an equal number of respondents.  The ETA 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.

25 applications x 20 hours = 500 hours

The DOL uses the average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry of $34.29 per hour to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—March 2020, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf at page 35.

500 hours x $34.29 = $17,145

The DOL associates no other burden costs with this information collection. In addition to the application, each grantee 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: 25 respondents, 25 responses, 500 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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