FOA Supporting Statement and Justification

Funding Opportunity Announcement

The Support to Communities: Fostering Opioid Recovery through Workforce Development

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 “The Support to Communities: Fostering Opioid Recovery through Workforce Development,” Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The Department will announce the availability of approximately $20,000,000 in grant funds authorized by the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act (SUPPORT Act), Public Law 115-271, Title VIII, Subtitle C, Sec. 8041 Addressing Economic and Workforce Impacts of the Opioid Crisis.

DOL will competitively award grants to State workforce agencies, State workforce agencies of outlying areas, or Tribal organizations, as defined by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (Public Law 113-128, codified at 29 U.S.C. § 3101 et seq.) (WIOA). ETA recognizes that the workforce-related impacts of the opioid and substance misuse crisis may raise new challenges for workforce development agencies. These grants intend to allow State workforce agencies (through Participating Partnerships led by local workforce development boards), outlying areas, or Tribal organizations to creatively align and deliver career, training, and supportive services that will best serve workers in their local areas impacted by the crisis.

Grantees will engage community partners, such as local workforce development boards, employers or industry organizations, treatment and recovery centers, education providers, legal services and law enforcement organizations, and community-based and faith-based organizations, to address the economic effects of widespread substance misuse, opioid use, addiction, and overdose in significantly impacted service areas.

DOL expects to award approximately 8 to 10 grants. These grant programs will serve workers, including dislocated workers, individuals with barriers to employment, new entrants to the workforce, or incumbent workers (employed or underemployed, a) who are personally affected by substance use disorders, defined as individuals who themselves or whose friends or family members have been directly or indirectly impacted by substance use disorders, or b) who seek to transition to professions that support individuals with a substance use disorder and need new or upgraded skills to better serve struggling or at-risk individuals.

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 Web site. 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 30 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.

30 applications x 20 hours = 600 hours.

The DOL has increased the average hourly earnings in the professional and business services industry to $33.69 per hour to monetize this burden.  See The Employment Situation—September 2019, DOL, Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf at page 33.

600 hours x $33.69 = $20,214

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: 30 respondents, 30 responses, 600 hours, $0 other cost burden.

Supplemental Supporting Statement B: Statistical Methods

This information collection does not employ statistical methods.

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