ombrocisTA2020supportstatement

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
Semi-annual Progress Report for the Technical Assistance Program
A. Justification
1.

Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information

The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) administers financial support and technical
assistance to communities around the country that are creating programs, policies, and practices
aimed at ending domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. Its mission is to
provide national leadership to improve the Nation’s response to these crimes through the
implementation of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA), the Violence Against
Women Act of 2000, the Violence Against Women Act of 2005 and the Violence Against
Women Act of 2013. OVW pursues this mission by supporting community efforts, enhancing
education and training, disseminating best practices, launching special initiatives, and leading the
Nation’s efforts to end violence against women.
Currently, OVW administers 4 formula grant programs and 15 discretionary grant programs,
all of which were established under VAWA and subsequent legislation. Since its inception in
1995, OVW has awarded over $8.billion in grants and cooperative agreements and has launched
a multifaceted approach to implementing VAWA. These grant programs are designed to develop
the nation’s capacity to reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking by
strengthening services to victims and holding offenders accountable for their action.
The primary purpose of the OVW Training and Technical Assistance Program (TA Program) is
to provide direct assistance to grantees and their subgrantees to enhance the success of local
projects they are implementing with VAWA grant funds. In addition, OVW is focused on
building the capacity of criminal justice and victim services organizations to respond effectively
to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking and to foster partnerships
between organizations that have not traditionally worked together to address violence against
women, such as faith- and community- based organizations.
Currently, there are different statutory and regulatory reporting requirements that affect
OVW TA providers. VAWA 2000 requires all VAWA grantees, including OVW TA providers,
to report on the effectiveness of their programs to the Attorney General who, in turn, must report
to Congress every two years. Section 1003 of VAWA 2000 states that
(a) REPORT BY GRANT RECIPIENTS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of
Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall require grantees under any
program authorized or reauthorized by this division or an amendment made by
this division to report on the effectiveness of the activities carried out with
amounts made available to carry out that program, including number of persons
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served, if applicable, numbers of persons seeking services who could not be
served and such other information as the Attorney General or Secretary may
prescribe.
(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of
Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall report biennially to the
Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the
Senate on the grant programs described in subsection (a), including the
information contained in any report under that subsection.
34 U.S.C. 10238.
OVW must also comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993
(GPRA) (Pub. L. 103-62) which was enacted to increase Congressional and Administrative focus
on the results from government programs and activities. To meet its GPRA reporting obligations
and elicit more meaningful information about grantee performance, OVW has recently developed
performance measures, including output measures, regarding which the TA providers must report
on a semiannual basis.
2.

Use of Information

OVW uses data from the information collection 1 in different ways. OVW will use the
information collected from OVW TA providers to monitor their grant-funded activities and
qualitatively assess those activities. In particular, OVW is seeking data that includes baseline
information to review activities supported with TA Program funds, including, for example, an
increase in the number of trainings or an increase in the number of onsite technical assistance
provided. OVW will review semiannual progress reports to monitor individual TA providers’
performance and ensure that the goals and objectives set forth in applications for funding and
award documents are met.
The TA providers collect information that addresses the following grant-funded activities
(different sections on the reporting form): staff, informational materials, and training events
Narrative questions at the end of these different sections enable grantees to give more detailed
qualitative information about their grant-funded activities. In addition, TA providers must answer
narrative questions on the most significant areas of remaining need with regard to improving
services to victims/survivors of sexual assault, increasing victims/survivors safety, and enhancing
community response (including offender accountability or sex offenders), what has OVW
funding allowed the TA provider to do that it could not do prior to receiving funding, additional
1 Under a cooperative agreement between OVW and the University of Southern Maine’s
Muskie School of Public Service, data collected from OVW grantees on all of OVW’s progress
report forms is transmitted to the Muskie School for analysis. For the analysis of the data,
standard descriptive statistics (frequency, sum, percentage, mean, etc.) are used to describe the
characteristics of the grantees and report basic findings. All analyses are conducted in SPSS 13.0.
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information about the TA award and/or the effectiveness of the grant and any additional
information about the data submitted.
In addition to the proposed information collection, OVW will continue to use a number of
other techniques to assess the performance of TA providers. These may include OVW staff
attendance at site visits, grant-funded training and technical assistance events, staff review of
products prior to dissemination, and ongoing consultation with OVW staff.
OVW will aggregate data from all TA providers’ progress reports to assess the performance
of the TA Program as a whole and to respond to Congressional, Department of Justice, and other
inquiries about how TA funds are being used. In addition, information collected from TA
providers will support the following OVW GPRA measures:
Number of trainings held and persons trained; and
Number of materials developed/revised.
Information collected from TA providers will enable OVW to respond to statutory requirements
to report on the effectiveness of grant-funded activities. The 2016 Measuring Effectiveness
Report to Congress, which includes information about how funds were expended and an
assessment of the effectiveness of funded programs- see https://www.justice.gov/ovw/reportscongress. This report is based on data submitted by TA providers reflecting TA awards made and
TA Program‐funded activities engaged in during calendar years July 1, 2013- June 30, 2015.
OVW is in the process of submitting the 2018 Report to Congress.
The data that OVW collects on the semiannual progress reporting forms is currently not used
in connection with an evaluation of the TA program. OVW is currently exploring the
development of a multi-layered evaluation agenda for its grant programs.
3.

Use of Information Technology

The collection of information will involve the use of automated, electronic, mechanical or
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. OVW
grantees are required to submit semiannual progress reports through the Grants Management
System (GMS).
4.

Duplication of Information Request

There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects information about grant funded
activities including number of victims served, victims seeking services who could not be served,
or persons trained.
5.

Impact on Small Entities

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There is no impact on small entities as the collection of this type of information is
routinely kept by most grantees receiving funds under the TA Program.
6.

Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy

By statute, Congress has mandated that TA providers report to the Attorney General on
the effectiveness of their activities funded under VAWA. If OVW was not able to collect the
information necessary to complete these reports on behalf of the Attorney General, not only
would it be failing to meet a statutorily required reporting mandate, but also the existence of this
important and necessary funding could be jeopardized.
7.

Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances as identified in the specific instructions for a
supporting statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.
8.

Federal Register Publication

OVW has consulted with persons outside the agency who have advised that the data
proposed to be collected is available, the semiannual collection of such data is not burdensome,
the form is clear, and that the information is routinely kept by most grantees receiving funds
under the TA Program. OVW has solicited public comment on this form in accordance with the
requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. A 60 day notice was published in the Federal
Register on December 13, 2019 (Federal Register, Volume 84, page 68191) and a 30-day was
notice was published in the Federal Register on March 26, 2020 (Federal Register, Volume 85,
page 17098). OVW did not receive any public comments.
9.

Payment or Gift to Respondents
There will no payment or gift to respondents.

10.

Confidentiality

Although this information is needed for a public report to Congress, it will not involve
any personal information about victims that could identify them as specific individuals.
However, anecdotal, non-identifying information about the effectiveness of individual programs
may be included in the report. There is no assurance to confidentiality.
11.

Specific Questions

The semiannual progress report will not contain any questions of a personal, sensitive
nature such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are
commonly considered private.
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12.

Hour Burden of the Collection of Information

This semiannual progress report is not overly burdensome. The data collection tool will
be completed by approximately 100 TA providers twice a year. There will be 200 semiannual
responses and it is estimated that it will take grantees no more than 1 hour to complete the
progress report form. Thus, the semiannual reporting and recordkeeping hour burden is 200
hours. TA providers are informed about the reporting requirements during the grant solicitation
process and during the grant award process.
OVW is seeking basic information that is routinely kept by the TA providers in the
normal course of their operations. Thus, the requirement that grantees complete this progress
report within a period of less than 30 days after receipt of it is not overly burdensome. OVW
estimates that it will take approximately 1 hour for a TA provider to complete the form. OVW
developed this estimate based on the fact that information of this nature is already kept by
organizations receiving funds under the TA Program and that the grantees have been apprised of
these reporting requirements during the solicitation process and reminded throughout the grant
award process. The progress report is divided into sections that pertain to the different types of
activities that grantees may engage in, i.e. training, product development, on-site TA provision.
Grantees will only have to complete the sections of the form that relate to their specific activities.
13.

Cost Burden of the Collection of Information

OVW does not believe that there is any annual cost burden on respondents or
recordkeepers resulting from the collection of this information.
14.

Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

The annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from the OVW staff review of
the progress reports submitted by grantees are estimated to be $11200.
15.

Program Changes or Adjustments

There are no program changes or adjustments for the estimates identified in Section 13
and in Section 14. This is a information collection that is necessary for OVW and its TA
providers to comply with the statutory reporting requirements and the Government Performance
and Results Act of 1993 (Pub. L. 103-62).
16.

Published Results of Information Collections

There will be no complex analytical techniques used in connection with the publication of
information collected under the request. Information will be gathered once a year at the end of
the reporting periods. OVW is statutorily required to submit a report on the effectiveness of all
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grant-funded activities on a biennial basis.
17.

Display of the Expiration Date of OMB Approval

OVW will display the Expiration Date of OMB Approval in the upper right hand corner
of the Progress Report.
18.

Exception to the Certification Statement

OVW is not seeking any exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19,
Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.

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