NonSub Change Memo - GONE Act

To: Jordan Cohen

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

From: Susan Golonka

Office of Family Assistance

Administration for Children and Families (ACF)

Date: June 28, 2021

Subject: NonSubstantive Change Request – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) ACF-196R Financial Report for States (OMB #0970-0446)

This memo requests approval of NonSubstantive changes to the approved information collection: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) ACF-196R Financial Report for States (OMB #0970-0446; Expiration date 2/29/2024).

Background

To facilitate compliance with the Grants Oversight and New Efficiency (GONE) Act, reporting of expenditures across shared programs and responsible stewardship of grants, ACF is updating reporting capabilities for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) reports to accept expenditures in cents instead of rounding to the nearest dollar. ACF is seeking approval for non-substantive changes to the form completion instructions to grantees to align agency instructions with practices.

In addition, due to realizations that previous decisions on using this form to capture expenditure information for Pandemic Emergency Assistance Funding (PEAF) authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act would cause undue burden on grantees, we are removing these recently approved updates to this form. A future report for these PEAF expenditures will be submitted for review and approval by OMB soon. As a result of this decision, we have removed the column added under this previous approval and have submitted it for review in conjunction with this request.

Overview of Requested Changes

Updates to a single general instruction were made to note the change in reporting requirement from rounding to reporting to the nearest penny. We also removed the previously added references for the reporting of PEAF expenditures.

We consider the above changes to be nonsubstantive in nature while providing improved instructions for users of the ACF-196R.

Time Sensitivities

TANF grantees already submit the current ACF-196R Financial Report on a quarterly basis and this frequency will remain intact after incorporating these non-substantive updates to allow for reporting in cents.

The next due date for the ACF-196R Financial Report, quarter-end June 30, 2021, is August 14, 2021. Approval as soon as possible will facilitate timely publication of guidance and technical assistance to the tribes on this change before final reports are due for the current grant year. Therefore, a prompt approval is desired.