Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund (PEAF) Recipients Feedback Survey
Formative Data Collections for Program Support
0970 – 0531
Supporting Statement
Part A - Justification
March 2022
Submitted By:
Office of Family Assistance
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
4th Floor, Mary E. Switzer Building
330 C Street, SW
Washington, D.C. 20201
A1. Necessity for the Data Collection
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks approval to gain feedback from state, territory, and tribal officials responsible for administering the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund (PEAF) about how they have spent or plan to spend their allotment of PEAF budgets.
Delivery of targeted assistance related to program implementation.
Planning for provision of programmatic training or technical assistance (T/TA).
On March 11, 2021, the President signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law. Now Public Law 117-2, it establishes the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund (PEAF) in section 403(c) of the Social Security Act (the Act). The PEAF provides funding to states (including the District of Columbia), tribes administering a TANF program, and five U.S. territories to assist needy families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Grantees may use funds to provide certain non-recurrent, short-term benefits. Additionally, they may use funds for administrative costs (up to a 15-percent cap for states and territories and up to the negotiated cap for tribes).
PEAF grantees are drawing down funds at different rates and for different purposes. OFA would like to learn what barriers grantees are facing at drawing down funds, how resources are being used, and where grantees would benefit from technical assistance to support their PEAF implementation and resource drawdown by the end of FFY2022.
There are no legal or administrative requirements that necessitate the collection. ACF is undertaking the collection at the discretion of the agency.
A2. Purpose of Survey and Data Collection Procedures
Overview of Purpose and Use
OFA proposes to gather feedback from state, territory, and tribal officials responsible for administering PEAF about how they have spent or plan to spend their allotment of PEAF budgets. OFA will use the feedback information to support officials during the duration of the fund. For example, if they are having difficulty spending the funds, funding recipients may identify helpful support that OFA can provide throughout the duration of the fund. Information obtained from interviews will be used to inform the development of T/TA activities to support PEAF grantees. Findings, such as how programs are addressing barriers to program administration; program successes; and program impacts on low-income families may be incorporated into project briefs, webinars, presentations, infographics, and final project reports with the aim of highlighting program practices; fostering information sharing among other PEAF grantees; and sharing how grantees distributed PEAF resources and measured the impact of PEAF in their localities.
Interview questions are focused on General Information, OFA Guidance and Technical Assistance, Implementation, and Looking Ahead, specifically:
General Information: How PEAF was spent by grantees and the difference PEAF made for low-income families.
OFA Guidance and Technical Assistance: What technical assistance grantees found beneficial to their administration of PEAF, and what additional technical assistance would be useful.
Implementation: Status of PEAF planning, administration and expenditures; barriers, successes, and lessons learned from PEAF distribution.
Looking Ahead: Grantee anticipated PEAF spend down, activities, and outcomes by the end of FFY 2022.
Processes for Information Collection
A sample of all state, territory, and tribal officials responsible for administering PEAF will be contacted via email to set up a virtual interview. We will use a 21-question interview protocol (see Instrument 1: PEAF Recipients Feedback Interview) to collect information regarding PEAF. The interviews will take no more than 45 minutes and will be conducted by two consultants, one who will ask the questions and another who will take notes.
A3. Improved Information Technology to Reduce Burden
Technology used for the interviews will be email for initial contact and scheduling, and the use of a meeting platform, such as Microsoft Teams, which is accessible via telephone or computer, for the interviews.
A4. Efforts to Identify Duplication
PEAF was established in March 2021, and no data being collected in this interview has been collected.
A5. Involvement of Small Organizations
All efforts will be made to accommodate scheduling at convenient times for small organizations.
A6. Consequences of Less Frequent Data Collection
This is a one-time data collection. If necessary, the respondents may be recontacted for individualized follow-up related to this approved information collection.
A7. Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances for the proposed data collection efforts.
A8. Federal Register Notice and Consultation
Federal Register Notice and Comments
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR Part 1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995), ACF published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the agency’s intention to request an OMB review of the overarching generic clearance for formative information collection. This notice was published on November 3, 2020, Volume 85, Number 213, page 69627, and provided a sixty-day period for public comment. During the notice and comment period, no substantive comments were received.
No consultations have taken place with experts outside of the project team.
A9. Tokens of Appreciation for Respondents
No tokens of appreciation for respondents are proposed for this information collection.
A10. Privacy of Respondents
Respondents will be asked for their name, title, phone number, and email address. Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Respondents will be informed of all planned uses of data, that their participation is voluntary, and that their information will be kept private to the extent permitted by law. Information will be used for interview scheduling and follow-up training and technical assistance provisions, if applicable.
A11. Sensitive Questions
There are no sensitive questions in this data collection.
A12. Estimation of Information Collection Burden
Burden Estimates
Burden estimates are based on time needed for each respondent to confirm participation and sign up for interview time (15 minutes per respondent) and time needed to participate in the interview (45 minutes per respondent). The total burden estimate is 45 minutes per respondent.
Cost Estimates
The cost to respondents was calculated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) job code for General and Operations Managers [11-1021and wage data from May 2020, which is $60.45 per hour. To account for fringe benefits and overhead the rate was multiplied by two which is $120.90. https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_stru.htm
Instrument |
Total Number of Respondents |
Total Number of Responses Per Respondent |
Average Burden Hours Per Response |
Total Burden Hours |
Average Hourly Wage |
Total Annual Cost |
Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund (PEAF) Recipients Feedback Interview |
135 |
1 |
.75 |
101 |
120.90 |
$12,210.90 |
A13. Cost Burden to Respondents or Record Keepers
There are no additional costs to respondents.
A14. Estimate of Cost to the Federal Government
The total cost for the data collection activities under this current request will be $53,400. This includes cost to schedule 135 interviews ($6,900), cost for two staff to jointly conduct 135 interviews ($31,000), and cost to analyze data collected from 135 interviews ($15,500).
A15. Change in Burden
This is for an individual information collection under the umbrella formative generic clearance for program support (0970-0531).
A16. Plan and Time Schedule for Information Collection, Tabulation and Publication
Interviews will be scheduled and held in Spring 2022. Information will be compiled and synthesized approximately 30 days following the last interview, approximately in late Spring or early Summer 2022.
Information collected will inform ACF activities, including technical assistance offerings to PEAF grantees. Findings may be incorporated into project briefs, webinars, presentations, infographics, and final project reports (as indicated in A2) in late Spring and early Summer 2022
A17. Reasons Not to Display OMB Expiration Date
All instruments will display the expiration date for OMB approval.
A18. Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
No exceptions are necessary for this information collection.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | OPRE OMB Clearance Manual |
| Author | DHHS |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2022-05-04 |