Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration

Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB

Review; Comment Request

Periodically, the Health Resources and Services Administration

(HRSA) publishes abstracts of information collection requests under

review by the Office of Management and Budget, in compliance with the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35). To request a

copy of the clearance requests submitted to OMB for review, call the

HRSA Reports Clearance Office on (301)-443-1129.

The following request has been submitted to the Office of

Management and Budget for review under the Paperwork Reduction Act of

1995:

Proposed Project: Application and Annual Report, Maternal and Child

Health Block Grant Program (OMB No. 0915-0172)--Extension and Revision

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has revised

and reformatted the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Guidance.

This guidance is used annually by the 50 States and 9 jurisdictions in

making application for Block Grants under Title V of the Social

Security Act, and in preparing the required annual report. The

revisions are designed to simplify and clarify the guidance and

required forms and to reduce duplication, while still allowing for

clear, concise, useful, and accurate communication about the States'

programs. More specifically, the revisions are designed to: (1) Make

the program descriptions more readable; (2) alleviate the disconnect

between the application for the next fiscal year and the annual report

for the previous fiscal year that makes programmatic and data reviews

difficult; (3) clarify budget and expense tables, through better design

of forms and by carrying totals from form to form; (4) report

objectives in a standard format, including the relationship to Healthy

People 2000 goals, to facilitate year-to-year comparisons and multi-

State tabulations; and, (5) incorporate uniform performance measures

across all States and jurisdictions as well as State/jurisdiction-

specific performance measures.

The HRSA revision also combines the current three guidance

documents into one document by eliminating the separate annual

application and annual report in favor of a combined document, and

every fifth year explicitly including the results of the needs

assessment, which would be incorporated only by reference in the

intervening years. The HRSA revision efforts are intended not only to

simplify and expedite the rational submission of necessary data and

reports, but also to reduce the burden on States and jurisdictions by

eliminating duplicative requirements and streamlining the presentation

of information. Estimates of burden to complete the application and

annual report are as follows:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of Responses per Burden hours Total burden

Type of form respondents respondent per response hours

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Application and Annual Report, 1998-99 (without

needs assessment):*

States...................................... 50 1 500 25,000

Jurisdictions............................... 9 1 200 1,800

Five-Year Application and Annual Report, 2000

(with needs assessment): *

States...................................... 50 1 750 37,500

Jurisdictions............................... 9 1 400 3,600

Weighted Annual Average (over next three years):

States...................................... 50 1 555 29,167

Jurisdictions............................... 9 1 267 2,400

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The Annual Application and Annual Report, without needs assessment, will be submitted in FY 1998 and FY 1999.

The five-year Annual Application and Annual Report will be submitted in FY 2000. The average annual response

burden for the next three years is 31,567 hours.

[[Page 50955]]

Written comments and recommendations concerning the proposed

information collection should be sent within 30 days of this notice to:

Laura Oliven, Human Resources and Housing Branch, Office of Management

and Budget, New Executive Office Building, Room 10235, Washington, D.C.

20503.

Dated: September 22, 1997.

Jane Harrison,

Acting Director, Division of Policy Review and Coordination.

[FR Doc. 97-25727 Filed 9-26-97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4160-15-P