Final TANF Rule as published in the Federal Register 4/12/1999

17872 Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 69 / Monday, April 12, 1999 / Rules and Regulations
previously authorized and allowable
under section 403 of prior law and have
added that language to paragraph (c)(8).
We disagree, however, with the
recommendation to collect FY 1995
expenditure data on all FY 1995
programs. FY 1995 data on programs
funded under section 403 are only
needed to the extent that the
expenditures in the program are claimed
for MOE and the ‘‘new spending’’
requirements apply.
We also did not accept
recommendations four and five. For a
full discussion of the issues raised by
these recommendations, please refer to
the preamble discussion related to
§ 263.5.
While not accepting all of these
recommendations, we have significantly
strengthened the reporting on MOE
programs under this final rule. The
MOE requirements in TANF are central
to the success of welfare reform. Under
the final rule, we believe that we will be
in a good position to ensure that States
maintain the investments in needy
families that Congress intended.
Comment: One commenter
recommended that we allow States to
report either the average monthly
number or the total number of persons
served under State MOE program(s),
given the variation in how States collect
such information.
Response: We agree and have
amended paragraph (c)(5) to reflect this
option. The commenter was also
concerned that the numbers reported
would not be an unduplicated count of
persons served. We believe that a
requirement for an unduplicated count
of persons served for purposes of this
report would be unduly burdensome on
States and have chosen not to require it.
Comment: Several commenters
questioned the need for the certification
proposed in § 273.7(b)(8) on the grounds
that it was either unnecessary or
inappropriate. The NPRM required a
certification that the families served
under MOE programs met the State’s
criteria for eligible families.
Response: We disagree that a
certification is unnecessary. Under
many Federal programs, it is standard
procedure to require such a
certification, particularly for critical
program information needed for
accountability and for expenditure data.
We agree, however, that the
certification as proposed in paragraph
(b)(8) was not intended to apply to all
families served under MOE programs
but only to those families for which the
State is claiming MOE expenditures. We
have made this change in paragraph
(c)(9) of this section.
We have also accepted the following
suggestions for editorial clarity
recommended by commenters:
• The description of work activities
in paragraph (c)(3) must be reported
only if applicable to a State’s MOE
programs. (Some commenters appeared
to believe that this reporting
requirement meant that the State must
offer work activities as a part of their
MOE programs.)
Please note that paragraph (c)(3) is the
only requirement in § 265.9(c) that
applies only to separate State MOE
programs. That is because we ask for a
description of the work activities under
the MOE program(s) in TANF in
paragraph (b)(1).
• We deleted paragraph (a) as it
appeared in § 273.7 of the NPRM.
Paragraph (a) duplicated the
requirement that States submit a
quarterly TANF Financial Report in
§ 265.3(c).
Specific Comments on the Proposed
Annual Program and Performance
Report
Under section 411(b) of the Act, the
Secretary is required to submit an
annual report to Congress six months
after the end of fiscal year 1997 and
every year thereafter. The report is to
describe whether the States are meeting
the work participation rates; the
objectives of increasing employment
and earnings of needy families as
increasing child support collections and
decreasing out-of-wedlock pregnancies
and child poverty; the demographic and
financial characteristics of families
applying for assistance, families
receiving assistance, and families that
became ineligible to receive assistance;
the characteristics of each State program
funded under this part; and the trends
in employment and earnings of needy
families with minor children living at
home.
In the NPRM, we proposed that States
supplement the information that we
would obtain through the TANF Data
Reports and TANF Financial Reports by
providing information in an annual
program and performance report. We
would include that information in the
Department’s annual report to Congress
on the TANF program.
We proposed that States would
describe the characteristics and
achievements of each State program; the
design and operation of the program; the
services, benefits, and assistance
provided; and the extent to which the
State has met its goals and objectives for
the program. We also proposed that
States could include additional
materials on unique features of their
programs, accomplishments and
innovations they wished to highlight, or
other information appropriate to the
report to Congress.
Comment: Without exception, all who
commented on this section strongly
objected to this requirement. They
alleged that we lacked statutory
authority for the proposed report and
inappropriately shifted the burden of
the Secretary’s report to States. States
also believed that they were also
providing much of this information in
State plans or that we could obtain it by
more efficient and less costly means,
e.g., we could conduct national
sampling studies in cooperation with
the States.
Response: In preparing the NPRM, we
were cognizant of the data that we
would obtain from the TANF Data and
Financial Reports, as well as other
sources. We found that State plans
varied in the amount of information
they contained, and we did not believe
we could rely on them as a source of
information for the annual report to
Congress. We believed that other State
and national research and evaluation
studies might provide some, but not all,
of the information specified in the
statute.
We have accepted the
recommendation to delete this
provision. We will also continue to
consider and evaluate multiple sources
of data in preparing the report to
Congress; for example, we expect to
compile information on program
characteristics from State plans. If we
identify substantive weaknesses in the
data we have available through this
approach, we will assess our options.
We appreciate the offer from States to
work together to collect this information
in the most efficient way possible.
Additional Reporting Requirements
The discussion above relates to the
information now included in the annual
report based on the provisions of the
NPRM. Following our review of
comments and consideration of policy
issues that arose in the development of
the final rule, we have added five new
reporting requirements in § 265.9. While
we dropped our proposal for a separate
annual program and performance report,
we still need information on key aspects
of State programs in order to prepare the
annual report to Congress. To the
maximum extent possible, we will draw
upon data available through the State
plans and other reports submitted by
States.
(1) Family Violence Option
If a State has adopted the Family
Violence Option and wants Federal
recognition of its good cause domestic