Jan 18 -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invites public comment to OMB by March 2, 2023 regarding its Performance Measures Project: Improving Performance Measurement and Monitoring by CDC Programs. [Comments are due 30 days after CDC's submission to OMB on January 31.]
Each year, approximately 75% of the CDC's congressionally appropriated funding goes to extramural organizations, including state and local partners, via contracts, grants, and, most commonly, cooperative agreements. The availability of funding for grants and cooperative agreements is announced through a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). CDC awards up to 100 new, non-research NOFOs each year (each funded for one to five years). These awards may have only a few funded recipients or more than 50, such as when a CDC program provides funding to all states and territories. Monitoring and reporting of program performance is required of any non-federal entity receiving federal funds under 45 CFR 75.342; “The non-federal entity must monitor its activities under federal awards to assure compliance with applicable federal requirements and performance expectations are being achieved”.
CDC's Program Performance and Evaluation Office (PPEO) provides technical assistance to CDC programs and funding recipients with the immediate goal of monitoring progress and the long-term goals of improving performance and maximizing public health impact. Greater public health impact can be achieved by the development of performance measures and monitoring plans that are customized to the goals outlined in each NOFO. PPEO therefore provides consultations for the development of NOFO-specific performance measures and the development of each NOFO's logic model (i.e., a graphic depiction of the relationship between the funded activities and the intended effects or outcomes of those activities in the short, medium, and/or long term).
PPEO has also developed templates that can be further customized by CDC/ATSDR programs participating in the Performance Measures Project (PMP). These templates include a sample “Performance Measure Technical Specification Instrument” and a sample “Performance Measure Reporting Instrument.” After the templates are finalized by PPEO and the CDC/ATSDR program, the templates are completed by the recipients of CDC/ATSDR funding.
CDC requests OMB approval to continue information collection for the PMP, with changes. Individual collection requests submitted under this Generic approval will continue to include the tailored forms and a supplementary template that provides a description of program purpose and the estimated burden of information collection. CDC proposes minor changes to the template that clarify: (i) the calendar year(s) in which each program will collect information; (ii) the frequency of information collection (annual, semi-annual, quarterly, or other); and (iii) total burden requested for up to three years of approval. These clarifications are needed because the majority of awards are for multi-year projects, and the frequency of reporting may vary according to program-specific factors.
In addition, a number of changes to the PMP Generic Clearance reflect expanded technical assistance that PPEO provides to CDC programs. The CDC program eligibility to participate in PMP will be expanded as follows:
(1) Given the recent increase in grants and other funding mechanisms used at CDC to enhance programmatic flexibility, PMP eligibility will expand to include all available funding mechanisms for eligible programs (i.e., activities funded through grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts).
(2) PPEO is providing increasing technical assistance to international programs. Eligibility will expand to include both domestic and international programs.
(3) Many CDC programs are operating under the HHS COVID-19 Emergency PRA waiver. This Emergency Waiver is expected to be discontinued. PMP will prioritize transitioning CDC program performance measure data collection from the Emergency Waiver to PMP.
(4) Some CDC programs are developing common performance metrics across multiple public health initiatives. PMP will prioritize cross-NOFO collaboration with these programs to increase efficiency.
(5) As CDC/ATSDR programs transition back to normal function after the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased interest in PMP. The revision will increase the estimated number of new programs that may participate from 25 programs to 40 programs.
(6) CDC proposes changes to the GenIC Request Template that clarify the calendar years in which each program's customized templates will be administered, and total burden hours for the entire period of information collection. The template will adopt the standard burden table format utilized throughout CDC/ATSDR which provides greater clarity with respect to the frequency of information collection (annual, semi-annual, quarterly, or other). These changes will improve recordkeeping for the 0920-1282 generic and improve CDC/PPEO's ability to monitor capacity and usage of the generic, while also providing increased flexibility for CDC/ATSDR programs to describe their data collection plans.
Finally, in addition to requesting increased PMP capacity (respondents and burden hours) to cover expanded eligibility and anticipated increases in PMP utilization, CDC is also requesting additional capacity to ensure seamless continuation of GenIC data collections that were previously approved but have not been completed.
PPEO:
https://www.cdc.gov/program/index.htm
CDC submission to OMB:
https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewICR?ref_nbr=202301-0920-015 Click IC List for information collection instrument, View Supporting Statement for technical documentation. Submit comments through this webpage.
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-00807
For AEA members wishing to submit comments, "A Primer on How to Respond to Calls for Comment on Federal Data Collections" is available at
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=5806