58774 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 210 / Thursday, October 30, 1997 / Notices

the program and the availability of

funds. Awards made will be subject to

periodic reporting and evaluation

requirements.

Notification

Final awards cannot be made until

funds have been appropriated by

Congress, allocated, and committed

through internal USIA procedures.

Dated: October 22, 1997.

Robert Earle,

Deputy Associate Director for Educational

and Cultural Affairs.

[FR Doc. 97–28563 Filed 10–29–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8230–01–M

UNITED STATES INFORMATION

AGENCY

Summer Institute for Foreign Policy

Officials: The United States Today

ACTION: Notice—Request for Proposals

(RFP).

SUMMARY: The U.S. Information

Agency’s Branch for the Study of the

United States announces an open

competition for an assistance award

program entitled: ‘‘Summer Institute for

Foreign Policy Officials: The United

States Today.’’ Public and private nonprofit organizations meeting the

provisions described in IRS regulation

26 CFR 1.501(c) may apply to develop

and implement a three-week postgraduate level program designed for a

multinational group of 18 experienced

mid-level foreign affairs professionals.

The program is intended to provide

participants with a deeper

understanding of American life and

institutions through an examination of

contemporary political, economic,

social and cultural issues, with special

reference to domestic trends and issues

in American life and their relationship

to U.S. policies and actions in the

international arena. Tentative program

dates are any three week period between

May 15 and July 31, 1998.

USIA is seeking detailed proposals

from colleges, universities, consortia of

colleges and universities, and other notfor-profit academic organizations that

have an established reputation in a

scholarly discipline related to the

subject of the institute and that can

demonstrate expertise in conducting

post-graduate programs for foreign

educators. Applicant institutions must

have a minimum of four years

experience in conducting international

exchange programs. The project director

or one of the key program staff

responsible for the academic program

must have an advanced degree in a

relevant discipline. Staff escorts

traveling under the USIA cooperative

agreement must be U.S. citizens with

demonstrated qualifications for this

service.

Overall grant making authority for

this program is contained in the Mutual

Educational and Cultural Exchange Act

of 1961, Pub. L. 87–256, as amended,

also known as the Fulbright-Hays Act.

The purpose of the Act is ‘‘to enable the

Government of the United States to

increase mutual understanding between

the people of the United States and the

people of other countries * * *; to

strengthen the ties which unite us with

other nations by demonstrating the

educational and cultural interests,

developments, and achievements of the

people of the United States and other

nations * * * and thus to assist in the

development of friendly, sympathetic

and peaceful relations between the

United States and the other countries of

the world.’’

Programs and projects must conform

with Agency requirements and

guidelines outlined in the Solicitation

Package. USIA projects and programs

are subject to the availability of funds.

Announcement Name and Number:

All communications with USIA

concerning this announcement should

refer to the above title and reference

number E/AAS–98–04.

Deadline for Proposals: All copies

must be received at the U.S. Information

Agency by 5:00 p.m. Washington D.C.

time on Friday, January 16, 1998. Faxed

documents will not be accepted, nor

will documents postmarked by the due

date but received at a later date. It is the

responsibility of each applicant to

ensure that proposal submissions arrive

by the deadline.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

U.S. Information Agency, Office of

Academic Programs, Branch of the

Study of the United States, E/AAS—

Room 252, 301 4th Street, S.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20547, Attention:

William Bate, Telephone number: (202)

619–4557, Fax number: (202) 619–6790,

Internet address: wbate@usia.gov.

Please use the above information to

request a Solicitation Package

containing more detailed award criteria,

required application forms, and

standard guidelines for preparing

proposals (including specific

information on budget preparation).

Please specify USIA Program Officer

William Bate on all inquiries and

correspondence. Interested applicants

should read the complete Federal

Register announcement before

addressing inquiries to the office listed

above or submitting proposals. Once the

RFP deadline has passed, USIA staff

may not discuss this competition in any

way with applicants until after the

Bureau proposal review process has

been completed.

To Download a Solicitation Package Via

Internet

The entire Solicitation Package may

be downloaded from USIA’s website at

http://www.usia.gov/education/rfps.

Please read all information before

downloading.

To Receive a Solicitation Package Via

Fax on Demand

The entire Solicitation Package may

be received via the Bureau’s ‘‘Grants

Information Fax on Demand System’’,

which is accessed by calling 202/401–

7616. Please request a ‘‘Catalog’’ of

available documents and order numbers

when first entering the system.

Submissions

Applicants must follow all

instructions given in the Solicitation

Package. The original and 13 copies of

the complete application should be sent

to: U.S. Information Agency, Ref.: E/

AAS–98–04, Office of Grants

Management, E/XE, Room 326, 301 4th

Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20547.

Applicants must also submit the

‘‘Executive Summary’’ and ‘‘Proposal

Narrative’’ sections of the proposal on a

3.5′′ diskette, formatted for DOS. This

material must be provided in ASCII text

(DOS) format with a maximum line

length of 65 characters.

Diversity, Freedom and Democracy

Guidelines

Pursuant to the Bureau’s authorizing

legislation, programs must maintain a

non-political character and should be

balanced and representative of the

diversity of American political, social,

and cultural life. ‘‘Diversity’’ should be

interpreted in the broadest sense and

encompass differences including, but

not limited to ethnicity, race, gender,

religion, geographic location, socioeconomic status, and physical

challenges. Applicants are strongly

encouraged to adhere to the

advancement of this principle both in

program administration and in program

content. Please refer to the review

criteria under the ‘Support for

Diversity’’ section for specific

suggestions on incorporating diversity

into the total proposal. Pub. L. 104–319

that ‘‘in carrying out programs of

educational and cultural exchange in

countries whose people do not fully

enjoy freedom and democracy’’, USIA

‘‘shall take appropriate steps to provide

opportunities for participation in such
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 210 / Thursday, October 30, 1997 / Notices 58775

programs to human rights and

democracy leaders of such countries.’’

Proposals should account for

advancement of this goal in their

program contents, to the full extent

deemed feasible.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Overview and Objectives

‘‘The Summer Institute for Foreign

Policy Officials: The United States

Today,’’ is intended to provide midcareer foreign affairs professionals with

the opportunity to increase their

understanding of the politics, society,

economy, and culture of the United

States at the end of the 20th century.

Our working assumption is that the

foreign policy decisions of the United

States and its actions in the

international arena are to a significant

degree a reflection of fundamental,

albeit shifting, cultural values,

embedded in U.S. institutions, public

and private, and that a fuller

understanding of those institutions will

lead in turn to a better understanding of

U.S. policies and actions abroad.

Accordingly, the Institute should

provide participants with both a broadgauged historical overview of major U.S.

institutional and cultural trends—

political, economic, social, cultural,

religious—and the opportunity for a

more intensive treatment and discussion

of particular issues and themes that

might be subsumed under each of the

major ‘‘institutional clusters’’ above,

e.g., the role of the Presidency and the

Congress in the making of foreign

policy; immigration and labor in the

United States; church, state and

American politics; ethnicity, race and

the American identity; and the social

impact of technology and the media, to

mention only a few of the possible areas

for study and discussion. Throughout

the seminar, the program should seek to

explore how certain aspects of the

national debate on political, social and

cultural issues bear on the formation

and development of American policies

in the international arena. At the

program’s end, participants should have

a fuller and more nuanced

understanding of the diversity and

complexity of contemporary American

life, as well as a greater appreciation of

the manifold ways in which

contemporary American institutional

arrangements and cultural values

influence U.S. actions abroad.

Accordingly, the Institute should be

designed as a coherent, thoughtfully

integrated and academically stimulating

program that presents a multidimensional view of the United States

through a series of lectures, readings,

panel presentations, and round table

discussions. While the program is

intended to be an intensive academic

seminar designed for a nonacademic

audience, the program organizers are

encouraged to include a mix of

presenters, including university

scholars as well as other professionals

from government, the private sector, and

the media.

The program should be three weeks in

length, including at least two weeks of

residency at a U.S. college or university,

and, depending on the program’s

design, an integrated study tour segment

not to exceed one week in length. Part

of that study tour should include a trip

to Washington, D.C., where the program

content should extend and complement

the residency portion of the program.

With the exception of the Washington

segment, alternately, organizers might

choose to spend the entire three-week

period in campus residence, with

occasional week-end or single-day trips

to relevant institutions, sites and cities

near the host institution.

Program Dates

Tentative program dates are any threeweek period between May 15 and July

31, 1998. The institute must be a total

of 21 program days in length. USIA will

make every effort to award the approved

cooperative agreement by March 1,

1998.

Participants

The program should be designed for

18 highly-motivated and experienced

mid-level professionals whose day-today work focuses on some aspect of

their country’s bi-lateral relationship

with the United States. Many will come

from their country’s Ministry of Foreign

Affairs; others will be professionals

employed by universities of other nongovernmental organizations concerned

with international and foreign affairs

issues. While participants will not be

required to possess either a formal or indepth knowledge of American life and

institutions, most are likely to have a

working understanding of the United

States by virtue of their professional

work. Some may have had substantial

prior study or work experience in U.S.

Participants will be drawn from all

regions of the world and will be fluent

in English.

Participants will be nominated by

U.S. Information Service posts abroad,

and selected by the staff of USIA’s

Branch of the Study of the United States

in Washington, D.C. USIA will cover all

international travel costs directly.

Guidelines

The conception, design, structure and,

ultimately, the content of the institute

program is entirely the responsibility of

the organizers. However, given the

many possible approaches to the

development of such a program,

organizers are expected to submit

proposals that articulate in concrete

detail how they intend to organize and

implement the institute.

Please refer to the Solicitation Package for

further details on program design and

implementation, as well as additional

information on all other requirements.

Proposed Budget

Unless special circumstances warrant,

based on a group of 18 participants, the

total USIA-funded budget (program and

administrative) should not exceed

$145,000, and USIA-funded

administrative costs as defined in the

budget details section of the solicitation

package should not exceed $38,500.

Justifications for any costs above these

amounts must be clearly indicated in

the proposal submission. Any grants

awarded to eligible organizations with

less than four years of experience in

conducting international exchange

programs will be limited to $60,000.

Applicant proposals should try to

maximize cost-sharing in all facets of

the program and to stimulate U.S.

private sector, including foundation and

corporate, support. Applicants must

submit a comprehensive line item

budget for the entire program, based on

the specific guidance provided in the

Solicitation Package. The Agency

reserves the right to reduce, revise, or

increase proposal budgets in accordance

with the needs of the program, and

availability of U.S. government funding.

Please refer to the ‘‘POGI’’ in the

Solicitation Package for complete budget

guidelines and formatting instructions for the

institute program.

Review Process

USIA will acknowledge receipt of all

proposals and will review them for

technical eligibility. Proposals will be

deemed ineligible if they do not fully

adhere to the guidelines stated herein

and in the Solicitation Package. Eligible

proposals will be forwarded to panels of

USIA officers for advisory review. All

eligible proposals will be reviewed by

the program office, as well as the USIA

Geographic Area Offices. Proposals may

be reviewed by the Office of the General

Counsel or by other Agency elements.

Funding decisions are at the discretion

of the USIA Associate Director for

Educational and Cultural Affairs. Final

technical authority for assistance
58776 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 210 / Thursday, October 30, 1997 / Notices

awards (grants or cooperative

agreements) resides with the USIA

grants officer.

Review Criteria

Technically eligible applications will

be competitively reviewed according to

the criteria stated below. These criteria

are not rank ordered, and all carry equal

weight in the proposal evaluation:

1. Overall Quality: Proposals should

exhibit substance and originality,

consonant with the highest standards of

American teaching and scholarship.

Program should reflect an overall design

whose various elements are coherently

and thoughtfully integrated. Lectures

and panels, taken as a whole, should

offer a balanced presentation of issues,

reflecting both the continuity of the

American experience as well as the

diversity and dynamism inherent in it.

2. Program Planning: Proposals

should demonstrate careful planning.

The organization and structure of the

institute should be clearly delineated

and be fully responsive to all program

objectives. The travel component should

be an integral and substantive part of

the program, reinforcing and

complementing its academic segment.

3. Institutional Capacity: Proposed

personnel, including faculty and

administrative staff as well as outside

presenters, should be fully qualified to

achieve the project’s goals. Library and

media resources should be accessible to

participants; housing, transportation

and other logistical arrangements

should be fully adequate to the needs of

participants and should be conducive to

a collegial atmosphere.

4. Diversity: Proposals should

demonstrate the recipient’s commitment

to promoting the awareness and

understanding of diversity throughout

the program. This can be accomplished

through documentation, such as a

written statement, summarizing past

and/or on-going activities and efforts

that further the principle of diversity

within the organization and its

activities. Program activities that

address this issue should be

highlighted.

5. Experience: The proposal should

demonstrate an institutional record of

successful exchange program activity,

indicating the experience that the

organization and its professional staff

have had in working with foreign

educators.

6. Evaluation and Follow-up: The

proposal should include a plan for

evaluating activities during the Institute

and at its conclusion. Proposals should

comment on provisions made for

follow-up with returned grantees as a

means of establishing longer-term

individual and institutional linkages.

7. Administration and Management:

The proposals should indicate evidence

of continuous on-site administrative and

managerial capacity as well as the

means by which program activities will

be implemented.

8. Cost Effectiveness: The proposals

should maximize cost-sharing through

direct institutional contributions, inkind support, and other private sector

support. Overhead and administrative

components of the proposal, including

salaries and honoraria, should be kept

as low as possible.

Notice

The terms and conditions published

in this RFP are binding and may not be

modified by any USIA representative.

Explanatory information provided by

the Agency that contradicts published

language will not be binding. Issuance

of the RFP does not constitute an award

commitment on the part of the

Government. The Agency reserves the

right to reduce, revise, or increase

proposal budgets in accordance with the

needs of the program and the

availability of funds. Awards made will

be subject to periodic reporting and

evaluation requirements.

Notification

Final awards cannot be made until

funds have been appropriated by

Congress, and allocated and committed

through internal USIA procedures.

Dated: October 24, 1997.

Robert L. Earle,

Deputy Associate Director for Educational

and Cultural Affairs.

[FR Doc. 97–28721 Filed 10–29–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8230–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS

AFFAIRS

[OMB Control No. 2900–0582]

Proposed Information Collection

Activity: Proposed Collection;

Comment Request; Reinstatement

AGENCY: Office Financial Management,

Office of Management, Department of

Veterans Affairs.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Office of Financial

Management (OFM), Office of

Management, Department of Veterans

Affairs (VA), is announcing an

opportunity for public comment on the

proposed collection of certain

information by the agency. Under the

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of

1995, Federal agencies are required to

publish notice in the Federal Register

concerning each proposed collection of

information, including each proposed

reinstatement, without change, of a

previously approved collection for

which approval has expired, and allow

60 days for public comment in response

to the notice. This notice solicits

comments on requirements relating to

Federal agencies collecting Internal

Revenue Service (IRS) 1099 tax

reporting and Federal 1057 socioeconomic information on Federal

I.M.P.A.C. (International Merchant

Purchase Authorization Card) credit

card transactions.

DATES: Written comments and

recommendations on the proposed

collection of information should be

received on or before December 29,

1997.

ADDRESSES: Submit written comments

on the collection of information to

Martha Orr, Office of Financial

Management (047F), Office of

Management, Department of Veterans

Affairs, 810 Vermont Avenue, NW,

Washington, DC 20420. Please refer to

‘‘OMB Control No. 2900–0582’’ in any

correspondence.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Martha Orr at (202) 273–9447.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the

PRA of 1995 (Public Law 104–13; 44

U.S.C. 3501–3520), Federal agencies

must obtain approval from the Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) for each

collection of information they conduct

or sponsor. This request for comment is

being made pursuant to Section

3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA.

With respect to the following

collection of information, comments are

invited on: (1) Whether the proposed

collection of information is necessary

for the proper performance of functions,

including whether the information will

have practical utility; (2) the accuracy of

the burden estimate of the proposed

collection of information; (3) ways to

enhance the quality, utility, and clarity

of the information to be collected; and

(4) ways to minimize the burden of the

collection of information on

respondents, including through the use

of automated collection techniques or

the use of other forms of information

technology.

Title Form Numbers: Request for IRS

1099-MISC Tax Collection and Federal

1057 Socio-Economic Status, VA Form

Letter 4–555.

OMB Control Number: 2900–0582.

Type of Review: Extension of a

currently approved collection.

Abstract: Federal agencies are

required to collect Internal Revenue