14956 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 60 / Friday, March 28, 1997 / Notices

[Declaration of Disaster #2938]

State of West Virginia; (AMENDMENT

No. 1)

In accordance with a notice from the

Federal Emergency Management

Agency, dated March 15, 1997, the

above-numbered Declaration is hereby

amended to establish the incident

period for this disaster as beginning on

February 28, 1997 and continuing

through March 15, 1997.

All other information remains the

same, i.e., the termination date for filing

applications for physical damage is May

6, 1997, and for loans for economic

injury the deadline is December 8, 1997.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

Program Nos. 59002 and 59008.)

Dated: March 20, 1997.

Bernard Kulik,

Associate Administrator for Disaster

Assistance.

[FR Doc. 97–7889 Filed 3–27–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 8025–01–P

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

[Program Announcement No. SSA–ORES–

97–1]

Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and

Disability Insurance; Fiscal Year 1997

Funds for Section 1110 Research

Grants Availability

AGENCY: Social Security Administration

SUMMARY: The Social Security

Administration (SSA) announces that

competing applications will be accepted

for new research grants authorized

under Section 1110 of the Social

Security Act. This announcement,

consisting of three parts, describes the

nature of the grant activities and gives

notice of the anticipated availability of

fiscal year (FY) 1997 funds in support

of the proposed activities. Part I

discusses the purpose of the

announcement and briefly describes the

application process. Part II describes the

programmatic priorities under which

SSA is soliciting applications for

funding. Part III describes the

application process and provides

guidance on how to submit an

application.

DATES: The closing date for the receipt

of grant applications in response to this

announcement is June 26, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For

information on the application or for an

application kit: Mr. E. Joe Smith, Grants

Management Team; Office of Operations

Contracts and Grants; Office of

Acquisition and Grants; Social Security

Administration; 1–E–4 Gwynn Oak

Building; 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue;

Baltimore, Maryland 21207; telephone

(410) 965–9503.

For information on the program

content of the announcement: Ms.

Eleanor Cooper, Coordinator for

Extramural Research; Office of Research,

Evaluation and Statistics; Social

Security Administration; 4–C–15

Operations; 6401 Security Boulevard;

Baltimore, Maryland 21235; telephone

(410) 966–9824.

Part I. Purpose and the Grants Process

A. Program Purpose

This research is intended to add to

existing knowledge about components

of economic security and about the

changing economic status of the aged or

disabled, with emphasis on Social

Security beneficiaries. Policy makers

and social scientists are potential users

of the results.

In general, SSA will fund a select

number of projects in the following

areas:

1. Research that makes use of the New

Beneficiary Data System to examine

changes in the economic security of

beneficiaries over time—in particular,

changes related to one or more of the

following: employer-provided pensions,

post-retirement employment, and

changing levels of income from assets.

2. Research on ‘‘integration’’

provisions of private pension plans

(benefit formulas that reduce pension

payments to individuals by some

portion of their Social Security

benefits), the effect of these provisions

on income inequality among the aged,

and the impact of recent changes in

integration provisions.

B. FY 1997 Grant Process

The grant application process for FY

1997 will consist of a one-stage, full

application. Applications are limited to

20 single- or 40 double-spaced pages

(excluding resumes, forms, etc.) and

must relate to the selection criteria

established for review of applications.

Priority areas in this announcement

permit applicants to propose research

efforts from 12 to 24 months in

duration. In item 11 of the Face Sheet

(page 1 of form SSA–96–BK) indicate

the priority area under which the

application is submitted; i.e., ORES–97–

001 or ORES–97–002.

Part II. Priority Research Areas

In particular, the following projects

will be considered for funding:

A. Analyses of the New Beneficiary

Data System—ORES–97–001

This project is intended to encourage

research using the New Beneficiary Data

System (NBDS), a data base developed

by SSA over the past decade to study

the changing circumstances of aged and

disabled beneficiaries. Based initially on

a survey of new beneficiaries and

spouses in 1982, the data set was

expanded through followup interviews

in 1991 with those included in the

original survey, and with information

from administrative records (on

benefits, covered earnings,

Supplemental Security Income, and

Medicare). With the exception of the

Medicare records, all administrative

data have been obtained both for

primary respondents and for spouses.

The original survey design included

representative samples of new Social

Security beneficiaries who filed for

benefits as retired workers, disabled

workers, wives, widows, divorced

wives, and surviving divorced wives.

There was also a representative sample

of persons aged 65 or older who were

entitled to Medicare benefits but who

had not yet received Social Security

cash benefits. The aged sample was, for

the most part, in its mid- to late-60’s in

1982 and in its mid- to late-70’s in 1991.

The original interview covered a wide

range of topics, including demographic

characteristics, marital and childbearing

history, employment history, current

income and assets, and health. The

followup interview updated the

comprehensive profile of economic

circumstances obtained in the original

survey, and added or expanded sections

on health, family contacts, and postretirement employment. The interviews

also explored major changes in life

circumstances that might underlie

changes in economic status (such as

widowhood or divorce, work cessation,

migration, and the sale of a home).

As with other survey-based sources,

many data elements, especially those

relating to income and assets, initially

had significant numbers of refusals,

‘‘don’t knows,’’ and other forms of

nonresponse; and missing data were

imputed for both the 1982 and 1991

waves. While these cross-sectional

imputations reflected the current state

of the art, they did not take advantage

of the fact that in many cases valid data

were available in one wave when

missing in the other. Utilizing these

partial responses, a new set of expressly

longitudinal imputations has been

prepared and incorporated in the NBDS.

Background material and a

compilation of studies based on the

original survey are available. Additional

reports on the NBDS have been

published in recent years in the Social

Security Bulletin. Much of the NBDS

data and documentation are available on

the Internet at www.ssa.gov/statistics/