This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains documents other than rules or

proposed rules that are applicable to the

public. Notices of hearings and investigations,

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rulings, delegations of authority, filing of

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examples of documents appearing in this

section.

Notices Federal Register

11250

Vol. 66, No. 37

Friday, February 23, 2001

AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

Bureau for Humanitarian Response,

Office of Food for Peace;

Announcement of Draft Guidelines for

Title II Development Activity Programs

Pursuant to the Agricultural Trade

Development and Assistance Act of

1954 (Pub. L. 480, as amended), notice

is hereby given that the Draft Guidelines

for Title II Development Activity

Programs are being made available to

interested parties for the required thirty

(30) day comment period.

Individuals who wish to receive a

copy of these draft guidelines should

contact: Office of Food for Peace,

Agency for International Development,

RRB 7.06–120, 1300 Pennsylvania

Avenue, Washington, DC 20523–0809.

Individuals who have questions or

comments on the draft guidelines

should contact Richard Newberg at the

above address or at (202) 712–1828.

The thirty-day comment period will

begin on the date that this

announcement is published in the

Federal Register.

Dated: February 8, 2001.

William T. Oliver,

Director, Office of Food for Peace, Bureau

for Humanitarian Response.

[FR Doc. 01–4513 Filed 2–22–01; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6116–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Economic Research Service

Notice of Intent To Seek Approval To

Collect Information

AGENCY: Economic Research Service,

USDA.

ACTION: Notice and request for

comments.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub.

L. 104–13) and Office of Management

and Budget (OMB) regulations at 5 CFR

1320 (60 FR 44978, August 29, 1995),

this notice announces the Economic

Research Service’s (ERS) intention to

request approval for a new information

collection from Food Stamp Program

(FSP) officials in State agencies; from

officials of the Special Supplementary

Nutrition Program for Women, Infants

and Children (WIC) in State agencies;

from officials of the National School

Lunch Program (NSLP) in State

Departments of Education; and from

NSLP officials in local school food

authorities (SFAs). The purpose of the

data collection is to obtain information

on the program information systems

maintained at the State and local level

by these programs.

DATES: Written comments on this notice

must be received by April 30, 2001 to

be assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES: Requests for additional

information should be directed to Parke

Wilde, Food Assistance and Rural

Economy Branch, Food and Rural

Economics Division, Economic Research

Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture,

1800 M. St., NW., S2092, Washington,

DC 20036–5831. For further information

contact: Parke Wilde, 202–694–5633.

Submit electronic comments to

pwilde@ers.usda.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Paperwork Reduction Act

Submission (OMB–83–1).

Type of Request: New collection of

information.

Abstract: The Economic Research

Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of

Agriculture is responsible for

conducting studies and evaluations of

the Nation’s food assistance programs

administered by the Food and Nutrition

Service (FNS), U.S. Department of

Agriculture. In recent years, there has

been growing interest in efforts to utilize

program administrative data in ways

that improve program operations,

reduce program fraud, and better inform

program officials as to the

characteristics of program participants

and eligible non-participants. In

particular, there is an interest in

matching records from multiple food

assistance programs in order to verify

program eligibility, assess the

characteristics of multi-program

participants, and estimate the extent to

which program participants enroll in all

programs for which they are eligible.

This project has two objectives: (1) To

determine the characteristics of

administrative data systems used by

food stamps, WIC, and child nutrition

programs, and (2) to test the feasibility

and accuracy of linking data from

different nutrition assistance programs.

Currently, there is no comprehensive

assessment of system capabilities, datasharing arrangements, and recordlinkage projects for food assistance

programs. This information is necessary

to better understand the potential use of

these systems for analyzing multiple

program participation and for improving

program operations in such areas as

one-stop shopping, adjunctive eligibility

determination, program integrity, and

reduction of administrative and client

burden.

This project will conduct a survey to

determine the capabilities of

information systems maintaining client

records for the food assistance

programs. The survey will collect

information about system architecture,

organization of client records,

maintenance of historical records,

numbers and types of client identifiers,

and data sharing arrangements among

programs. The survey will be conducted

in 26 States. Interviews will be

conducted with program officials in

State food stamp agencies and State WIC

agencies; with officials in the Child

Nutrition branch of State Departments

of Education; and with officials in three

School Food Authorities within each

State. Information from the survey will

be used to determine the consistency,

across States, of information maintained

by each food assistance program and the

consistency, within States, of

information maintained by different

programs. Findings from the survey will

be presented in tabular format

facilitating comparison across both

States and food assistance programs.

Information from the survey of food

assistance programs will be used to

assess the potential for matching client

records across major food assistance

programs (FSP, WIC, NSLP) within a

State for the purpose of estimating rates

of shared clientele. This information

will be used to recruit four sites into a

second phase of the project. The second

phase will test the feasibility and

accuracy of linking data from different

nutrition assistance programs within a

site (defined as either an area served by

a single SFA or an entire State,