LIHEAP DCL Deadlines Posted for Some Reports FY 2015

Dear Colleagues:

Every three years, federal agencies need to renew their clearance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to furnish data collection forms/reports to the public. The Office of Community Services, Division of Energy Assistance (DEA) has two forms it requires of LIHEAP grantees every year. They include the LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment Report, which is normally due every August 1st for the federal fiscal year in which it is due, and the LIHEAP Household Report, which is normally due every September 1st for the federal fiscal year in which it is due.

Our OMB clearance for these two data collections expired and new clearance is pending. We cannot make these forms available to our grantees until the new clearance is finalized. As a result, we are postponing the deadlines until further notice for both of these reports required for federal Fiscal Year 2015, which is for the reporting period of October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015.

We do anticipate that we will receive the clearance for these forms in the near future and we will email follow-up Action Transmittals confirming the new deadlines to submit these forms to our office this year through our OLDC system. We will not delay our review of your LIHEAP Plans or your funding due to the revised deadlines for these two reports.

Our office has been announcing in the Federal Register the public comment periods for both of these forms. Please note that our office has not made any changes to the Carryover and Reallotment Report compared to the form used in prior years. Our office did make three changes to the Household Report Long Form (required of States) related to an unduplicated count of households that received bill payment assistance, how to report nominal benefit households, and separating out the number of households that received winter crisis versus year-round crisis assistance. The Household Report Short Form (required of Tribes) did not change compared to prior years. The data from these forms is reported in the annual LIHEAP Report to Congress, as well as to aid our staff in monitoring your programs and providing technical assistance to your staff.

Should you have any questions or need any assistance from our office, please contact your liaison with our office. Their contact information is on our web site here. Links to open Federal Register notices are also provided on our main LIHEAP web page here.

Sincerely,

/s/
Lauren Christopher
Director
Division of Energy Assistance