Comment Request: State Administrative Expense Funds

Summary

This is a reinstatement, with change, of a previously approved collection for which approval has expired. The authority for this collection is provided in Section 7 of the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, 80 Stat. 888, 889, as amended (42 USC 1776, 1779). As required, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) issued regulations in 7 CFR part 235, which prescribes the methods for making payments of funds to state agencies to use for administrative expenses incurred in overseeing and providing technical assistance in connection with activities undertaken under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), the Special Milk Program (SMP), the School Breakfast Program (SBP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), and the Food Distribution Program (FDP). This information collection is required to administer these programs in accordance with the Act. For this reinstatement, FNS adjusted the number of respondents for the reporting requirement at 235.7(b) and adjusted the frequency of the recordkeeping responses for the recordkeeping requirement at 235.7(a) for the FNS-525 form. Although this is a reinstatement and as such is not reducing the burden, FNS estimates that these changes would have reduced the responses and burden hours for this collection.

Need and Use of the Information

This is a mandatory information collection. Under this collection, FNS collects the information necessary for making payments of funds to state agencies to use for the administrative expenses incurred in supervising and providing technical assistance in connection with the activities undertaken by them under the NSLP, SMP, SBP, CACFP, and the FDP. The federal regulations in 7 CFR part 235 SAE Funds require the collection of information associated with this collection. The respondents for reporting information and for maintaining the records consist of the state educational agencies and the alternate state agencies that have agreements with FNS for the administration of NSLP, SBP, SMP, CACFP, FDP or some combination thereof. This information is collected through written agreements that cover the operation of the program during a specified period; State Administrative Expense plans that outline funding and activities; State Administrative Expense Funds Reallocation Reports that describe the use of SAE funds and which are used to reallocate SAE funds; and annual reports containing information on the number of school food authorities under agreement with the state agency to participate in the National School Lunch or Commodity School Programs. Under this collection, state agencies also maintain current accounting records of state administrative expense funds which identify fund authorizations, obligations, unobligated balances, assets, liabilities, outlays, and income.