Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines, 8373-8375 [05-3144]

Download as PDF Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 33 / Friday, February 18, 2005 / Notices the FR G–1 and FR G–4 is given confidential treatment under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. §§ 552(b)(4)). The FR G–2 does not contain confidential information. The FR G–3, FR T–4, and FR U–1 are not submitted to the Federal Reserve and, as such, no issue of confidentiality arises. Abstract: The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 authorizes the Board to regulate securities credit issued by banks, brokers and dealers, and other lenders. The purpose statements, FR U–1, FR T– 4, and FR G–3, are recordkeeping requirements for banks, brokers and dealers, and other lenders, respectively, to document the purpose of their loans secured by margin stock. Other lenders also must register and deregister with the Federal Reserve using the FR G–1 and FR G–2, respectively, and must file an annual report (FR G–4). The Federal Reserve uses the data to identify lenders subject to Regulation U, to verify compliance with Regulations T, U, and X, and to monitor margin credit. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, February 14, 2005. Jennifer J. Johnson Secretary of the Board. [FR Doc. 05–3143 Filed 2–17–05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6210–01–S Formations of, Acquisitions by, and Mergers of Bank Holding Companies The companies listed in this notice have applied to the Board for approval, pursuant to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) (BHC Act), Regulation Y (12 CFR Part 225), and all other applicable statutes and regulations to become a bank holding company and/or to acquire the assets or the ownership of, control of, or the power to vote shares of a bank or bank holding company and all of the banks and nonbanking companies owned by the bank holding company, including the companies listed below. The applications listed below, as well as other related filings required by the Board, are available for immediate inspection at the Federal Reserve Bank indicated. The application also will be available for inspection at the offices of the Board of Governors. Interested persons may express their views in writing on the standards enumerated in the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1842(c)). If the proposal also involves the acquisition of a nonbanking company, the review also includes whether the acquisition of the nonbanking company complies with the standards in section 4 of the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1843). Unless otherwise 15:41 Feb 17, 2005 Jkt 205001 Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, February 14, 2005. Robert deV. Frierson, Deputy Secretary of the Board. [FR Doc. 05–3142 Filed 2–17–05; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6210–01–S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Office of the Secretary FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM VerDate jul<14>2003 noted, nonbanking activities will be conducted throughout the United States. Additional information on all bank holding companies may be obtained from the National Information Center website at www.ffiec.gov/nic/. Unless otherwise noted, comments regarding each of these applications must be received at the Reserve Bank indicated or the offices of the Board of Governors not later than March 14, 2005. A. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (Jacqueline G. Nicholas, Community Affairs Officer) 90 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55480–0291: 1. Bozeman Bancorp, Inc., Manhattan, Montana; to become a bank holding company by acquiring 100 percent of the voting shares of Bank of Bozeman, Bozeman, Montana. Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: This notice provides an update of the HHS poverty guidelines to account for last (calendar) year’s increase in prices as measured by the Consumer Price Index. EFFECTIVE DATE: These guidelines go into effect on the day they are published (unless an office administering a program using the guidelines specifies a different effective date for that particular program). ADDRESSES: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Washington, DC 20201. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about how the poverty guidelines are used or how income is defined in a particular program, contact the Federal (or other) office that is responsible for that program. For general questions about the poverty guidelines (but NOT for questions about a particular program that uses the poverty guidelines), PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 8373 contact Gordon Fisher, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC 20201—telephone: (202) 690–7507; persons with Internet access may visit the poverty guidelines Internet site at https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty. For information about the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services Program (nofee or reduced-fee health care services at certain hospitals and other health care facilities for certain persons meeting eligibility criteria involving the poverty guidelines), contact the Office of the Director, Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery, Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS, Room 10–105, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857. To speak to a person, call (301) 443–5656. To receive a Hill-Burton information package, call 1–800–638– 0742 (for callers outside Maryland) or 1–800–492–0359 (for callers in Maryland), and leave your name and address on the Hotline recording. Persons with Internet access may visit the Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery Internet Home page site at https://www.hrsa.gov/osp/dfcr. The Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery notes that as set by 42 CFR 124.505(b), the effective date of this update of the poverty guidelines for facilities obligated under the HillBurton Uncompensated Services Program is sixty days from the date of this publication. For information about the percentage multiple of the poverty guidelines to be used on immigration forms such as USCIS Form I–864, Affidavit of Support, contact U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. To obtain information on the most recent applicable poverty guidelines from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, call 1–800–375–5283. Persons with Internet access may obtain the information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Internet site at https://uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/ affsupp.htm. For information about the Department of Labor’s Lower Living Standard Income Level (an alternative eligibility criterion with the poverty guidelines for certain programs under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998), contact Janeice Youngblood, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor—telephone: (202) 693–3606—email: youngblood.janeice@dol.gov; persons with Internet access may visit the Employment and Training Administration’s Lower Living Standard E:\FR\FM\18FEN1.SGM 18FEN1 8374 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 33 / Friday, February 18, 2005 / Notices Income Level Internet site at https:// www.doleta.gov/llsil. For information about the number of people in poverty since 1959 or about the Census Bureau poverty thresholds, contact the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division information staff (HHES-Info), Room G251, Federal Office Building #3, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, DC 20233– 8500—telephone: (301) 763–3242. Persons with Internet access may visit the Poverty section of the Census Bureau’s Internet site at https:// www.census.gov/hhes/www/ poverty.html or the U.S. Census Bureau Question and Answer Center at https:// ask.census.gov. Poverty guideline Persons in family unit 2005 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ $9,570 12,830 16,090 19,350 22,610 25,870 29,130 32,390 For family units with more than 8 persons, add $3,260 for each additional person. 2005 Poverty Guidelines for Alaska 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ $11,950 16,030 20,110 24,190 28,270 32,350 36,430 40,510 For family units with more than 8 persons, add $4,080 for each additional person. 2005 Poverty Guidelines for Hawaii 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ ................................................ VerDate jul<14>2003 15:41 Feb 17, 2005 $11,010 14,760 18,510 22,260 26,010 29,760 33,510 37,260 Jkt 205001 Persons in family unit Poverty guideline For family units with more than 8 persons, add $3,750 for each additional person. Separate poverty guideline figures for Alaska and Hawaii reflect Office of Economic Opportunity administrative practice beginning in the 1966–1970 period. Note that the Census Bureau poverty thresholds—the version of the poverty measure used for statistical purposes—have never had separate figures for Alaska and Hawaii. The poverty guidelines are not defined for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau. In cases in which a Federal program using the poverty guidelines serves any of those jurisdictions, the Federal office that administers the program is responsible for deciding whether to use the contiguous-states-and-D.C. guidelines for those jurisdictions or to follow some other procedure. The preceding figures are the 2005 update of the poverty guidelines required by section 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1981 (Pub. L. 97–35— reauthorized by Pub. L. 105–285, Section 201 (1998)). As required by law, this update reflects last year’s change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI–U); it was done using the same procedure used in previous years. (The poverty guidelines are calculated each year from the latest published Census Bureau poverty thresholds—not from the previous year’s guidelines. Besides the inflation adjustment, the guidelines are also rounded and adjusted to standardize the differences between family sizes.) Section 673(2) of OBRA–1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) requires the use of these poverty guidelines as an eligibility criterion for the Community Services Block Grant program. The poverty guidelines are also used as an eligibility criterion by a number of other Federal programs (both HHS and non-HHS). Due to confusing legislative language dating back to 1972, the poverty guidelines have sometimes been mistakenly referred to as the ‘‘OMB’’ (Office of Management and Budget) poverty guidelines or poverty line. In fact, OMB has never issued the guidelines; the guidelines are issued each year by the Department of Health and Human Services. The poverty guidelines may be formally referenced as ‘‘the poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2).’’ The poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the poverty thresholds that the Census Bureau uses for statistical purposes—to prepare its estimates of the number of persons and PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 families in poverty. The poverty guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Human Services are used for administrative purposes—for instance, for determining whether a person or family is financially eligible for assistance or services under a particular Federal program. Since the poverty guidelines in this notice—the 2005 guidelines—reflect price changes through calendar year 2004, they are approximately equal to the poverty thresholds for calendar year 2004 which the Census Bureau expects to issue in August 2005. (A preliminary version of the 2004 thresholds is now available from the Census Bureau.) In certain cases, as noted in the relevant authorizing legislation or program regulations, a program uses the poverty guidelines as only one of several eligibility criteria, or uses a percentage multiple of the guidelines (for example, 125 percent or 185 percent of the guidelines). Non-Federal organizations that use the poverty guidelines under their own authority in non-Federally-funded activities can choose to use a percentage multiple of the guidelines such as 125 percent or 185 percent. In some cases, these poverty guidelines may not become effective for a particular program until a regulation or notice specifically applying to the program in question has been issued. The poverty guidelines given above should be used for both farm and nonfarm families. Similarly, these guidelines should be used for both aged and non-aged units. The poverty guidelines have never had an aged/nonaged distinction; only the Census Bureau poverty thresholds have separate figures for aged and non-aged oneperson and two-person units. Note that this notice no longer provides definitions of ‘‘income,’’ ‘‘family,’’ ‘‘unrelated individual,’’ and ‘‘household.’’ This is because there are no universal administrative definitions of these terms that are valid for all programs that use the poverty guidelines. Since the definitions previously included were illustrative only and were not meant to be binding, it was decided to omit them. To find out whether income is before taxes or after taxes, or whether a particular type of income should be counted in determining eligibility for a specific program, or for what time period income should be counted, or what precise definition of ‘‘family’’ or ‘‘household’’ is used by a particular program, or whether a particular person should be counted in determining income eligibility, please consult the office or organization administering the E:\FR\FM\18FEN1.SGM 18FEN1 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 33 / Friday, February 18, 2005 / Notices program in question; that office or organization has the responsibility for making decisions about such definitions (to the extent that the definition is not already contained in legislation or regulations). Dated: February 14, 2005. Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services. [FR Doc. 05–3144 Filed 2–15–05; 12:57 pm] BILLING CODE 4154–05–P DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [Document Identifier: CMS–10134 and CMS– 10138] Emergency Clearance: Public Information Collection Requirements Submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) AGENCY: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In compliance with the requirement of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Health and Human Services, is publishing the following summary of proposed collections for public comment. Interested persons are invited to send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including any of the following subjects: (1) The necessity and utility of the proposed information collection for the proper performance of the agency’s functions; (2) the accuracy of the estimated burden; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the information collection burden. We are, however, requesting an emergency review of the information collections referenced below. In compliance with the requirement of section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we have submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the following requirements for emergency review. We are requesting an emergency review because the collection of this information is needed before the expiration of the normal time limits under OMB’s regulations at 5 CFR part 1320. This is necessary to ensure compliance with an initiative of the VerDate jul<14>2003 15:41 Feb 17, 2005 Jkt 205001 Administration and is required in order to meet the demands of new legislation. We cannot reasonably comply with the normal clearance procedures because of statutory deadlines. The Benefits Improvement & Protection Act of 2000 mandated the Physician Group Practice (PGP) Demonstration and gave the Secretary discretion to use quality measures to assess physician performance in order to reward them for improvements in the quality and efficiency of health care. The Medicare Care Management Performance (MCMP) Demonstration was authorized by Section 649 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). The project requires the Secretary to establish a pay-forperformance 3-year pilot with physicians to promote the adoption and use of health information technology to improve the quality of patient care for chronically ill Medicare patients. The mandate specifies that rewards shall be based on the electronic reporting of clinical quality and outcomes measures in accordance with requirements established by the Secretary under the demonstration program. CMS is requesting OMB review and approval of this collection by April 1, 2005, with a 180-day approval period. Written comments and recommendation will be considered from the public if received by the individuals designated below by March 18, 2005. 1. Type of Information Collection Request: New collection; Title of Information Collection: Physician Group Practice (PGP) Standardized Ambulatory Care Quality Measure Collection Initiative; Use: The Benefits Improvement & Protection Act of 2000 mandated the Physician Group Practice (PGP) Demonstration and gave the Secretary discretion to use quality measures to assess physician performance in order to reward them for improvements in the quality and efficiency of health care. This demonstration is intended to strengthen the Medicare program by offering innovative models to people on Medicare that improve quality and access and lower costs. As a result, people on Medicare will directly benefit from these innovative models.; Form Number: CMS–10134 (OMB#: 0938– NEW); Frequency: Annually; Affected Public: Business or other for-profit and Not-for-profit institutions; Number of Respondents: 10; Total Annual Responses: 10; Total Annual Hours: 790. 2. Type of Information Collection Request: New collection; Title of Information Collection: Medicare Care PO 00000 Frm 00039 Fmt 4703 Sfmt 4703 8375 Management Performance (MCMP) Demonstration—Standardized Ambulatory Care Quality Collection Initiative; Use: The MCMP Demonstration was authorized by Section 649 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). This project requires the Secretary to establish a pay-for-performance 3-year pilot with physicians to promote the adoption and use of health information technology to improve the quality of patient care for chronically ill Medicare patients. This demonstration represents the first pay for performance project fostering the adoption of health information technology in small physician group practices and will enable a test of the concept to improve the quality and efficiency of care in Feefor-Service (FFS) Medicare.; Form Number: CMS–10138 (OMB# 0938– NEW); Frequency: Annually; Affected Public: Business or other for-profit and Not-for-profit institutions; Number of Respondents: 800; Total Annual Responses: 800; Total Annual Hours: 15,200. To obtain copies of the supporting statement and any related forms for the proposed paperwork collections referenced above, access CMS’s Web Site address at https://cms.hhs.gov/ regulations/pra/, or E-mail your request, including your address, phone number, OMB number, and CMS document identifier, to Paperwork@cms.hhs.gov, or call the Reports Clearance Office on (410) 786–1326. Interested persons are invited to send comments regarding the burden or any other aspect of these collections of information requirements. However, as noted above, comments on these information collection and recordkeeping requirements must be received by the designees referenced below by March 18, 2005: CMS, Office of Strategic Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Division of Regulations Development, Attention: Dawn Willinghan, CMS–10134 and CMS– 10138, Room C5–14–03, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21244– 1850; and, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, Room 10235, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503, Attn.: Christopher Martin, Desk Officer, Fax # 202–395–6974. E:\FR\FM\18FEN1.SGM 18FEN1

Agencies

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 33 (Friday, February 18, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8373-8375]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-3144]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Office of the Secretary


Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines

AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This notice provides an update of the HHS poverty guidelines 
to account for last (calendar) year's increase in prices as measured by 
the Consumer Price Index.

EFFECTIVE DATE: These guidelines go into effect on the day they are 
published (unless an office administering a program using the 
guidelines specifies a different effective date for that particular 
program).

ADDRESSES: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and 
Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and 
Human Services (HHS), Washington, DC 20201.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For information about how the poverty 
guidelines are used or how income is defined in a particular program, 
contact the Federal (or other) office that is responsible for that 
program.
    For general questions about the poverty guidelines (but NOT for 
questions about a particular program that uses the poverty guidelines), 
contact Gordon Fisher, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning 
and Evaluation, Room 404E, Humphrey Building, Department of Health and 
Human Services, Washington, DC 20201--telephone: (202) 690-7507; 
persons with Internet access may visit the poverty guidelines Internet 
site at https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty.
    For information about the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services 
Program (no-fee or reduced-fee health care services at certain 
hospitals and other health care facilities for certain persons meeting 
eligibility criteria involving the poverty guidelines), contact the 
Office of the Director, Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery, 
Health Resources and Services Administration, HHS, Room 10-105, 
Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857. To 
speak to a person, call (301) 443-5656. To receive a Hill-Burton 
information package, call 1-800-638-0742 (for callers outside Maryland) 
or 1-800-492-0359 (for callers in Maryland), and leave your name and 
address on the Hotline recording. Persons with Internet access may 
visit the Division of Facilities Compliance and Recovery Internet Home 
page site at https://www.hrsa.gov/osp/dfcr. The Division of Facilities 
Compliance and Recovery notes that as set by 42 CFR 124.505(b), the 
effective date of this update of the poverty guidelines for facilities 
obligated under the Hill-Burton Uncompensated Services Program is sixty 
days from the date of this publication.
    For information about the percentage multiple of the poverty 
guidelines to be used on immigration forms such as USCIS Form I-864, 
Affidavit of Support, contact U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 
Services. To obtain information on the most recent applicable poverty 
guidelines from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, call 1-800-
375-5283. Persons with Internet access may obtain the information from 
the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Internet site at https://
uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/affsupp.htm.
    For information about the Department of Labor's Lower Living 
Standard Income Level (an alternative eligibility criterion with the 
poverty guidelines for certain programs under the Workforce Investment 
Act of 1998), contact Janeice Youngblood, Employment and Training 
Administration, U.S. Department of Labor--telephone: (202) 693-3606--e-
mail: youngblood.janeice@dol.gov; persons with Internet access may 
visit the Employment and Training Administration's Lower Living 
Standard

[[Page 8374]]

Income Level Internet site at https://www.doleta.gov/llsil.
    For information about the number of people in poverty since 1959 or 
about the Census Bureau poverty thresholds, contact the Housing and 
Household Economic Statistics Division information staff (HHES-Info), 
Room G251, Federal Office Building 3, U.S. Census Bureau, 
Washington, DC 20233-8500--telephone: (301) 763-3242. Persons with 
Internet access may visit the Poverty section of the Census Bureau's 
Internet site at https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html or the 
U.S. Census Bureau Question and Answer Center at https://ask.census.gov.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Poverty
                   Persons in family unit                     guideline
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2005 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of
                                Columbia
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1..........................................................       $9,570
2..........................................................       12,830
3..........................................................       16,090
4..........................................................       19,350
5..........................................................       22,610
6..........................................................       25,870
7..........................................................       29,130
8..........................................................       32,390
------------------------------------------------------------
For family units with more than 8 persons, add $3,260 for each
 additional person......................................................
========================================================================
                   2005 Poverty Guidelines for Alaska
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1..........................................................      $11,950
2..........................................................       16,030
3..........................................................       20,110
4..........................................................       24,190
5..........................................................       28,270
6..........................................................       32,350
7..........................................................       36,430
8..........................................................       40,510
------------------------------------------------------------
For family units with more than 8 persons, add $4,080 for each
 additional person......................................................
========================================================================
                   2005 Poverty Guidelines for Hawaii
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1..........................................................      $11,010
2..........................................................       14,760
3..........................................................       18,510
4..........................................................       22,260
5..........................................................       26,010
6..........................................................       29,760
7..........................................................       33,510
8..........................................................       37,260
------------------------------------------------------------
For family units with more than 8 persons, add $3,750 for each
 additional person. ....................................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Separate poverty guideline figures for Alaska and Hawaii reflect Office
  of Economic Opportunity administrative practice beginning in the 1966-
  1970 period. Note that the Census Bureau poverty thresholds--the
  version of the poverty measure used for statistical purposes--have
  never had separate figures for Alaska and Hawaii. The poverty
  guidelines are not defined for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands,
  American Samoa, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the
  Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern
  Mariana Islands, and Palau. In cases in which a Federal program using
  the poverty guidelines serves any of those jurisdictions, the Federal
  office that administers the program is responsible for deciding
  whether to use the contiguous-states-and-D.C. guidelines for those
  jurisdictions or to follow some other procedure.

    The preceding figures are the 2005 update of the poverty guidelines 
required by section 673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 
(OBRA) of 1981 (Pub. L. 97-35--reauthorized by Pub. L. 105-285, Section 
201 (1998)). As required by law, this update reflects last year's 
change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U); it was done using the same 
procedure used in previous years. (The poverty guidelines are 
calculated each year from the latest published Census Bureau poverty 
thresholds--not from the previous year's guidelines. Besides the 
inflation adjustment, the guidelines are also rounded and adjusted to 
standardize the differences between family sizes.)
    Section 673(2) of OBRA-1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2)) requires the use of 
these poverty guidelines as an eligibility criterion for the Community 
Services Block Grant program. The poverty guidelines are also used as 
an eligibility criterion by a number of other Federal programs (both 
HHS and non-HHS). Due to confusing legislative language dating back to 
1972, the poverty guidelines have sometimes been mistakenly referred to 
as the ``OMB'' (Office of Management and Budget) poverty guidelines or 
poverty line. In fact, OMB has never issued the guidelines; the 
guidelines are issued each year by the Department of Health and Human 
Services. The poverty guidelines may be formally referenced as ``the 
poverty guidelines updated periodically in the Federal Register by the 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 
U.S.C. 9902(2).''
    The poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the poverty 
thresholds that the Census Bureau uses for statistical purposes--to 
prepare its estimates of the number of persons and families in poverty. 
The poverty guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Human 
Services are used for administrative purposes--for instance, for 
determining whether a person or family is financially eligible for 
assistance or services under a particular Federal program. Since the 
poverty guidelines in this notice--the 2005 guidelines--reflect price 
changes through calendar year 2004, they are approximately equal to the 
poverty thresholds for calendar year 2004 which the Census Bureau 
expects to issue in August 2005. (A preliminary version of the 2004 
thresholds is now available from the Census Bureau.)
    In certain cases, as noted in the relevant authorizing legislation 
or program regulations, a program uses the poverty guidelines as only 
one of several eligibility criteria, or uses a percentage multiple of 
the guidelines (for example, 125 percent or 185 percent of the 
guidelines). Non-Federal organizations that use the poverty guidelines 
under their own authority in non-Federally-funded activities can choose 
to use a percentage multiple of the guidelines such as 125 percent or 
185 percent.
    In some cases, these poverty guidelines may not become effective 
for a particular program until a regulation or notice specifically 
applying to the program in question has been issued.
    The poverty guidelines given above should be used for both farm and 
non-farm families. Similarly, these guidelines should be used for both 
aged and non-aged units. The poverty guidelines have never had an aged/
non-aged distinction; only the Census Bureau poverty thresholds have 
separate figures for aged and non-aged one-person and two-person units.
    Note that this notice no longer provides definitions of ``income,'' 
``family,'' ``unrelated individual,'' and ``household.'' This is 
because there are no universal administrative definitions of these 
terms that are valid for all programs that use the poverty guidelines. 
Since the definitions previously included were illustrative only and 
were not meant to be binding, it was decided to omit them. To find out 
whether income is before taxes or after taxes, or whether a particular 
type of income should be counted in determining eligibility for a 
specific program, or for what time period income should be counted, or 
what precise definition of ``family'' or ``household'' is used by a 
particular program, or whether a particular person should be counted in 
determining income eligibility, please consult the office or 
organization administering the

[[Page 8375]]

program in question; that office or organization has the responsibility 
for making decisions about such definitions (to the extent that the 
definition is not already contained in legislation or regulations).

    Dated: February 14, 2005.
Michael O. Leavitt,
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
[FR Doc. 05-3144 Filed 2-15-05; 12:57 pm]
BILLING CODE 4154-05-P

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