Health Resources and Services Administration July 20, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice seeks comments on proposed changes in the State Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant allocations. Through the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), Title V MCH Block Grant funds are allocated to States based in part on a calculation of the number of children living in poverty (in an individual State) as compared to the total number of children living in poverty in the United States, using data for the number of children in poverty in each State from the U.S. Census Bureau's official decennial census. As the Census Bureau has replaced the decennial census long-form sample questionnaire with the American Community Survey (ACS), MCHB likewise plans to use the ACS as its source for this data. The ACS offers broad, comprehensive information on social, economic, and housing data and is designed to provide this information at many levels of geography. ACS child poverty estimates are produced annually and will allow the Block Grant allocation proportions to be updated more frequently than every 10 years. The Census Bureau produces annual State-level poverty estimates based on the most recent 1, 3, and 5 years of ACS data as well as annual model-based Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE). It is proposed that MCHB implement annual changes to the State Title V MCH Block Grant allocations using the 3-year ACS poverty estimates, wherein each annual change is buffered by sharing 2 of 3 data years in a 3-year rolling period estimate.