Legal Services Corporation August 2011 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Since 1996, the Legal Services Corporation's annual appropriation has mandated that the Corporation distribute most of its appropriated funds to basic field programs for LSC-defined geographic areas so as to provide an equal figure per individual in poverty for each geographic area. The appropriation has further mandated that the number of individuals in poverty in each geographic area be determined by the Bureau of the Census ``on the basis of the most recent decennial census.'' The 2010 decennial census, however, did not collect poverty data for the 50 states, the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico, so ``the most recent decennial census'' will not provide a basis for determining how many people in poverty are within those jurisdictions. The LSC Board of Directors requests comments on a proposal by LSC's management to address this issue by making recommendations to the President and to Congress that: (1) The determination of the number of individuals in poverty in each geographic area be made by the Bureau of the Census, without any reference to the decennial census as the basis for that determination; (2) funding be reallocated among geographic areas every three years based on updated poverty population determinations by the Bureau of the Census; and (3) the first reallocation be phased in over two years, in Fiscal Year 2013 and Fiscal Year 2014.