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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 5, 2021 / Rules and Regulations SNAP participants as they will be required to participate in monthly discussions with their case manager regarding their E&T participation and plans for self-sufficiency. While the Department expects most of the conversations will be held by telephone, in some instances E&T participants may need to travel to meet their case manager in person. Therefore, the average number of burden hours per
participant includes travel time. Total burden per participant is 1.4 hours, compared to an estimate of 1.32 hours for State agencies excluding the time needed for note taking and other documentation.7 The additional burden is expected to cost SNAP E&T
participants approximately $4.6 million annually. While these estimates include travel time to permit E&T participants to meet their case manager in person, the
Department notes that the rule provides States with flexibility to deliver case management services virtually. It is likely that few participants will meet face-to-face with a case manager during the current public health emergency;
therefore the burden on participants could be lower for the duration of the pandemic.

TABLE 2ANNUAL COST OF BURDEN ASSOCIATED WITH CASE MANAGEMENT SERVICES
State agency burden
Household burden
E&T participants per year
Burden hours per participant
Hourly wage rate

460,000
1.87
$46.32

460,000
1.4
$7.25

Total Annual Cost Federal and State shares millions

$39.8

$4.6

State Agency rate is a fully loaded rate. Household rate is equal to the federal minimum wage. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

Pursuant to the 2018 Farm Bill, the rule makes a number of changes affecting SNAP work requirements both the ABAWD requirement and mandatory E&T. The final rule:
Adds workforce partnerships to the list of programs that may be used to meet SNAP work requirements;
adds employment and training programs for veterans operated by the Department of Labor or the Department of Veterans Affairs to the list of work
programs that may be used to meet the ABAWD work requirement;
requires State agencies to provide an oral explanation and written notice to ABAWDs of all applicable work requirements during certification, recertification, and when a previously exempt individual or new household member becomes subject to a work requirement;
codifies the statutory change that reduces the number of ABAWD work exemptions from 15 percent to 12
percent and change their name to discretionary exemptions;
requires State agencies to provide good cause for noncompliance with E&T
if an appropriate or available opening in the E&T program is not available;
requires State agencies to re-direct individuals who are determined by a provider not to be a good fit for the E&T
component to other more suitable activities and notify the participant of the providers determination; and requires that, at recertification, all State agencies advise certain types of households subject to the general work requirement of employment and training opportunities.
Most of these provisions are not expected to have cost impacts. Most States have not historically and do not currently use all of their available discretionary exemptions, so the reduction in the number of available exemptions is unlikely to impact
individual ABAWDs.8 While the regulatory impact analysis for the final rule Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents assumed that some States would use their carryover exemptions and would subsequently use more although not all of their available discretionary exemptions to exempt individual ABAWDs in response to the rules changes to waiver eligibility, those regulatory changes have been set aside by a Federal court. Furthermore, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act generally suspended the ABAWD
work requirement and time limit for the duration of the COVID19 public health emergency, so individual ABAWDs are unlikely to be at risk of losing SNAP at this time. Together, these recent changes reduce the need for States to use all of their available exemptions.9
Permitting individuals to fulfill the ABAWD work requirement or mandatory E&T through workforce partnerships, which are operated by private employers or non-profit groups, may result in additional ABAWDs meeting the work requirement and retaining SNAP eligibility. However, such programs are not currently widespread. Given the lack of available data for such programs and the requirements for establishing a workforce partnership, the Department does not believe they will become
7 For more information on the derivation of these estimates, please see the Paperwork Reduction Act section of this proposed rule.
8 Typically States use far fewer exemptions in a fiscal year than they earn see FY 2020
Discretionary Exemptions with Carryover. In 2019, nine States used more exemptions than they earned
for FY 2019 and thus had to use a portion of their carryover exemptions. In three of those States, most carryover exemptions were used as an adjustment to account for misreporting of exemptions used in earlier years. Of the remaining 44 States, none used more exemptions in 2019 than they earned in 2020
the first year exemptions were reduced to 12
percent.

9 A small number of States have continued to offer work program slots to ABAWDs, which results in those ABAWDs being subject to the ABAWD
work requirement and time limit. However, in most cases States have not offered ABAWDs slots in work programs during the pandemic.

Changes to Funding Allocation/
Reallocation The final rule establishes a funding formula for reallocated E&T funds, in accordance with statutory changes. It also codifies the increase to $100,000 in the minimum allocation of 100 percent funds to State agencies. While these changes may affect the amount of funds received by individual States, the Department does not expect these changes to affect overall spending on SNAP E&T. Prior to the 2018 Farm Bill, three States Virgin Islands, Wyoming and North Dakota received less than the $100,000 minimum allocation and now receive a larger grant. Over the past three years, less than $10 million per year in 100 percent grant funds have been reallocated, and the amount available for reallocation has been declining.

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