Administration for Child v. US Department of Health

Filing 920091207

Opinion

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var WPFootnote1 = 'Of the Federal Circuit, sitting by designation.\
'

var WPFootnote2 = 'Puerto Rico is treated as a state for purposes of the TANF\
program, 42 U.S.C. § 619(5), and Title IV-D of the Social Security\
Act, id. § 1301(a)(1).\
'

var WPFootnote3 = 'To assess the completeness, reliability, and security of the\
data submitted by the states and the accuracy of the reporting\
systems used in calculating the five performance indicators, the\
Secretary is obligated to conduct audits of this data at least once\
every three years. 42 U.S.C. § 652(a)(4)(C)(i).\
'

var WPFootnote4 = 'The PEP measures a state\'s success at establishing the paternity\
of children born out-of-wedlock. 42 U.S.C. § 652(g). A state may\
calculate its PEP according to either (1) the percentage of\
children born out of wedlock statewide for whom paternity is\
established, or (2) the percentage of children participating in\
state child support programs for whom paternity is established. \
See 42 U.S.C. § 652(g)(2); 45 C.F.R. § 305.2.\
'

var WPFootnote5 = 'HHS permits states to use a reporting period other than the\
federal fiscal year, provided "like" data are used and compared\
from year-to-year. For FY 2000, Puerto Rico submitted data for the\
twelve-month period from August 1, 1999 through July 31, 2000. \
Accordingly, Puerto Rico was required for FY 2001 to submit data\
from August 1, 2000 through July 31, 2001.\
'

var WPFootnote6 = 'Puerto Rico also argues that HHS has been inconsistent in the\
application of its guidelines because it has in other cases\
accepted modified data past the regulatory deadline. However,\
Puerto Rico has identified no instance in which HHS has accepted\
untimely data to determine the prior fiscal year\'s performance for\
incentive payment purposes. Rather, Puerto Rico cites to one case\
in which HHS requested a state to submit corrected data past the\
regulatory deadline for the purpose of measuring the next year\'s\
incentives based on improved performance, as it also did here. See\
Nevada v. Department of Health and Human Servs., No. 3:05-cv-00677\
(D.Nev. Dec. 28, 2006) (slip op., appended to Appellee\'s brief). \
Accordingly, we reject Puerto Rico\'s contention that there is an\
inconsistency in need of explanation.\
'

var WPFootnote7 = 'Indeed, the preamble to § 305.66 emphasizes that\
\
              the State should not wait or rely upon the Secretary\'s\
determination of a data or a performance deficiency in\
order to begin corrective action. Two consecutive years\
of failure (either poor data or poor performance) in the\
same performance measure criterion will trigger a penalty\
imposition.\
\
Child Support Enforcement Program; Incentive Payments, Audit\
Penalties, 65 Fed. Reg. at 82,192.\
'

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