Resource Library

PARIS MEMBER STATES:

The PARIS Computer Matching Agreement (CMA) between the Department of Defense, State Public Assistance Agencies, and the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, which expires on September 29, 2020, has been approved for a 12-month extension through September 29, 2021.

In order for SPAAs to voluntarily participate in the matches that will occur between September 29, 2020 and September 29, 2021 with DoD data under the Federal Match CMA:

1. The SPAA must have a valid signed 2019-2020 agreement (PDF) on file with ACF/PARIS.
2. An authorized representative of the SPAA must fill and sign the SPAA portion of the extension agreement -- Please see the last page of the attached fillable PDF (PDF) (also available on the PARIS Memorandum webpage).

We ask that states send the signed agreement, as well as any questions, to the PARIS at paris@acf.hhs.gov.

Note: SPAAs must complete the above process by the November Match date (11/13/2020) to receive the November Federal Match. As an additional reminder, the same deadline applies for the VA Match.

Summary
The purpose of this matching program is to identify individuals receiving both federal compensation or pension benefits and public assistance benefits under federal programs administered by the states and to verify public assistance clients’ declarations of income circumstances. For this match, the DMDC will match SPAA files against DoD military and civilian pay files, military retired pay files, and survivor pay files. This 12-month extension includes some non-significant changes, most notably clarification on records usage restrictions.

States seeking to learn how to better leverage the Federal Match may reach out to the PARIS Board of Directors.

This is a reminder that the next PARIS match is scheduled for Friday, August 14, 2020.

When transmitting your PARIS quarterly data to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), the following inbound file format is requested: PARIS..PYYYYMM4 byte year>2 byte month>, e.g. PARIS.AL.P202008 (for the August 2020 submission for Alabama), also indicate the file size and method used to transmit the file to the Flint server, such as Connect Direct, sftp, etc. Make sure there are no carriage controls at the end of each line in the submitted file. If your data has carriage controls, it makes the LRECL larger than it should be. Also, provide the name of the point of contact for the file transmission.

Provide this information to Portia A. M. Gilliam via email at portia.a.gilliam.civ@mail.mil.

PARIS MEMBER STATES:

Attached is the PARIS May 2020 Interstate Match Report for review by all member states. There is no personally identifiable information included; it is just statistical information on the number of matches between states. The report is 127 pages long. PARIS Interstate Report 202005 (PDF)

PARIS MEMBER STATES:

The PARIS Computer Matching Agreement (CMA) between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (HHS/ACF), and State Public Assistance Agencies (SPAAs) starting August 30, 2020 and expiring February 28, 2022 has been approved and is ready for SPAA signatures to participate.

In order for states to participate in this match, an authorized representative must sign the PARIS VA CMA Supplementary Agreement (attached and available on the PARIS website). We ask that states send the signed supplementary agreement, as well as any questions, to the PARIS program at paris@acf.hhs.gov. 

Summary

This matching program provides SPAAs with VA compensation and pension data to use in determining public assistance clients’ eligibility for benefits under the Medicaid, TANF, SNAP, and general assistance programs, and can be use in helping relevant veterans to better understand similar benefits available through the VA which may be better alternatives for them. Non-substantive changes from the previous PARIS VA agreement include revision of some agreement language for clarity, modernization of some technical language in the security safeguards, and revisions to match-related estimates and examples based on more recent data.

States seeking to learn how to better leverage this match may reach out the PARIS Board of Directors.

PARIS VA CMA 2020 (PDF)

PARIS VA CMA 2020 Supplementary Agreement (PDF)

PARIS and DMDC have simplified and updated the DMDC Electronic File Transmission Instructions for PARIS. This update does not make any substantive change to the current transmission process for SPAAs already able to transmit and receive PARIS-related data with DMDC.

The updated instructions can be found at: /paris/system#electronic_data_transmission

These instructions are intended to replace the previous electronic data transmission instructions and forms on /paris/system as well as the instructions for the System Authorization Access Request (SAAR) posted in PARIS Transmittal 2016-15.

Periodic non-substantive updates may be made to these instructions as needed without notification.

Questions on these updated instructions may be directed to DMDC via Portia A. M. Gilliam at portia.a.gilliam.civ@mail.mil and PARIS at paris@acf.hhs.gov.

This is a reminder that the next PARIS match is scheduled for Friday, May 8, 2020.

When transmitting your PARIS quarterly data to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), the following inbound file format is requested: PARIS..PYYYYMM4 byte year>2 byte month>, e.g. PARIS.AL.P202005 (for the May 2020 submission for Alabama), also indicate the file size and method used to transmit the file to the Flint server, such as Connect Direct, sftp, etc. Make sure there are no carriage controls at the end of each line in the submitted file. If your data has carriage controls, it makes the LRECL larger than it should be. Also, provide the name of the point of contact for the file transmission.

Provide this information to Portia A. M. Gilliam via email at portia.a.gilliam.civ@mail.mil.

PARIS MEMBER STATES:

Attached are the results of the PARIS February Interstate match for review by all Member States. There is no privacy information included; it is just statistical information as far as matches with each State. The report is 135 pages long. PARIS Interstate Report 202002 (PDF)

PARIS Community,

In advance of the upcoming PARIS match this week, we would like to notify our state partners that state SNAP data submitted to the PARIS program was recently used by the Department of Defense (DoD) to inform a mandated study designed to ensure that the military compensation system appropriately rewards members of the U.S. Armed Forces for their sacrifices and contributions.  DoD indicates that no personally identifiable information (PII) received from participating states under the PARIS matching program was disclosed outside of the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) to inform this analysis. 

DoD conducted this analysis to help satisfy requirements of the presidentially mandated Thirteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC). Every four years, in response to a presidential charge, DoD commissions a complete review of compensation principles and concepts for members of the U.S. Armed Forces. The 13th QRMC charter requires the review to “survey the usage of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, as well as any other supplemental sources of income or support.” The 13th QRMC memorandum is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-memorandum-secretary-defense-2/. Additional information about the QRMC, including previous QRMC reports, is available here: https://militarypay.defense.gov/References/QRMC/.

DoD analyzed state data provided to the PARIS program submitted for prior match(es) in conjunction with data from the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS). DoD indicates that the QRMC analysis was undertaken solely for the purposes of statistical reporting and research, and will not be used to affect rights, benefits, or potential enforcement actions at the individual level. DoD has confirmed that individual-level information has remained within the DoD, PII is limited to the DMDC processing environment, and state-provided PII was not disclosed to QRMC analysts.

HHS/ACF and DoD will work together to ensure that future iterations of the PARIS computer matching agreement more clearly reflect the possibility that information not identifiable to particular individuals may be used to derive statistics to inform studies such as the QRMC. 

We request questions from states to be directed to PARIS@acf.hhs.gov.

The next PARIS match is scheduled for Friday, February 14, 2020.

When transmitting your PARIS quarterly data to the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) this month, the following inbound file format is requested:

PARIS..PYYYYMM4 byte year>2 byte month>, e.g. PARIS.AL.P201911 (for the November submission), also indicate the file size and method used to transmit the file to the Flint server, such as Connect Direct, sftp, etc. Make sure there are no carriage controls at the end of each line in the submitted file. If your data has carriage controls, it makes the LRECL larger than it should be. Also, provide the name of the point of contact for the file transmission.

Provide this information by email to Portia A. M. Gilliam via email to portia.a.gilliam.civ@mail.mil.

PARIS MEMBER STATES:

Attached are the results of the PARIS November 2019 Interstate match for review by all Member States. There is no privacy information included; it is just statistical information as far as matches with each State. The report is 131 pages long. PARIS Interstate Report 201911 (PDF)

We are excited to announce that the 2020 Public Assistance Reporting Information System (PARIS) Training Conference will be held at the InterContinental Hotel in Washington D.C. on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 10 and 11, 2020.

Attached is the 2020 PARIS Training Conference invitation letter with registration instructions, aimed at the PARIS State Administrative Representatives (/paris/state/state-administrative-representative). As in previous years, PARIS Member States will be provided financial assistance in accordance with Federal regulation from ACF to send one representative—whose expertise is from the programmatic/operational perspective of the PARIS program—to the Training Conference at no cost to the state. It is recommended to each state that their public assistance agencies coordinate amongst themselves though the PARIS state administrative representative to determine who will be listed as their sponsored participant. States are also highly encouraged to send additional staff at their own expense. State representatives may need the invitation letter as part of their travel approval process to attend the PARIS conference.

Additionally, the Board of Directors is finalizing the training topics and is soliciting input from all states, districts and territories. If you have an area in which you need more guidance or training, please send us your suggestions. The Board is looking to design training sessions that will meet the participants’ educational objectives to better understand and utilize PARIS and its match data. Beyond training requests, this is a call for presenters; on successes or techniques that they can share. This is an open challenge to you to step up to the plate and share your ideas (what worked, what did not) with your fellow PARIS Community. To send in your suggestions, comments, or ideas for presentations, please email them to PARIS@acf.hhs.gov. We are anticipating that this training conference will provide states with useful information that can be brought back and implemented successfully. PARIS is a powerful tool to advance program integrity, prevent improper payments and generates savings for state agencies.

We look forward to seeing you in D.C. in March.

2020 ACF PARIS Training Conference Invitation (PDF)