I

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 3064

To increase the overall economy and efficiency of Government operations

and enable more efficient use of Federal funding, by coordinating Federal

financial assistance programs and promoting local flexibility.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 12, 1996

Mr. HOYER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee

on Government Reform and Oversight

A BILL

To increase the overall economy and efficiency of Government

operations and enable more efficient use of Federal funding, by coordinating Federal financial assistance programs and promoting local flexibility.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Family Services Im5 provement Act of 1996’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) historically, Federal programs have ad2 dressed the Nation’s problems by providing categor3 ical financial assistance with detailed requirements

4 relating to the use of funds;

5 (2) while the assistance described in paragraph

6 (1) has been directed at critical problems, some pro7 gram requirements may inadvertently impede the ef8 fective delivery of services, and the Federal govern9 ment should exercise leadership in eliminating these

10 impediments;

11 (3) the Nation’s state, local, and tribal govern12 ments and private, nonprofit organizations are deal13 ing with increasingly complex problems that require

14 the coordinated delivery of many kinds of services;

15 (4) the Nation’s communities are diverse, and

16 different needs are present in different communities;

17 and

18 (5) it is more important than ever for the Fed19 eral Government to—

20 (A) review, coordinate, and rationalize

21 rules, regulations and policies governing the

22 range of Federal financial assistance programs;

23 (B) reduce the barriers between programs

24 that impede state, local, and tribal govern-
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1 ments’ ability to deliver services in a coordi2 nated and effective manner; and

3 (C) promote more effective and efficient

4 local delivery of services.

5 SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

6 The purposes of this Act are to—

7 (1) remove Federal impediments to coordination

8 of service delivery;

9 (2) enable more efficient use of Federal, State,

10 and local resources through program coordination

11 and reduction of regulation;

12 (3) facilitate cooperation among and coordina13 tion of programs operated by state, local, and tribal

14 governments and private, nonprofit organizations;

15 and

16 (4) place less emphasis in Federal service pro17 grams on measuring resources and procedures and

18 more emphasis on accountability for achieving policy

19 goals.

20 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

21 For purposes of this Act—

22 (1) the term ‘‘eligible Federal financial assist23 ance program’’—

24 (A) means a Federal program under which

25 financial assistance is available, directly or indi-
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1 rectly, to a State, local, or tribal government or

2 a qualified organization to carry out a specified

3 program;

4 (B) does not include a Federal program

5 under which financial assistance is provided by

6 the Federal Government directly to a bene7 ficiary of that financial assistance, or to a State

8 to provide financial or food voucher assistance

9 directly to a beneficiary (but may include ad10 ministrative costs for such a program if admin11 istrative funding levels are set separately from

12 benefit funding by law or regulation);

13 (C) includes the services portion of a pro14 gram that provides both direct cash payments

15 and services; and

16 (D) does not include a direct spending pro17 gram (as defined under the Budget Enforce18 ment Act of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 900(c)(8)).

19 (2) the term ‘‘eligible State, local, or tribal gov20 ernment’’ means a State, local, or tribal government

21 that is eligible to receive financial assistance under

22 one or more eligible Federal financial assistance pro23 grams;

24 (3) the term ‘‘local government’’ means—
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1 (A) a subdivision of a State that is a unit

2 of general local government (as defined under

3 section 6501 of title 31, United States Code);

4 (B) any combination of political subdivi5 sions described in subparagraph (A) recognized

6 by the Council; and

7 (C) local education agencies (as defined

8 under section 8801(18) of title 20, United

9 States Code);

10 (4) the term ‘‘qualified organization’’ means a

11 private, nonprofit organization described in section

12 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that

13 is exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of the

14 Internal Revenue Code of 1986;

15 (5) the term ‘‘State’’ means each of the 50

16 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Amer17 ican Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands;

18 (6) the term ‘‘qualified consortium’’ means a

19 group that—

20 (A) is composed of any combination of

21 qualified organizations, State agencies, or local

22 agencies that receive federally appropriated

23 funds, and
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1 (B) includes representatives from not less

2 than three organizations providing services in

3 not less than three of the following areas:

4 (i) Education.

5 (ii) Head Start.

6 (iii) Child care.

7 (iv) Family support and preservation.

8 (v) Maternal and child health.

9 (vi) Job training.

10 (vii) Housing.

11 (viii) Nutrition.

12 (ix) Juvenile justice.

13 (x) Drug abuse prevention and treat14 ment; and

15 (7) the term ‘‘tribal government’’ means the

16 governing entity of an Indian tribe as defined in the

17 Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994

18 (25 U.S.C. 479a), and any amendments to such Act.

19 SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF FEDERAL COORDINATION

20 COUNCIL.

21 (a) The President shall designate a Federal Coordi22 nation Council, in this Act referred to as ‘‘Council’’, com23 posed of the following:

24 (1) The Secretary of the Treasury.

25 (2) The Attorney General.
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1 (3) The Secretary of the Interior.

2 (4) The Secretary of Agriculture.

3 (5) The Secretary of Commerce.

4 (6) The Secretary of Labor.

5 (7) The Secretary of Health and Human Serv6 ices.

7 (8) The Secretary of Housing and Urban Devel8 opment.

9 (9) The Secretary of Transportation.

10 (10) The Secretary of Education.

11 (11) The Secretary of Energy.

12 (12) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

13 (13) The Secretary of Defense.

14 (14) The Director of the Federal Emergency

15 Management Agency.

16 (15) The Administrator of the Environmental

17 Protection Agency.

18 (16) The Director of National Drug Control

19 Policy.

20 (17) The Administrator of the Small Business

21 Administration.

22 (18) The Director of the Office of Management

23 and Budget.

24 (19) The Administrator of the General Services

25 Administration.
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1 (20) The Chair, Council of Economic Advisers.

2 (21) The Assistant to the President for Domes3 tic Policy.

4 (22) The Assistant to the President for Eco5 nomic Policy.

6 (23) Any additional members appointed at the

7 discretion of the President.

8 (b) The President shall designate the Chair of the

9 Council from among the members of the Council.

10 (c) The Council shall perform the following functions:

11 (1) Review regulations governing eligible Fed12 eral financial assistance programs in the areas listed

13 in section 4(1)(A) and identify more efficient oper14 ation and coordination of such programs.

15 (2) Coordinate and assist Federal agencies in

16 eliminating, revising, and coordinating regulations,

17 including regulations with respect to the blending of

18 funds.

19 (3) Coordinate and assist Federal agencies in

20 creating an application to be used to apply for as21 sistance from eligible Federal financial assistance

22 programs in the areas listed in section 4(1)(A).

23 (4) Coordinate and assist Federal agencies in

24 creating a release form to be used by a client to au25 thorize or prohibit service providers, including
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1 schools, from sharing information across eligible

2 Federal financial assistance programs.

3 (5) Coordinate and assist agencies in creating a

4 system wherein an organization or consortium of or5 ganizations may use one proposal to apply for fund6 ing from multiple eligible Federal financial assist7 ance programs.

8 (6) Evaluate current performance standards

9 and evaluation criteria for eligible Federal financial

10 assistance programs, and make specific rec11 ommendations to Federal agencies regarding how to

12 revise such standards and criteria in order to estab13 lish specific and measurable performance and out14 come measures by which program success may be

15 judged and future funding decisions made.

16 (7) Ensure that Federal grants program cri17 teria award priority funding to qualified consortia.

18 (8) Establish interagency teams comprised of

19 staff from the agencies that administer the covered

20 federal financial assistance programs to provide

21 training and technical assistance to assist program

22 coordination.

23 (9) Establish interagency teams to provide out24 come-based, cross-program evaluation of coordinated

25 programs.
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1 (10) Identify not less than ten qualified consor2 tia to participate in a demonstration program to de3 termine the benefits of the following accountability

4 procedures:

5 (A) The qualified consortium shall select

6 program goals from a set of specific and meas7 urable goals identified by the State in which the

8 members of the consortium are located.

9 (B) The qualified consortium shall develop

10 a flexibility and coordination plan to describe—

11 (i) how the consortium will attain

12 these goals;

13 (ii) how performance will be meas14 ured; and

15 (iii) how the consortium will identify

16 subgroups within the community, and col17 lect and maintain data to measure the im18 pact of the plan on individuals, the

19 subgroups, and the community.

20 SEC. 6. INCENTIVES TO FORM CONSORTIA.

21 (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, mem22 bers of a qualified consortium shall be exempted, without

23 any waiver application or approval, but subject to prior

24 notification to the agency administering the affected Fed25 eral assistance programs, from meeting requirements or
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1 providing services which are met or performed by another

2 member of the consortium, so long as the standards of

3 the requirement or service are met by that other member

4 of the consortium.

5 (b) Any funds which each individual program saves

6 from the program coordination described in subsection (a)

7 may be retained by the consortium in a flexible account.

8 Flexible account funds may be used to expand, improve,

9 or otherwise augment services provided by the consortium,

10 consistent with the intent of Federal programs managed

11 by consortium members, including data systems develop12 ment and joint professional development with staff from

13 other consortium members.

14 (c) Any agency or organization that is a member of

15 a consortium may at its discretion set aside a maximum

16 of 10 percent of its Federal funds in the flexible account

17 described in subsection (b).

18 (d) The flexible account described in subsection (b)

19 shall be administered in accordance with a memorandum

20 of understanding agreed to by each member of the consor21 tium.

22 (e) The Federal agencies with jurisdiction over Fed23 eral financial assistance programs included in a consor24 tium may designate a cognizant agency to audit flexible

25 fund expenditures.
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