II

Calendar No. 199

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 468

[Report No. 106–103]

To improve the effectiveness and performance of Federal financial assistance

programs, simplify Federal financial assistance application and reporting

requirements, and improve the delivery of services to the public.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

FEBRUARY 25, 1999

Mr. VOINOVICH (for himself, Mr. THOMPSON, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Mr. DURBIN,

and Mrs. LINCOLN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice

and referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

JULY 1, 1999

Reported by Mr. THOMPSON, with amendments

[Omit the part struck through and insert the part printed in italic]

A BILL

To improve the effectiveness and performance of Federal

financial assistance programs, simplify Federal financial

assistance application and reporting requirements, and

improve the delivery of services to the public.

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

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Financial As3 sistance Management Improvement Act of 1999’’.

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

5 The Congress finds that—

6 (1) there are over 600 different Federal finan7 cial assistance programs to implement domestic pol8 icy;

9 (2) while the assistance described in paragraph

10 (1) has been directed at critical problems, some Fed11 eral administrative requirements may be duplicative,

12 burdensome or conflicting, thus impeding cost-effec13 tive delivery of services at the local level;

14 (3) the Nation’s State, local, and tribal govern15 ments and private, nonprofit organizations are deal16 ing with increasingly complex problems which re17 quire the delivery and coordination of many kinds of

18 services; and

19 (4) streamlining and simplification of Federal

20 financial assistance administrative procedures and

21 reporting requirements will improve the delivery of

22 services to the public.

23 SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

24 The purposes of this Act are to—

25 (1) improve the effectiveness and performance

26 of Federal financial assistance programs;
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1 (2) simplify Federal financial assistance appli2 cation and reporting requirements;

3 (3) improve the delivery of services to the pub4 lic; and

5 (4) facilitate greater coordination among those

6 responsible for delivering such services.

7 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

8 In this Act:

9 (1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means

10 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg11 et.

12 (2) FEDERAL AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal

13 agency’’ means any agency as defined under section

14 551(1) of title 5, United States Code.

15 (3) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—The

16 term ‘‘Federal financial assistance’’ has the same

17 meaning as defined in section 7501(a)(5) of title 31,

18 United States Code, under which Federal financial

19 assistance is provided, directly or indirectly, to a

20 non-Federal entity.

21 (4) LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘local

22 government’’ means a political subdivision of a State

23 that is a unit of general local government (as de24 fined under section 7501(a)(11) of title 31, United

25 States Code);.
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1 (5) NON-FEDERAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘non2 Federal entity’’ means a State, local government, or

3 nonprofit organization.

4 (6) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.—The term

5 ‘‘nonprofit organization’’ means any corporation,

6 trust, association, cooperative, or other organization

7 that—

8 (A) is operated primarily for scientific,

9 educational, service, charitable, or similar pur10 poses in the public interest;

11 (B) is not organized primarily for profit;

12 and

13 (C) uses net proceeds to maintain, im14 prove, or expand the operations of the organiza15 tion.

16 (7) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any

17 State of the United States, the District of Columbia,

18 the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Is19 lands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth

20 of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust

21 Territory of the Pacific Islands, and any instrumen22 tality thereof, any multi-State, regional, or interstate

23 entity which has governmental functions, and any

24 Indian Tribal Government.
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1 (8) TRIBAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘tribal

2 government’’ means an Indian tribe, as that term is

3 defined in section 7501(a)(9) of title 31, United

4 States Code.

5 (9) UNIFORM ADMINISTRATIVE RULE.—The

6 term ‘‘uniform administrative rule’’ means a Govern7 ment-wide uniform rule for any generally applicable

8 requirement established to achieve national policy

9 objectives that applies to multiple Federal financial

10 assistance programs across Federal agencies.

11 SEC. 5. DUTIES OF FEDERAL AGENCIES.

12 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not Except as provided under sub13 section (b), not later than 18 36 months after the date

14 of enactment of this Act, each Federal agency shall de15 velop and implement, including promulgation of rules and

16 amendments to existing collections of information, a plan

17 that—

18 (1) streamlines and simplifies the application,

19 administrative, and reporting procedures for Federal

20 financial assistance programs administered by the

21 agency;

22 (2) demonstrates active participation in the

23 interagency process under section 6(a)(2);
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1 (3) demonstrates appropriate agency use, or

2 plans for use, of the common application and report3 ing system developed under section 6(a)(1);

4 (4) designates a lead agency official for car5 rying out the responsibilities of the agency under

6 this Act;

7 (5) allows applicants to electronically apply for,

8 and report on the use of, funds from the Federal fi9 nancial assistance program administered by the

10 agency;

11 (6) ensures recipients of Federal financial as12 sistance provide timely, complete, and high quality

13 information in response to Federal reporting re14 quirements; and

15 (7) in cooperation with recipients of Federal fi16 nancial assistance, establishes specific annual goals

17 and objectives to further the purposes of this Act

18 and measure annual performance in achieving those

19 goals and objectives, which may be done as part of

20 the agency’s annual planning responsibilities under

21 the Government Performance and Results Act of

22 1993 (Public Law 103–62; 107 Stat. 285).

23 (b) EXTENSION.—If one or more agencies are unable

24 to comply with the requirements of subsection (a), the Di25 rector shall report to the Committee on Governmental Af-
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1 fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Government Re2 form of the House of Representatives the reasons for non3 compliance. After consultation with such committees, the

4 Director may extend the period for plan development and

5 implementation for each noncompliant agency for up to

6 12 months. If an agency is unable to comply with the re7 quirements of subsection (a)(5), the Director may extend the

8 period for the agency to develop and implement a plan that

9 allows applicants to electronically apply for, and report on

10 the use of, funds from Federal financial assistance pro11 grams administered by the agency to October 31, 2003.

12 (c) COMMENT AND CONSULTATION ON AGENCY

13 PLANS.—

14 (1) COMMENT.—Each agency shall publish the

15 plan developed under subsection (a) in the Federal

16 Register and shall receive public comment of the

17 plan through the Federal Register and other means

18 (including electronic means). To the maximum ex19 tent practicable, each Federal agency shall hold pub20 lic forums on the plan.

21 (2) CONSULTATION.—The lead official des22 ignated under subsection (a)(4) shall consult with

23 representatives of non-Federal entities during devel24 opment and implementation of the plan. Consulta25 tion with representatives of State, local, and tribal
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1 governments shall be in accordance with section 204

2 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2

3 U.S.C. 1534).

4 (d) SUBMISSION OF PLAN.—Each Federal agency

5 shall submit the plan developed under subsection (a) to

6 the Director and Congress and report annually thereafter

7 on the implementation of the plan and performance of the

8 agency in meeting the goals and objectives specified under

9 subsection (a)(7). Such report may be included as part

10 of any of the general management reports required under

11 law.

12 SEC. 6. DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR.

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director, in consultation with

14 agency heads, and representatives of non-Federal entities,

15 shall direct, coordinate, and assist Federal agencies in

16 establishing—

17 (1) a common application and reporting system,

18 including—

19 (A) a common application or set of com20 mon applications, wherein a non-Federal entity

21 can apply for Federal financial assistance from

22 multiple Federal financial assistance programs

23 that serve similar purposes and are adminis24 tered by different Federal agencies;
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1 (B) a common system, including electronic

2 processes, wherein a non-Federal entity can

3 apply for, manage, and report on the use of

4 funding from multiple Federal financial assist5 ance programs that serve similar purposes and

6 are administered by different Federal agencies;

7 and

8 (C) uniform administrative rules for Fed9 eral financial assistance programs across dif10 ferent Federal agencies; and

11 (2) an interagency process for addressing—

12 (A) ways to streamline and simplify Fed13 eral financial assistance administrative proce14 dures and reporting requirements for non-Fed15 eral entities;

16 (B) improved interagency and intergovern17 mental coordination of information collection

18 and sharing of data pertaining to Federal fi19 nancial assistance programs, including appro20 priate information sharing consistent with sec21 tion 552a of title 5, United States Code; and

22 (C) improvements in the timeliness, com23 pleteness, and quality of information received

24 by Federal agencies from recipients of Federal

25 financial assistance.
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1 (b) LEAD AGENCY AND WORKING GROUPS.—The Di2 rector may designate a lead agency to assist the Director

3 in carrying out the responsibilities under this section. The

4 Director may use interagency working groups to assist in

5 carrying out such responsibilities.

6 (c) REVIEW OF PLANS AND REPORTS.—Upon the re7 quest of the Director, agencies shall submit to the Direc8 tor, for the Director’s review, information and other re9 porting regarding agency implementation of this Act.

10 (d) EXEMPTIONS.—The Director may exempt any

11 Federal agency or Federal financial assistance program

12 from the requirements of this Act if the Director deter13 mines that the Federal agency does not have a significant

14 number of Federal financial assistance programs. The Di15 rector shall maintain a list of exempted agencies which

16 shall be available to the public through the Office of Man17 agement and Budget’s Internet site.

18 (e) REPORT ON RECOMMENDED CHANGES IN LAW.—

19 Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment

20 of this Act, the Director shall submit to Congress a report

21 containing recommendations for changes in law to improve

22 the effectiveness, performance, and coordination of Federal

23 financial assistance programs.
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1 (f) DEADLINE.—All actions required under this section

2 shall be carried out not later than 18 months after the date

3 of enactment of this Act.

4 SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director (or the lead agency

6 designated under section 6(b)) shall contract with the Na7 tional Academy of Public Administration to The General

8 Accounting Office shall evaluate the effectiveness of this

9 Act. Not later than 4 6 years after the date of enactment

10 of this Act, the evaluation shall be submitted to the lead

11 agency, the Director, and Congress. The evaluation shall

12 be performed with input from State, local, and tribal gov13 ernments, and nonprofit organizations.

14 (b) CONTENTS.—The evaluation under subsection (a)

15 shall—

16 (1) assess the effectiveness of this Act in meet17 ing the purposes of this Act and make specific rec18 ommendations to further the implementation of this

19 Act;

20 (2) evaluate actual performance of each agency

21 in achieving the goals and objectives stated in agen22 cy plans; and

23 (3) assess the level of coordination among the

24 Director, Federal agencies, State, local, and tribal
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1 governments, and nonprofit organizations in imple2 menting this Act.

3 SEC. 8. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.

4 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent the

5 Director or any Federal agency from gathering, or to ex6 empt any recipient of Federal financial assistance from

7 providing, information that is required for review of the

8 financial integrity or quality of services of an activity as9 sisted by a Federal financial assistance program.

10 SEC. 9. JUDICIAL REVIEW.

11 There shall be no judicial review of compliance or

12 noncompliance with any of the provisions of this Act. No

13 provision of this Act shall be construed to create any right

14 or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by any

15 administrative or judicial action.

16 SEC. 10. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS.

17 Nothing in this Act shall be construed as a means

18 to deviate from the statutory requirements relating to ap19 plicable Federal financial assistance programs.

20 SEC. 11. EFFECTIVE DATE AND SUNSET.

21 This Act shall take effect on the date of enactment

22 of this Act and shall cease to be effective 5 8 years after

23 such date of enactment.
Calendar No. 199

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 468

[Report No. 106–103]

A BILL

To improve the effectiveness and performance of

services to the public.porting requirements, and improve the delivery ofFederal financial assistance application and reFederal financial assistance programs, simplify

JULY 1, 1999

Reported with amendments