106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 468

AN ACT

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,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Financial As5 sistance Management Improvement Act of 1999’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 Congress finds that—

3 (1) there are over 600 different Federal finan4 cial assistance programs to implement domestic pol5 icy;

6 (2) while the assistance described in paragraph

7 (1) has been directed at critical problems, some Fed8 eral administrative requirements may be duplicative,

9 burdensome or conflicting, thus impeding cost-effec10 tive delivery of services at the local level;

11 (3) the Nation’s State, local, and tribal govern12 ments and private, nonprofit organizations are deal13 ing with increasingly complex problems which re14 quire the delivery and coordination of many kinds of

15 services; and

16 (4) streamlining and simplification of Federal

17 financial assistance administrative procedures and

18 reporting requirements will improve the delivery of

19 services to the public.

20 SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

21 The purposes of this Act are to—

22 (1) improve the effectiveness and performance

23 of Federal financial assistance programs;

24 (2) simplify Federal financial assistance appli25 cation and reporting requirements;
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1 (3) improve the delivery of services to the pub2 lic; and

3 (4) facilitate greater coordination among those

4 responsible for delivering such services.

5 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

6 In this Act:

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

8 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg9 et.

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

11 agency’’ means any agency as defined under section

12 551(1) of title 5, United States Code.

13 (3) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—The

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

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

16 United States Code, under which Federal financial

17 assistance is provided, directly or indirectly, to a

18 non-Federal entity.

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

20 government’’ means a political subdivision of a State

21 that is a unit of general local government (as de22 fined under section 7501(a)(11) of title 31, United

23 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.—Except as provided under sub13 section (b), not later than 36 months after the date of

14 enactment of this Act, each Federal agency shall develop

15 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 an agency is unable to comply

24 with the requirements of subsection (a)(5), the Director

25 may extend the period for the agency to develop and im-
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1 plement a plan that allows applicants to electronically

2 apply for, and report on the use of, funds from Federal

3 financial assistance programs administered by the agency

4 to October 31, 2003.

5 (c) COMMENT AND CONSULTATION ON AGENCY

6 PLANS.—

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

8 plan developed under subsection (a) in the Federal

9 Register and shall receive public comment of the

10 plan through the Federal Register and other means

11 (including electronic means). To the maximum ex12 tent practicable, each Federal agency shall hold pub13 lic forums on the plan.

14 (2) CONSULTATION.—The lead official des15 ignated under subsection (a)(4) shall consult with

16 representatives of non-Federal entities during devel17 opment and implementation of the plan. Consulta18 tion with representatives of State, local, and tribal

19 governments shall be in accordance with section 204

20 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2

21 U.S.C. 1534).

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

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

24 the Director and Congress and report annually thereafter

25 on the implementation of the plan and performance of the
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1 agency in meeting the goals and objectives specified under

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

3 of any of the general management reports required under

4 law.

5 SEC. 6. DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR.

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

7 agency heads and representatives of non-Federal entities,

8 shall direct, coordinate, and assist Federal agencies in

9 establishing—

10 (1) a common application and reporting system,

11 including—

12 (A) a common application or set of com13 mon applications, wherein a non-Federal entity

14 can apply for Federal financial assistance from

15 multiple Federal financial assistance programs

16 that serve similar purposes and are adminis17 tered by different Federal agencies;

18 (B) a common system, including electronic

19 processes, wherein a non-Federal entity can

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

21 funding from multiple Federal financial assist22 ance programs that serve similar purposes and

23 are administered by different Federal agencies;

24 and
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1 (C) uniform administrative rules for Fed2 eral financial assistance programs across dif3 ferent Federal agencies; and

4 (2) an interagency process for addressing—

5 (A) ways to streamline and simplify Fed6 eral financial assistance administrative proce7 dures and reporting requirements for non-Fed8 eral entities;

9 (B) improved interagency and intergovern10 mental coordination of information collection

11 and sharing of data pertaining to Federal fi12 nancial assistance programs, including appro13 priate information sharing consistent with sec14 tion 552a of title 5, United States Code; and

15 (C) improvements in the timeliness, com16 pleteness, and quality of information received

17 by Federal agencies from recipients of Federal

18 financial assistance.

19 (b) LEAD AGENCY AND WORKING GROUPS.—The Di20 rector may designate a lead agency to assist the Director

21 in carrying out the responsibilities under this section. The

22 Director may use interagency working groups to assist in

23 carrying out such responsibilities.

24 (c) REVIEW OF PLANS AND REPORTS.—Upon the re25 quest of the Director, agencies shall submit to the Direc-
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1 tor, for the Director’s review, information and other re2 porting regarding agency implementation of this Act.

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

4 Federal agency or Federal financial assistance program

5 from the requirements of this Act if the Director deter6 mines that the Federal agency does not have a significant

7 number of Federal financial assistance programs. The Di8 rector shall maintain a list of exempted agencies which

9 shall be available to the public through the Office of Man10 agement and Budget’s Internet site.

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

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

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

14 containing recommendations for changes in law to improve

15 the effectiveness, performance, and coordination of Fed16 eral financial assistance programs.

17 (f) DEADLINE.—All actions required under this sec18 tion shall be carried out not later than 18 months after

19 the date of enactment of this Act.

20 SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—The General Accounting Office

22 shall evaluate the effectiveness of this Act. Not later than

23 6 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the evalua24 tion shall be submitted to the lead agency, the Director,

25 and Congress. The evaluation shall be performed with
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1 input from State, local, and tribal governments, and non2 profit organizations.

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

4 shall—

5 (1) assess the effectiveness of this Act in meet6 ing the purposes of this Act and make specific rec7 ommendations to further the implementation of this

8 Act;

9 (2) evaluate actual performance of each agency

10 in achieving the goals and objectives stated in agen11 cy plans; and

12 (3) assess the level of coordination among the

13 Director, Federal agencies, State, local, and tribal

14 governments, and nonprofit organizations in imple15 menting this Act.

16 SEC. 8. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.

17 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent the

18 Director or any Federal agency from gathering, or to ex19 empt any recipient of Federal financial assistance from

20 providing, information that is required for review of the

21 financial integrity or quality of services of an activity as22 sisted by a Federal financial assistance program.

23 SEC. 9. JUDICIAL REVIEW.

24 There shall be no judicial review of compliance or

25 noncompliance with any of the provisions of this Act. No
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1 provision of this Act shall be construed to create any right

2 or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by any

3 administrative or judicial action.

4 SEC. 10. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS.

5 Nothing in this Act shall be construed as a means

6 to deviate from the statutory requirements relating to ap7 plicable Federal financial assistance programs.

8 SEC. 11. EFFECTIVE DATE AND SUNSET.

9 This Act shall take effect on the date of enactment

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

11 such date of enactment.

Passed the Senate July 15, 1999.

Attest:

Secretary.
106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 468

AN ACT

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