II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 468

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, and Mr. DURBIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to

the Committee on Governmental Affairs

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,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

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

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) there are over 600 different Federal finan2 cial assistance programs to implement domestic pol3 icy;

4 (2) while the assistance described in paragraph

5 (1) has been directed at critical problems, some Fed6 eral administrative requirements may be duplicative,

7 burdensome or conflicting, thus impeding cost-effec8 tive delivery of services at the local level;

9 (3) the Nation’s State, local, and tribal govern10 ments and private, nonprofit organizations are deal11 ing with increasingly complex problems which re12 quire the delivery and coordination of many kinds of

13 services; and

14 (4) streamlining and simplification of Federal

15 financial assistance administrative procedures and

16 reporting requirements will improve the delivery of

17 services to the public.

18 SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

19 The purposes of this Act are to—

20 (1) improve the effectiveness and performance

21 of Federal financial assistance programs;

22 (2) simplify Federal financial assistance appli23 cation and reporting requirements;

24 (3) improve the delivery of services to the pub25 lic; and
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1 (4) facilitate greater coordination among those

2 responsible for delivering such services.

3 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

4 In this Act:

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

6 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg7 et.

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

9 agency’’ means any agency as defined under section

10 551(1) of title 5, United States Code.

11 (3) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—The

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

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

14 United States Code, under which Federal financial

15 assistance is provided, directly or indirectly, to a

16 non-Federal entity.

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

18 government’’ means a political subdivision of a State

19 that is a unit of general local government (as de20 fined under section 7501(a)(11) of title 31, United

21 States Code);

22 (5) NON-FEDERAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘non23 Federal entity’’ means a State, local government, or

24 nonprofit organization.
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1 (6) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.—The term

2 ‘‘nonprofit organization’’ means any corporation,

3 trust, association, cooperative, or other organization

4 that—

5 (A) is operated primarily for scientific,

6 educational, service, charitable, or similar pur7 poses in the public interest;

8 (B) is not organized primarily for profit;

9 and

10 (C) uses net proceeds to maintain, im11 prove, or expand the operations of the organiza12 tion.

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

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

15 the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Is16 lands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth

17 of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust

18 Territory of the Pacific Islands, and any instrumen19 tality thereof, any multi-State, regional, or interstate

20 entity which has governmental functions, and any

21 Indian Tribal Government.

22 (8) TRIBAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘tribal

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

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

25 States Code.
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1 (9) UNIFORM ADMINISTRATIVE RULE.—The

2 term ‘‘uniform administrative rule’’ means a Govern3 ment-wide uniform rule for any generally applicable

4 requirement established to achieve national policy

5 objectives that applies to multiple Federal financial

6 assistance programs across Federal agencies.

7 SEC. 5. DUTIES OF FEDERAL AGENCIES.

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months after

9 the date of enactment of this Act, each Federal agency

10 shall develop and implement a plan that—

11 (1) streamlines and simplifies the application,

12 administrative, and reporting procedures for Federal

13 financial assistance programs administered by the

14 agency;

15 (2) demonstrates active participation in the

16 interagency process under section 6(a)(2);

17 (3) demonstrates appropriate agency use, or

18 plans for use, of the common application and report19 ing system developed under section 6(a)(1);

20 (4) designates a lead agency official for carry21 ing out the responsibilities of the agency under this

22 Act;

23 (5) allows applicants to electronically apply for,

24 and report on the use of, funds from the Federal fi-
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1 nancial assistance program administered by the

2 agency;

3 (6) ensures recipients of Federal financial as4 sistance provide timely, complete, and high quality

5 information in response to Federal reporting re6 quirements; and

7 (7) establishes specific annual goals and objec8 tives to further the purposes of this Act and meas9 ure annual performance in achieving those goals and

10 objectives, which may be done as part of the agen11 cy’s annual planning responsibilities under the Gov12 ernment Performance and Results Act of 1993

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

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

15 to comply with the requirements of subsection (a), the Di16 rector shall report to the Committee on Governmental Af17 fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Government Re18 form of the House of Representatives the reasons for non19 compliance. After consultation with such committees, the

20 Director may extend the period for plan development and

21 implementation for each noncompliant agency for up to

22 12 months.

23 (c) COMMENT AND CONSULTATION ON AGENCY

24 PLANS.—
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1 (1) COMMENT.—Each agency shall publish the

2 plan developed under subsection (a) in the Federal

3 Register and shall receive public comment of the

4 plan through the Federal Register and other means

5 (including electronic means). To the maximum ex6 tent practicable, each Federal agency shall hold pub7 lic forums on the plan.

8 (2) CONSULTATION.—The lead official des9 ignated under subsection (a)(4) shall consult with

10 representatives of non-Federal entities during devel11 opment and implementation of the plan. Consulta12 tion with representatives of State, local, and tribal

13 governments shall be in accordance with section 204

14 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2

15 U.S.C. 1534).

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

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

18 the Director and Congress and report annually thereafter

19 on the implementation of the plan and performance of the

20 agency in meeting the goals and objectives specified under

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

22 of any of the general management reports required under

23 law.
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1 SEC. 6. DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR.

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

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

4 shall direct, coordinate, and assist Federal agencies in

5 establishing—

6 (1) a common application and reporting system,

7 including—

8 (A) a common application or set of com9 mon applications, wherein a non-Federal entity

10 can apply for Federal financial assistance from

11 multiple Federal financial assistance programs

12 that serve similar purposes and are adminis13 tered by different Federal agencies;

14 (B) a common system, including electronic

15 processes, wherein a non-Federal entity can

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

17 funding from multiple Federal financial assist18 ance programs that serve similar purposes and

19 are administered by different Federal agencies;

20 and

21 (C) uniform administrative rules for Fed22 eral financial assistance programs across dif23 ferent Federal agencies; and

24 (2) an interagency process for addressing—

25 (A) ways to streamline and simplify Fed26 eral financial assistance administrative proce-
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1 dures and reporting requirements for non-Fed2 eral entities;

3 (B) improved interagency and intergovern4 mental coordination of information collection

5 and sharing of data pertaining to Federal fi6 nancial assistance programs, including appro7 priate information sharing consistent with sec8 tion 552a of title 5, United States Code; and

9 (C) improvements in the timeliness, com10 pleteness, and quality of information received

11 by Federal agencies from recipients of Federal

12 financial assistance.

13 (b) LEAD AGENCY AND WORKING GROUPS.—The Di14 rector may designate a lead agency to assist the Director

15 in carrying out the responsibilities under this section. The

16 Director may use interagency working groups to assist in

17 carrying out such responsibilities.

18 (c) REVIEW OF PLANS AND REPORTS.—Upon the re19 quest of the Director, agencies shall submit to the Direc20 tor, for the Director’s review, information and other re21 porting regarding agency implementation of this Act.

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

23 Federal agency or Federal financial assistance program

24 from the requirements of this Act if the Director deter25 mines that the Federal agency does not have a significant
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1 number of Federal financial assistance programs. The Di2 rector shall maintain a list of exempted agencies which

3 shall be available to the public through the Office of Man4 agement and Budget’s Internet site.

5 SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

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

7 designated under section 6(b)) shall contract with the Na8 tional Academy of Public Administration to evaluate the

9 effectiveness of this Act. Not later than 4 years after the

10 date of enactment of this Act, the evaluation shall be sub11 mitted to the lead agency, the Director, and Congress. The

12 evaluation shall be performed with input from State, local,

13 and tribal governments, 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 years after

23 such date of enactment.

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