S. 468

One Hundred Sixth Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE FIRST SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,

the sixth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine

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.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of

the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Financial Assistance

Management Improvement Act of 1999’’.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds that—

(1) there are over 600 different Federal financial assistance

programs to implement domestic policy;

(2) while the assistance described in paragraph (1) has

been directed at critical problems, some Federal administrative

requirements may be duplicative, burdensome or conflicting,

thus impeding cost-effective delivery of services at the local

level;

(3) the Nation’s State, local, and tribal governments and

private, nonprofit organizations are dealing with increasingly

complex problems which require the delivery and coordination

of many kinds of services; and

(4) streamlining and simplification of Federal financial

assistance administrative procedures and reporting requirements will improve the delivery of services to the public.

SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

The purposes of this Act are to—

(1) improve the effectiveness and performance of Federal

financial assistance programs;

(2) simplify Federal financial assistance application and

reporting requirements;

(3) improve the delivery of services to the public; and

(4) facilitate greater coordination among those responsible

for delivering such services.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:

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

of the Office of Management and Budget.

(2) FEDERAL AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal agency’’ means

any agency as defined under section 551(1) of title 5, United

States Code.
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(3) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—The term ‘‘Federal

financial assistance’’ has the same meaning as defined in section 7501(a)(5) of title 31, United States Code, under which

Federal financial assistance is provided, directly or indirectly,

to a non-Federal entity.

(4) LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘local government’’

means a political subdivision of a State that is a unit of general

local government (as defined under section 7501(a)(11) of title

31, United States Code).

(5) NON-FEDERAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘non-Federal entity’’

means a State, local government, or nonprofit organization.

(6) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘‘nonprofit

organization’’ means any corporation, trust, association,

cooperative, or other organization that—

(A) is operated primarily for scientific, educational,

service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public

interest;

(B) is not organized primarily for profit; and

(C) uses net proceeds to maintain, improve, or expand

the operations of the organization.

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

United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth

of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa,

the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and any instrumentality

thereof, any multi-State, regional, or interstate entity which

has governmental functions, and any Indian Tribal Government.

(8) TRIBAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘tribal government’’

means an Indian tribe, as that term is defined in section

7501(a)(9) of title 31, United States Code.

(9) UNIFORM ADMINISTRATIVE RULE.—The term ‘‘uniform

administrative rule’’ means a Governmentwide uniform rule

for any generally applicable requirement established to achieve

national policy objectives that applies to multiple Federal financial assistance programs across Federal agencies.

SEC. 5. DUTIES OF FEDERAL AGENCIES.

(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided under subsection (b), not

later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act,

each Federal agency shall develop and implement a plan that—

(1) streamlines and simplifies the application, administrative, and reporting procedures for Federal financial assistance

programs administered by the agency;

(2) demonstrates active participation in the interagency

process under section 6(a)(2);

(3) demonstrates appropriate agency use, or plans for use,

of the common application and reporting system developed

under section 6(a)(1);

(4) designates a lead agency official for carrying out the

responsibilities of the agency under this Act;

(5) allows applicants to electronically apply for, and report

on the use of, funds from the Federal financial assistance

program administered by the agency;

(6) ensures recipients of Federal financial assistance provide timely, complete, and high quality information in response

to Federal reporting requirements; and
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(7) in cooperation with recipients of Federal financial assistance, establishes specific annual goals and objectives to further

the purposes of this Act and measure annual performance

in achieving those goals and objectives, which may be done

as part of the agency’s annual planning responsibilities under

the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (Public

Law 103–62; 107 Stat. 285).

(b) EXTENSION.—If a Federal agency is unable to comply with

subsection (a), the Director may extend for up to 12 months the

period for the agency to develop and implement a plan in accordance

with subsection (a).

(c) COMMENT AND CONSULTATION ON AGENCY PLANS.—

(1) COMMENT.—Each agency shall publish the plan developed under subsection (a) in the Federal Register and shall

receive public comment of the plan through the Federal Register

and other means (including electronic means). To the maximum

extent practicable, each Federal agency shall hold public forums

on the plan.

(2) CONSULTATION.—The lead official designated under subsection (a)(4) shall consult with representatives of non-Federal

entities during development and implementation of the plan.

Consultation with representatives of State, local, and tribal

governments shall be in accordance with section 204 of the

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1534).

(d) SUBMISSION OF PLAN.—Each Federal agency shall submit

the plan developed under subsection (a) to the Director and Congress and report annually thereafter on the implementation of

the plan and performance of the agency in meeting the goals and

objectives specified under subsection (a)(7). Such report may be

included as part of any of the general management reports required

under law.

SEC. 6. DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR.

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

heads and representatives of non-Federal entities, shall direct,

coordinate, and assist Federal agencies in establishing—

(1) a common application and reporting system, including—

(A) a common application or set of common applications, wherein a non-Federal entity can apply for Federal

financial assistance from multiple Federal financial assistance programs that serve similar purposes and are

administered by different Federal agencies;

(B) a common system, including electronic processes,

wherein a non-Federal entity can apply for, manage, and

report on the use of funding from multiple Federal financial

assistance programs that serve similar purposes and are

administered by different Federal agencies; and

(C) uniform administrative rules for Federal financial

assistance programs across different Federal agencies; and

(2) an interagency process for addressing—

(A) ways to streamline and simplify Federal financial

assistance administrative procedures and reporting requirements for non-Federal entities;

(B) improved interagency and intergovernmental

coordination of information collection and sharing of data

pertaining to Federal financial assistance programs,
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including appropriate information sharing consistent with

section 552a of title 5, United States Code; and

(C) improvements in the timeliness, completeness, and

quality of information received by Federal agencies from

recipients of Federal financial assistance.

(b) LEAD AGENCY AND WORKING GROUPS.—The Director may

designate a lead agency to assist the Director in carrying out

the responsibilities under this section. The Director may use interagency working groups to assist in carrying out such responsibilities.

(c) REVIEW OF PLANS AND REPORTS.—Upon the request of the

Director, agencies shall submit to the Director, for the Director’s

review, information and other reporting regarding agency

implementation of this Act.

(d) EXEMPTIONS.—The Director may exempt any Federal agency

or Federal financial assistance program from the requirements of

this Act if the Director determines that the Federal agency does

not have a significant number of Federal financial assistance programs. The Director shall maintain a list of exempted agencies

which shall be available to the public through the Office of Management and Budget’s Internet site.

(e) REPORT ON RECOMMENDED CHANGES IN LAW.—Not later

than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the

Director shall submit to Congress a report containing recommendations for changes in law to improve the effectiveness, performance,

and coordination of Federal financial assistance programs.

(f) DEADLINE.—All actions required under this section shall

be carried out not later than 18 months after the date of the

enactment of this Act.

SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

(a) IN GENERAL.—The General Accounting Office shall evaluate

the effectiveness of this Act. Not later than 6 years after the

date of the enactment of this Act, the evaluation shall be submitted

to the lead agency, the Director, and Congress. The evaluation

shall be performed with input from State, local, and tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations.

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

(1) assess the effectiveness of this Act in meeting the purposes of this Act and make specific recommendations to further

the implementation of this Act;

(2) evaluate actual performance of each agency in achieving

the goals and objectives stated in agency plans; and

(3) assess the level of coordination among the Director,

Federal agencies, State, local, and tribal governments, and

nonprofit organizations in implementing this Act.

SEC. 8. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent the Director

or any Federal agency from gathering, or to exempt any recipient

of Federal financial assistance from providing, information that

is required for review of the financial integrity or quality of services

of an activity assisted by a Federal financial assistance program.

SEC. 9. JUDICIAL REVIEW.

There shall be no judicial review of compliance or noncompliance with any of the provisions of this Act. No provision of this
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Act shall be construed to create any right or benefit, substantive

or procedural, enforceable by any administrative or judicial action.

SEC. 10. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed as a means to deviate

from the statutory requirements relating to applicable Federal

financial assistance programs.

SEC. 11. EFFECTIVE DATE AND SUNSET.

This Act shall take effect on the date of the enactment of

this Act and shall cease to be effective 8 years after such date

of enactment.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.