106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 468

AMENDMENT
In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

November 2, 1999.

Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 468) entitled

‘‘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’’, do pass with

the following

AMENDMENT:

Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert:

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 Congress finds that—

6 (1) there are over 600 different Federal financial

7 assistance programs to implement domestic policy;

8 (2) while the assistance described in paragraph

9 (1) has been directed at critical problems, some Fed10 eral administrative requirements may be duplicative,

11 burdensome or conflicting, thus impeding cost-effective

12 delivery of services at the local level;
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1 (3) the Nation’s State, local, and tribal govern2 ments and private, nonprofit organizations are deal3 ing with increasingly complex problems which require

4 the delivery and coordination of many kinds of serv5 ices; and

6 (4) streamlining and simplification of Federal

7 financial assistance administrative procedures and

8 reporting requirements will improve the delivery of

9 services to the public.

10 SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

11 The purposes of this Act are to—

12 (1) improve the effectiveness and performance of

13 Federal financial assistance programs;

14 (2) simplify Federal financial assistance appli15 cation and reporting requirements;

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

17 and

18 (4) facilitate greater coordination among those

19 responsible for delivering such services.

20 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

21 In this Act:

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

23 Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
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1 (2) FEDERAL AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal agen2 cy’’ means any agency as defined under section

3 551(1) of title 5, United States Code.

4 (3) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—The term

5 ‘‘Federal financial assistance’’ has the same meaning

6 as defined in section 7501(a)(5) of title 31, United

7 States Code, under which Federal financial assistance

8 is provided, directly or indirectly, to a non-Federal

9 entity.

10 (4) LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘local gov11 ernment’’ means a political subdivision of a State

12 that is a unit of general local government (as defined

13 under section 7501(a)(11) of title 31, United States

14 Code).

15 (5) NON-FEDERAL ENTITY.—The term ‘‘non-Fed16 eral entity’’ means a State, local government, or non17 profit organization.

18 (6) NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.—The term ‘‘non19 profit organization’’ means any corporation, trust,

20 association, cooperative, or other organization that—

21 (A) is operated primarily for scientific, edu22 cational, service, charitable, or similar purposes

23 in the public interest;

24 (B) is not organized primarily for profit;

25 and
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1 (C) uses net proceeds to maintain, improve,

2 or expand the operations of the organization.

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

4 of the United States, the District of Columbia, the

5 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands,

6 Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the

7 Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust Territory of

8 the Pacific Islands, and any instrumentality thereof,

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

10 has governmental functions, and any Indian Tribal

11 Government.

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

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

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

15 States Code.

16 (9) UNIFORM ADMINISTRATIVE RULE.—The term

17 ‘‘uniform administrative rule’’ means a Government18 wide uniform rule for any generally applicable re19 quirement established to achieve national policy objec20 tives that applies to multiple Federal financial assist21 ance programs across Federal agencies.

22 SEC. 5. DUTIES OF FEDERAL AGENCIES.

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided under sub24 section (b), not later than 18 months after the date of the
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1 enactment of this Act, each Federal agency shall develop

2 and implement a plan that—

3 (1) streamlines and simplifies the application,

4 administrative, and reporting procedures for Federal

5 financial assistance programs administered by the

6 agency;

7 (2) demonstrates active participation in the

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

9 (3) demonstrates appropriate agency use, or

10 plans for use, of the common application and report11 ing system developed under section 6(a)(1);

12 (4) designates a lead agency official for carrying

13 out the responsibilities of the agency under this Act;

14 (5) allows applicants to electronically apply for,

15 and report on the use of, funds from the Federal fi16 nancial assistance program administered by the agen17 cy;

18 (6) ensures recipients of Federal financial assist19 ance provide timely, complete, and high quality infor20 mation in response to Federal reporting requirements;

21 and

22 (7) in cooperation with recipients of Federal fi23 nancial assistance, establishes specific annual goals

24 and objectives to further the purposes of this Act and

25 measure annual performance in achieving those goals
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1 and objectives, which may be done as part of the

2 agency’s annual planning responsibilities under the

3 Government Performance and Results Act of 1993

4 (Public Law 103–62; 107 Stat. 285).

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

6 comply with subsection (a), the Director may extend for up

7 to 12 months the period for the agency to develop and im8 plement a plan in accordance with subsection (a).

9 (c) COMMENT AND CONSULTATION ON AGENCY

10 PLANS.—

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

12 plan developed under subsection (a) in the Federal

13 Register and shall receive public comment of the plan

14 through the Federal Register and other means (in15 cluding electronic means). To the maximum extent

16 practicable, each Federal agency shall hold public fo17 rums on the plan.

18 (2) CONSULTATION.—The lead official designated

19 under subsection (a)(4) shall consult with representa20 tives of non-Federal entities during development and

21 implementation of the plan. Consultation with rep22 resentatives of State, local, and tribal governments

23 shall be in accordance with section 204 of the Un24 funded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C.

25 1534).
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1 (d) SUBMISSION OF PLAN.—Each Federal agency shall

2 submit the plan developed under subsection (a) to the Direc3 tor and Congress and report annually thereafter on the im4 plementation of the plan and performance of the agency in

5 meeting the goals and objectives specified under subsection

6 (a)(7). Such report may be included as part of any of the

7 general management reports required under law.

8 SEC. 6. DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR.

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

10 agency heads and representatives of non-Federal entities,

11 shall direct, coordinate, and assist Federal agencies in

12 establishing—

13 (1) a common application and reporting system,

14 including—

15 (A) a common application or set of common

16 applications, wherein a non-Federal entity can

17 apply for Federal financial assistance from mul18 tiple Federal financial assistance programs that

19 serve similar purposes and are administered by

20 different Federal agencies;

21 (B) a common system, including electronic

22 processes, wherein a non-Federal entity can

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

24 funding from multiple Federal financial assist25 ance programs that serve similar purposes and
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1 are administered by different Federal agencies;

2 and

3 (C) uniform administrative rules for Fed4 eral financial assistance programs across dif5 ferent Federal agencies; and

6 (2) an interagency process for addressing—

7 (A) ways to streamline and simplify Fed8 eral financial assistance administrative proce9 dures and reporting requirements for non-Fed10 eral entities;

11 (B) improved interagency and intergovern12 mental coordination of information collection

13 and sharing of data pertaining to Federal finan14 cial assistance programs, including appropriate

15 information sharing consistent with section 552a

16 of title 5, United States Code; and

17 (C) improvements in the timeliness, com18 pleteness, and quality of information received by

19 Federal agencies from recipients of Federal fi20 nancial assistance.

21 (b) LEAD AGENCY AND WORKING GROUPS.—The Di22 rector may designate a lead agency to assist the Director

23 in carrying out the responsibilities under this section. The

24 Director may use interagency working groups to assist in

25 carrying out such responsibilities.
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1 (c) REVIEW OF PLANS AND REPORTS.—Upon the re2 quest of the Director, agencies shall submit to the Director,

3 for the Director’s review, information and other reporting

4 regarding agency implementation of this Act.

5 (d) EXEMPTIONS.—The Director may exempt any Fed6 eral agency or Federal financial assistance program from

7 the requirements of this Act if the Director determines that

8 the Federal agency does not have a significant number of

9 Federal financial assistance programs. The Director shall

10 maintain a list of exempted agencies which shall be avail11 able to the public through the Office of Management and

12 Budget’s Internet site.

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

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

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

16 containing recommendations for changes in law to improve

17 the effectiveness, performance, and coordination of Federal

18 financial assistance programs.

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

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

21 of the enactment of this Act.

22 SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

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

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

25 6 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the eval-
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1 uation shall be submitted to the lead agency, the Director,

2 and Congress. The evaluation shall be performed with input

3 from State, local, and tribal governments, and nonprofit or4 ganizations.

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

6 shall—

7 (1) assess the effectiveness of this Act in meeting

8 the purposes of this Act and make specific rec9 ommendations to further the implementation of this

10 Act;

11 (2) evaluate actual performance of each agency

12 in achieving the goals and objectives stated in agency

13 plans; and

14 (3) assess the level of coordination among the Di15 rector, Federal agencies, State, local, and tribal gov16 ernments, and nonprofit organizations in imple17 menting this Act.

18 SEC. 8. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.

19 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent the

20 Director or any Federal agency from gathering, or to ex21 empt any recipient of Federal financial assistance from

22 providing, information that is required for review of the

23 financial integrity or quality of services of an activity as24 sisted by a Federal financial assistance program.
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1 SEC. 9. JUDICIAL REVIEW.

2 There shall be no judicial review of compliance or non3 compliance with any of the provisions of this Act. No provi4 sion of this Act shall be construed to create any right or

5 benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by any ad6 ministrative or judicial action.

7 SEC. 10. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS.

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

9 deviate from the statutory requirements relating to applica10 ble Federal financial assistance programs.

11 SEC. 11. EFFECTIVE DATE AND SUNSET.

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

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

14 date of enactment.

Attest:

Clerk.