36144 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 126 / Wednesday July 1, 1998 / Rules and Regulations

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

34 CFR Parts 74 and 80

Administration of Grants and

Agreements With Institutions of Higher

Education, Hospitals, and Other NonProfit Organizations; and Uniform

Administrative Requirements for

Grants and Cooperative Agreements to

State and Local Governments

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Applicability of revised Office

of Management and Budget circulars A–

21, A–87, A–102, A–110, and A–122.

SUMMARY: The Secretary announces the

applicability of five revised Office of

Management and Budget (OMB)

circulars. These revised circulars

provide conditional exceptions from

certain regulatory requirements for the

Department of Education (ED) grant

programs. The Secretary takes this

action to promote efficiency in the State

and local program administration of

these programs.

DATES: The revised circulars are

applicable as of July 1, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Ronelle Holloman, U.S. Department of

Education, 600 Independence Avenue,

SW, Room 3652, ROB–3, Washington,

DC 20202–4248. Telephone: (202) 205–

3501. Individuals who use a

telecommunications device for the deaf

(TDD) may call the Federal Information

Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–800–877–8339

between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time,

Monday through Friday.

Individuals with disabilities may

obtain this document in an alternate

format (e.g., Braille, large print,

audiotape, or computer diskette) on

request to the contact person listed in

the preceding paragraph.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On August

29, 1997, OMB published in the Federal

Register (62 FR 45934) final revisions to

five OMB circulars. The five circulars

are A–21, ‘‘Cost Principles for

Educational Institutions’’; A–87, ‘‘Cost

Principles for State, Local, and Indian

Tribal Governments’’; A–102, ‘‘Grants

and Cooperative Agreements with State

and Local Governments’’; A–110,

‘‘Uniform Administrative Requirements

for Grants and Agreements with

Institutions of Higher Education,

Hospitals and Other Non-Profit

Organizations’’; and A–122, ‘‘Cost

Principles for Non-Profit

Organizations.’’ Now the Secretary of

ED announces the applicability of the

five revised circulars to the

Department’s grant programs.

These revisions to the circulars

provide a conditional exception from

the requirements of 34 CFR Part 74 and

a conditional class exception from the

requirements of 34 CFR Part 80 for

certain ED grant programs. The

programs to which these revisions can

apply are those formula grant programs

with statutorily-authorized consolidated

planning and consolidated

administrative funding that are

identified by ED and approved by the

Secretary.

The Secretary can apply the exception

to formula grant programs that are

administered by State and local

governments, and have the following

characteristics: the related programs (1)

serve a common program purpose, (2)

have specific statutorily-authorized

consolidated planning and consolidated

administrative funding, and (3) are

administered by State agencies that are

funded mostly by non-Federal sources.

To promote efficiency in the State and

local program administration of such

related programs, ED can exempt these

covered, State-administered programs

from Federal grants management

requirements in OMB Circulars A–21,

A–87, A–110 (34 CFR Part 74), and A–

122 and the Grants Management

Common Rule (34 CFR Part 80). The

exemptions are from all but the

allocability-of-costs provisions of

Circulars A–21 (Section C, subpart 4),

A–87 (Attachment A, subsection C.3),

A–122 (Attachment A, subsection A.4)

and from all of the administrative

requirements provisions of 34 CFR parts

74 and 80.

Thus, ED has discretion to exempt a

Federal formula grant program from the

Federal grants management

requirements. ED will consult with

OMB during its consideration of

whether to grant such an exemption.

If ED exempts a Federal formula grant

program from these requirements, a

State would be permitted to use only

State procedures, provided that the

State adopts its own written fiscal and

administrative requirements for

expending and accounting for all funds.

These requirements must be consistent

with the provisions of OMB Circular A–

87 and extend to all sub-recipients.

These fiscal and administrative

requirements must be sufficiently

specific to ensure that: funds are used

in compliance with all applicable

Federal statutory and regulatory

provisions; costs are reasonable and

necessary for operating these programs;

and funds are not used for general

expenses required to carry out other

responsibilities of a State or its subrecipients. If a State does not adopt such

fiscal and administrative requirements it

will continue to be subject to the

Federal grants management

requirements.

The Department of Education

implements OMB Circulars A–102 and

A–110 through regulations codified in

34 CFR Parts 80 and 74 respectively.

Because these regulations contain

sufficient discretion for ED to

implement OMB’s guidance, ED does

not need to amend these regulations.

In addition, ED adopts the changes to

OMB Circulars A–21, A–87 and A–122

that contain cost principles for

educational institutions, State and local

governments, and non-profit

organizations, respectively. These

circulars have been amended several

times over the years by OMB, and ED

has adopted these changes by

publishing notices in the Federal

Register. For a complete list of prior

amendments to these circulars adopted

by ED, please consult the following

Federal Register publications: for OMB

Circular A–21, May 8, 1996 (61 FR

20880); for Circular A–87, May 17, 1995

(60 FR 26484); and for Circular A–122,

May 14, 1997 (62 FR 26577).

The five circulars are available by

calling OMB’s Publication Office at

(202) 395–7332, or they can be obtained

in electronic form from the OMB Home

Page at (http://www.whitehouse.gov/

WH/EOP/omb).

Waiver of Notice and Comment

It is the practice of the Secretary to

offer interested parties the opportunity

to comment on proposed actions in

accordance with the Administrative

Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553). However,

since OMB previously provided the

public an opportunity for comment on

the revision of Circulars A–21, A–87, A–

102, A–110 and A–122, the Secretary

finds that soliciting further public

comment with respect to adopting the

revised circulars is unnecessary and

contrary to the public interest under 5

U.S.C. 553(b)(B). For the same reasons,

the Secretary waives the delayed

effective date for this action under 5

U.S.C. 553(d).

Electronic Access to This Document

Anyone may view this document, as

well as all other Department of

Education documents published in the

Federal Register, in text or portable

document format (pdf) on the World

Wide Web at either of the following

sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm

http://www.ed.gov/news.html

To use the pdf you must have the Adobe

Acrobat Reader Program with Search,

which is available free at either of the

previous sites. If you have questions
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 126 / Wednesday July 1, 1998 / Rules and Regulations 36145

about using the pdf, call the U.S.

Government Printing Office toll free at

1–888–293–6498.

Anyone may also view these

documents in text copy only on an

electronic bulletin board of the

Department. Telephone: (202) 219–1511

or, toll free, 1–800–222–4922. The

documents are located under Option

G—Files/Announcements, Bulletins and

Press Releases.

Note: The official version of this document

is the document published in the Federal

Register.

Dated: June 23, 1998.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

Number does not apply.)

Donald Rappaport,

Chief Financial and Chief Information

Officer.

[FR Doc. 98–17256 Filed 6–30–98; 8:45 am]

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