I

105TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1642

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 13, 1998

Referred to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight

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 1998’’.
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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

2 The 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) to simplify Federal financial assistance ap25 plication and reporting requirements;
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1 (3) to improve the delivery of services to the

2 public; and

3 (4) to facilitate greater coordination among

4 those 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.—Not later than 18 months after

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

14 shall develop and implement a plan that—

15 (1) streamlines and simplifies the application,

16 administrative, and reporting procedures for Federal

17 financial assistance programs administered by the

18 agency;

19 (2) demonstrates active participation in the

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

21 (3) demonstrates appropriate agency use, or

22 plans for use, of the common application and report23 ing system developed under section 6(a)(1);
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1 (4) designates a lead agency official for carry2 ing out the responsibilities of the agency under this

3 Act;

4 (5) allows applicants to electronically apply for,

5 and report on the use of, funds from the Federal fi6 nancial assistance program administered by the

7 agency;

8 (6) ensures recipients of Federal financial as9 sistance provide timely, complete, and high quality

10 information in response to Federal reporting re11 quirements; and

12 (7) establishes specific annual goals and objec13 tives to further the purposes of this Act and meas14 ure annual performance in achieving those goals and

15 objectives, which may be done as part of the agen16 cy’s annual planning responsibilities under the Gov17 ernment Performance and Results Act.

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

19 to comply with the requirements of subsection (a), the Di20 rector shall report to the Committee on Governmental Af21 fairs of the Senate and the Committee on Government Re22 form and Oversight of the House of Representatives the

23 reasons for noncompliance. After consultation with such

24 committees, the Director may extend the period for plan
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1 development and implementation for each noncompliant

2 agency for up to 12 months.

3 (c) COMMENT AND CONSULTATION ON AGENCY

4 PLANS.—

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

6 plan developed under subsection (a) in the Federal

7 Register and shall receive public comment of the

8 plan through the Federal Register and other means

9 (including electronic means). To the maximum ex10 tent practicable, each Federal agency shall hold pub11 lic forums on the plan.

12 (2) CONSULTATION.—The lead official des13 ignated under subsection (a)(4) shall consult with

14 representatives of non-Federal entities during devel15 opment and implementation of the plan. Consulta16 tion with representatives of State, local, and tribal

17 governments shall be in accordance with section 204

18 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (2

19 U.S.C. 1534).

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

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

22 the Director and Congress and report annually thereafter

23 on the implementation of the plan and performance of the

24 agency in meeting the goals and objectives specified under

25 subsection (a)(7). Such report may be included as part
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1 of any of the general management reports required under

2 law.

3 SEC. 6. DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR.

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

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

6 shall direct, coordinate and assist Federal agencies in es7 tablishing:

8 (1) A common application and reporting sys9 tem, including—

10 (A) a common application or set of com11 mon applications, wherein a non-Federal entity

12 can apply for Federal financial assistance from

13 multiple Federal financial assistance programs

14 that serve similar purposes and are adminis15 tered by different Federal agencies;

16 (B) a common system, including electronic

17 processes, wherein a non-Federal entity can

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

19 funding from multiple Federal financial assist20 ance programs that serve similar purposes and

21 are administered by different Federal agencies;

22 and

23 (C) uniform administrative rules for Fed24 eral financial assistance programs across dif25 ferent Federal agencies.
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1 (2) An interagency process for addressing—

2 (A) ways to streamline and simplify Fed3 eral financial assistance administrative proce4 dures and reporting requirements for non-Fed5 eral entities;

6 (B) improved interagency and intergovern7 mental coordination of information collection

8 and sharing of data pertaining to Federal fi9 nancial assistance programs, including appro10 priate information sharing consistent with the

11 Privacy Act of 1974; and

12 (C) improvements in the timeliness, com13 pleteness, and quality of information received

14 by Federal agencies from recipients of Federal

15 financial assistance.

16 (b) LEAD AGENCY AND WORKING GROUPS.—The Di17 rector may designate a lead agency to assist the Director

18 in carrying out the responsibilities under this section. The

19 Director may use interagency working groups to assist in

20 carrying out such responsibilities.

21 (c) REVIEW OF PLANS AND REPORTS.—Agencies

22 shall submit to the Director, upon his request and for his

23 review, information and other reporting regarding their

24 implementation of this Act.
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1 (d) EXEMPTIONS.—The Director may exempt any

2 Federal agency or Federal financial assistance program

3 from the requirements of this Act if the Director deter4 mines that the Federal agency does not have a significant

5 number of Federal financial assistance programs. The Di6 rector shall maintain a list of exempted agencies which

7 will be available to the public through OMB’s Internet

8 site.

9 SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

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

11 designated under section 6(b)) shall contract with the Na12 tional Academy of Public Administration to evaluate the

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

14 date of enactment of this Act, the evaluation shall be sub15 mitted to the lead agency, the Director, and Congress. The

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

17 and tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations.

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

19 shall—

20 (1) assess the effectiveness of this Act in meet21 ing the purposes of this Act and make specific rec22 ommendations to further the implementation of this

23 Act;
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1 (2) evaluate actual performance of each agency

2 in achieving the goals and objectives stated in agen3 cy plans;

4 (3) assess the level of coordination among the

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

6 governments, and nonprofit organizations in imple7 menting this Act.

8 SEC. 8. COLLECTION OF INFORMATION.

9 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent the

10 Director or any Federal agency from gathering, or to ex11 empt any recipient of Federal financial assistance from

12 providing, information that is required for review of the

13 financial integrity or quality of services of an activity as14 sisted by a Federal financial assistance program.

15 SEC. 9. JUDICIAL REVIEW.

16 There shall be no judicial review of compliance or

17 noncompliance with any of the provisions of this Act. No

18 provision of this Act shall be construed to create any right

19 or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by any

20 administrative or judicial action.

21 SEC. 10. STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS.

22 Nothing in this Act shall be construed as a means

23 to deviate from the statutory requirements relating to ap24 plicable Federal financial assistance programs.
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1 SEC. 11. EFFECTIVE DATE AND SUNSET.

2 This Act shall take effect on the date of enactment

3 of this Act and shall cease to be effective five years after

4 such date of enactment.

Passed the Senate October 12 (legislative day, October 2), 1998.

Attest: GARY SISCO,

Secretary.