II

105TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1642

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 12, 1998

Mr. GLENN (for himself, Mr. THOMPSON, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. LIEBERMAN, and

Mr. AKAKA) 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. TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Financial As5 sistance Management Improvement Act of 1998’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 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) State, local, and tribal governments and pri10 vate, nonprofit organizations are dealing with in11 creasingly complex problems that require the deliv12 ery and coordination of many kinds of services; and

13 (4) streamlining and simplification of Federal

14 financial assistance administrative procedures and

15 reporting requirements will improve the delivery of

16 services to the public.

17 SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

18 The purposes of this Act are to—

19 (1) improve the effectiveness and performance

20 of Federal financial assistance programs;

21 (2) simplify Federal financial assistance appli22 cation and reporting requirements;

23 (3) improve the delivery of services to the pub24 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) COMMON RULE.—The term ‘‘common rule’’

6 means a government-wide uniform rule for any gen7 erally applicable requirement established to achieve

8 national policy objectives that applies to multiple

9 Federal financial assistance programs across Federal

10 agencies.

11 (2) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means

12 the Director of the Office of Management and Budg13 et.

14 (3) FEDERAL AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Federal

15 agency’’ means any agency as defined under section

16 551(1) of title 5, United States Code.

17 (4) FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PRO18 GRAM.—The term ‘‘Federal financial assistance pro19 gram’’ means a domestic assistance program (as de20 fined under section 6101(4) of title 31, United

21 States Code) under which financial assistance is

22 available, directly or indirectly, to a State, local, or

23 tribal government or a qualified organization to

24 carry out activities consistent with national policy

25 goals.
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1 (5) LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘local

2 government’’ means—

3 (A) a political subdivision of a State that

4 is a unit of general local government (as de5 fined under section 6501(10) of title 31, United

6 States Code);

7 (B) any combination of political subdivi8 sions described in subparagraph (A); or

9 (C) a local educational agency as defined

10 under section 14101(18) of the Elementary and

11 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.

12 8801(18)).

13 (6) QUALIFIED ORGANIZATION.—The term

14 ‘‘qualified organization’’ means a private, nonprofit

15 organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the

16 Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that is exempt from

17 taxation under section 501(a) of the Internal Reve18 nue Code of 1986.

19 (7) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of

20 the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,

21 American Samoa, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.

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

23 government’’ means the governing entity of an In24 dian tribe, as that term is defined in the Indian Self
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1 Determination and Education Assistance Act (25

2 U.S.C. 450b).

3 SEC. 5. DUTIES OF THE DIRECTOR.

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

5 agency heads, shall direct, coordinate, and assist Federal

6 agencies in establishing—

7 (1) a uniform application, or set of uniform ap8 plications, to be used by an applicant to apply for

9 assistance from multiple Federal financial assistance

10 programs that serve similar purposes and are ad11 ministered by different Federal agencies;

12 (2) ways to streamline and simplify Federal fi13 nancial assistance administrative procedures and re14 porting requirements for grantees;

15 (3) a uniform system wherein an applicant may

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

17 from multiple Federal financial assistance programs

18 across different Federal agencies;

19 (4) a process for applicants to electronically

20 apply for, and report on the use of, funds from Fed21 eral financial assistance programs;

22 (5) use of common rules for multiple Federal fi23 nancial assistance programs across different Federal

24 agencies;
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1 (6) improved interagency and intergovernmental

2 coordination of information collection and sharing of

3 data pertaining to Federal financial assistance pro4 grams, including the development of a release form

5 to be used by grantees to facilitate the sharing of in6 formation across multiple Federal financial assist7 ance programs;

8 (7) a process to strengthen the information re9 sources management capacity of State, local, and

10 tribal governments and qualified organizations per11 taining to the administration of Federal financial as12 sistance programs; and

13 (8) specific annual goals and objectives to fur14 ther the purposes of this Act.

15 (b) ACTIONS CONSISTENT WITH STATUTORY RE16 QUIREMENTS.—The actions taken by the Director under

17 subsection (a) shall be consistent with statutory require18 ments relating to any applicable Federal financial assist19 ance program.

20 (c) LEAD AGENCY AND WORKING GROUPS.—The Di21 rector may designate a lead agency to assist the Director

22 in carrying out the responsibilities under this section. The

23 Director may use interagency working groups to assist in

24 carrying out such responsibilities.

25 (d) REVIEW OF PLANS AND REPORTS.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall—

2 (A) review agency plans and reports devel3 oped under section 6 for adequacy;

4 (B) monitor the annual performance of

5 each agency toward achieving the goals and ob6 jectives stated in the agency plan; and

7 (C) ensure that each agency plan does not

8 diminish standards to measure performance and

9 accountability of financial assistance programs.

10 (2) REPORT.—Not later than 3 years after the

11 date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall re12 port to Congress on implementation of this section.

13 Such a report may be included as part of any of the

14 general management reports required under law.

15 (e) EXEMPTIONS.—

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director may exempt

17 any Federal agency from the requirements of this

18 Act if the Director determines that the agency does

19 not have a significant number of Federal financial

20 assistance programs.

21 (2) AGENCIES EXEMPTED.—Not later than No22 vember 1 of each fiscal year, the Director shall sub23 mit to the Committee on Governmental Affairs of

24 the Senate and the Committee on Government Re-
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1 form and Oversight of the House of Representa2 tives—

3 (A) a list of each agency exempted under

4 this subsection in the preceding fiscal year; and

5 (B) an explanation for each such exemp6 tion.

7 (f) GUIDANCE.—Not later than 120 days after the

8 date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall issue

9 guidance to Federal agencies on implementation of the re10 quirements of this Act. Such guidance shall include a

11 statement on the common rules that the Director intends

12 to review and standardize under this Act.

13 SEC. 6. DUTIES OF FEDERAL AGENCIES.

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

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

16 shall develop and implement a plan that—

17 (1) streamlines and simplifies the application,

18 administrative, and reporting procedures for each fi19 nancial assistance program administered by the

20 agency;

21 (2) demonstrates active participation in the

22 interagency process required the applicable provi23 sions of section 5(a);

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

25 of the uniform application (or set of applications)
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1 and system developed under section 5(a) (1) and

2 (3);

3 (4) designates a lead agency official for carry4 ing out the responsibilities of the agency under this

5 Act;

6 (5) allows applicants to electronically apply for,

7 and report on the use of, funds from the Federal fi8 nancial assistance program administered by the

9 agency;

10 (6) strengthens the information resources man11 agement capacity of State, local and tribal govern12 ments and qualified organizations pertaining to the

13 administration of the financial assistance program

14 administered by the agency; and

15 (7) in cooperation with State, local, and tribal

16 governments and qualified organizations, establishes

17 specific annual goals and objectives to further the

18 purposes of this Act and measure annual perform19 ance in achieving those goals and objectives.

20 (b) PLAN CONSISTENT WITH STATUTORY REQUIRE21 MENTS.—Each plan developed and implemented under

22 this section shall be consistent with statutory require23 ments relating to any applicable Federal financial assist24 ance program.
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1 (c) COMMENT AND CONSULTATION ON AGENCY

2 PLANS.—

3 (1) COMMENT.—Each Federal agency shall

4 publish the plan developed under subsection (a) in

5 the Federal Register and shall receive public com6 ment on the plan through the Federal Register and

7 other means (including electronic means). To the

8 maximum extent practicable, each Federal agency

9 shall hold public hearings or related public forums

10 on the plan.

11 (2) CONSULTATION.—The lead official des12 ignated under subsection (a)(4) shall consult regu13 larly with representatives of State, local and tribal

14 governments and qualified organizations during de15 velopment of the plan. Consultation with representa16 tives of State, local, and tribal governments shall be

17 in accordance with section 204 of the Unfunded

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

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

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

21 the Director and Congress and report annually thereafter

22 on the implementation of the plan and performance of the

23 agency in meeting the goals and objectives specified under

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

2 law.

3 SEC. 7. EVALUATION.

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

5 designated under section 5(c)) shall contract with the Na6 tional Academy of Public Administration to evaluate the

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

8 date of enactment of this Act the evaluation shall be sub9 mitted to the lead agency, the Director, and Congress.

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

11 shall—

12 (1) assess the effectiveness of this Act in meet13 ing the purposes of this Act and make specific rec14 ommendations to further the implementation of this

15 Act;

16 (2) evaluate actual performance of each agency

17 in achieving the goals and objectives stated in agen18 cy plans; and

19 (3) assess the level of coordination and coopera20 tion among the Director, Federal agencies, State,

21 local, and tribal governments, and qualified organi22 zations in implementing this Act.
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1 SEC. 8. 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 on and after

4 5 years after such date of enactment.

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