Emergency Justification Memo

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
WASHINGTON, D.C.

TO:

Alex Goodenough, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

FROM:

Ryan Law, Deputy Assistant Secretary
Office of Privacy, Transparency, and Records

SUBJECT:

Justification for Emergency Processing: Emergency Rental Assistance
Program 1505-0266

Pursuant to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) procedures established at 5 C.F.R. §
1320.13, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) requests emergency processing for a revision to
the Emergency Rental Assistance Program information collection request (1505-0266). The
revision requests approval for a new Redirected Funds form.
On December 27, 2020, the President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the
“Act”). Division N, Title V, Section 501(a)(1) of the Act provides $25 billion for the U.S.
Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to make payments to States (defined to include the District
of Columbia), U.S. Territories (Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands,
and American Samoa), Indian tribes or tribally designated housing entities, as applicable, the
Department of Hawaiian Homelands, and certain local governments with more than 200,000
residents (collectively the “eligible grantees”) to provide financial assistance and housing stability
services to eligible households.
Under the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, eligible local governments with more
than 200,000 residents may elect to receive an ERA award directly from Treasury. If an eligible
local government elected to receive an ERA award its allocation of award funds is deducted from
the award amount that their State would have otherwise received under the ERA program. Some
local governments that received an ERA award from Treasury have now decided to cancel their
ERA awards and want to directly transfer their award funds to their respective states for the States
to administer the ERA program. To facilitate this process and ensure that Treasury’s records
accurately reflects the cancellation of the local government’s ERA award, and the modification of
the State’s ERA award, local governments and its respective State must complete the Redirected
Funds Form and provide it with the relevant supporting documentation to Treasury.
Due to the need to expeditiously document the cancellation of the local government’s ERA award
and modification of the State’s ERA award in Treasury’s records as well as other government-wide
databases, such as USASpending.gov, Treasury requests emergency processing and approval on
March 25, 2021 for the Redirected Funds form and related reporting under the Act. Given the
inability to seek public comment during such a short timeframe, Treasury requests a waiver from
the requirement to publish notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment.