Sections 602 and 603 of the Social Security Act as added by section 9901 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the âActâ), Pub. L. No. 117-2 (Mar. 11, 2021) authorizes the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund (CSFRF) and Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CLFRF) respectively (referred to as the âCoronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fundsâ or âSLFRFâ), which provides $350 billion in total funding to Treasury to make payments generally to States (defined to include the District of Columbia), U.S. Territories (defined to include, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa), Tribes, Metropolitan cities, Counties, Consolidated Governments, and Nonentitlement units of local government (through States) (collectively the âeligible entitiesâ) to respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency or its negative economic impact, including provide assistance to households, small business, nonprofits, and impacted industries, such as tourism, travel, and hospitality; respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing premium pay to eligible workers of the State, territory, tribal government, metropolitan city, county, or nonentitlement units of local government performing essential work or by providing grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers; provide government services, to the extent COVID-19 caused a reduction of revenues collected in the most recent full fiscal year of the State, territory, tribal government, metropolitan city, county, or nonentitlement units of local government; or make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.
Section 602(b) of the Act prescribes that $219.8 billion must be allocated as follows: (1) $4.5 billion reserved for making payments to the U.S. Territories; (2) $20 billion reserved for making payments to Tribal governments; and (3) $195.3 billion reserved for making payments to the 50 States and the District of Columbia.
Section 603(b) of the Act prescribes that $130.2 billion must be allocated as follows: (1) $45.57 billion reserved for making payments to Metropolitan cities; (2) $19.53 billion reserved for making payments to States for distribution to Nonentitlement units of local government; and (3) $65.1 billion reserved for making payments to Counties. A unit of general local government that has formed a consolidated government or is geographically (in full or in part) within the boundaries of another unit of general local government may receive a distribution from the funds reserved for making payment to a metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government or county, as applicable based on the respective formula for such allocation to a metropolitan city, nonentitlement unit of local government or county.
Section 602(b)(6)(A)(i) provides that Treasury shall make payments to States and U.S. Territories no later than 60 days after receipt of the required certification. Payments to tribal governments are to be distributed no later than 60 days after March 11, 2021 pursuant to section 602(b)(6)(B).
Section 603(b)(7)(A) provides that Treasury shall make the first tranche of payments to metropolitan cities, counties, and States for distribution to nonentitlement units of local government no later than 60 days after March 11, 2021.
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 State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program Recovery Plan Performance Report, the Non-entitlement units of government (NEU) distribution template and the Not units of general local government (Non-UGLG) information collection request, revising OMB Control Number 1505-0271.
On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law, and established the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, which together make up the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (âSLFRFâ) program. This program is intended to provide support to State, territorial, local, and Tribal governments in responding to the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19 and in their efforts to contain impacts on their communities, residents, and businesses. On June 17, 2020, Treasury published the Compliance and Reporting Guidance that SLFRF recipients need to comply with to fulfill their reporting requirements. As noted in the Compliance and Reporting Guidance, recipients are required to fulfill the first of those reporting requirements by August 31, 2021.
Treasury is currently working on developing the reporting portal recipients will use to transmit the necessary information. The online portal is expected to go live around August 9, 2021, which will only provide recipients less than a month to fulfill their reporting obligations.
Due to the need to provide guidance to recipients so they can gather the necessary information needed to be reported through the Treasury reporting portal once it opens or be posted in their public website, Treasury requests emergency processing and approval by August 6, 2021 of the Recovery Plan Performance Report, which will contain detailed project performance data, including information on efforts to improve equity and engage communities; the NEU Distribution Template, the Non-UGLG Distribution Template, which provide updates on distributions to individual NEUs and Non-UGLGs, and the associated User Guide.
Due to the need for recipients to prepare and submit the report and template to Treasury expeditiously, Treasury requests emergency processing and approval of the recovery performance plan, by August 6, 2021. 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.
This emergency revision is to add the Recovery Performance Plan, the NEU Distribution Templates and the non-UGLG Templates, which will increase the burden hours by 44,650 hours.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Request for Extension Form
Emergency Justification Memo - SLFRF Plan Report and Template_signed.pdf
1. Emergency Justification Memo - SLFRF Perf Report and NEU template.docx
Non-UGLG Distribution Templates