Emergency Justification Memo

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20220

TO:

Alex Goodenough, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

FROM:

Ryan Law, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Privacy, Transparency, and Records

SUBJECT:

Justification for Emergency Processing: Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA2)
Additional Funds Request Form

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 an
Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA2) program information collection request, revising OMB
Control Number 1505-0270.
On March 11, 2021, the President signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the “Act”),
Pub. L. No. 117-2. Title III, Subtitle B, Section 3201 of the Act provides $21.55 billion for the
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), 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 and cover the costs for other affordable rental housing
and eviction prevention activities for eligible households.
Section 3201(c) directed Treasury to distribute funds in increments, and eligible grantees can
request additional funds as needed. Treasury is seeking approval for the ERA 2 additional funds
request form to streamline the process by which eligible grantees can request their remaining
funds. This information collection is vitally important for Treasury to distribute each eligible
grantee’s remaining allocation.
Certain eligible grantees have exhausted, or will soon exhaust, their initial payments. Due to the
need for eligible grantees to request their allocated funds from Treasury expeditiously and avoid
disruptions in the delivery of assistance to eligible households, Treasury requests emergency
processing and approval of the ERA 2 additional funds request form by August 17, 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.