Sections 602 and 603 of the Social
Security Act as added by section 9901 of the American Rescue Plan
Act of 2021 (the “Act”), 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 “Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery
Funds” or “SLFRF”), 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 “eligible entities”)
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 the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
(SLFRF) program’s Non-entitlement units of local government (NEUs)
Use Guide, 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 (“SLFRF”)
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 November 15, 2021, Treasury published updated Compliance and
Reporting Guidance that SLFRF recipients need to comply with to
fulfill their reporting requirements. Treasury has directly engaged
with various interested agencies and stakeholders as well as SLFRF
recipients plans to provide input on reporting. Due to policy and
technical constraints, and recognition of open questions from
recipients and external stakeholders on SLFRF eligible uses, the
SLFRF program, in coordination with policy, OGC and ORP leadership,
recommended a series of updates to reporting requirements and
timelines included in the Compliance and Reporting Guidance.
Concurrently, Treasury has been working on onboarding NEUs based on
information provided by States and U.S. territories into the online
portal. Since the potential population of NEUs could reach 27,000
it is critical that outreach and documentation be provided as
quickly as possible to ensure all NEUs are fully prepared to meet
their upcoming reporting requirements. NEUs will be required to
confirm their account set-ups as well as provide certain
documentation noted in the Compliance and Reporting Guidance. The
online portal for NEUs to confirm accounts and start providing the
Agreements and Supporting Documentation is expected to go live
around December 13, 2021. Due to the need to provide guidance to
NEUs in the User Guide in order to properly report through the
Treasury reporting portal and address the goal of publishing the
data provided by recipients, Treasury requests emergency processing
and approval by December 13, 2021. In preparation for the renewal
of the OMB approval, Treasury has published a 60-day notice
soliciting comments on September 16, 2021 at 86 FR 51727.
This emergency revision is to
add the NEU Agreements and Supporting Documents, which will
increase the burden hours by 13,500 hours. An increase of 8.860
hours is also included to account for Interim Reporting
requirements that had been approved previously, but not included in
the burden estimates.
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.