Under the Small Business Jobs Act of
2010 (the "Act"), the Department of the Treasury is responsible for
implementing several components of the Act. Among these components
is a program under title III of the Act which requires Treasury to
make payments to participating states. Participating states will
use the federal funds for programs that leverage private lending to
help finance small businesses and manufacturers that are
creditworthy, but are not getting the loans they need to expand and
create jobs. The collection of information is necessary to ensure
that the allocation agreement constitutes a legal binding
obligation of the participating state and to monitor participating
state compliance and performance. The recordkeeping requirements
ensure both the effective and efficient use of the funds consistent
with the agreement.
Eligible jurisdictions
need to know what the reporting requirements are in order for them
and their program providers (e.g., lenders and other financial
entities) to build and modify their data collection systems to
obtain this information. Lenders and other financial entities need
to know what the requirements are before agreeing to partner with
eligible jurisdictions to implement their SSBCI capital programs.
The information collection of small business data will begin very
quickly after Treasury approves an eligible jurisdiction’s capital
program application and enters into an Allocation Agreement with
that jurisdiction. This could be as soon as May 19, 2022, as
Treasury has begun approving applications and jurisdictions have
executed the Allocation Agreements. Thus, Treasury would like to
get approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) for this
information collection by May 25, 2022, to provide jurisdictions
and their financial entity partners ample time to prepare for the
collection of information set forth in the Capital Program
Reporting Guidance and IFR. To provide an opportunity for public
input, Treasury has collected comments, including on the IFR’s PRA
analysis, for 30 days after the effective date of the IFR. If
Treasury identifies any appropriate changes to the IFR based on the
public comments, Treasury will revise the rule accordingly.
Jurisdictions and their financial entity partners cannot commence
their capital programs after approval from Treasury without knowing
what information must be collected. As mentioned above, SSBCI was
reauthorized under ARPA, which was enacted in March of 2021 to
address an unprecedented historic public health and economic
crisis. The reauthorization included several new allocations,
including allocations related to SEDI-owned and controlled
businesses (SEDI-related allocations). In May and June of 2021,
federal courts imposed preliminary injunctions on certain
coronavirus relief programs that involved race-based policies.
These cases necessitated extensive collaboration between Treasury,
the Department of Justice, and others to determine an appropriate
approach related to the structuring of SSBCI. Only after those
issues were resolved could Treasury focus on regulations and
guidance related to reporting and compliance related to such
allocations.
The burden is increasing by
42,350 hours due to the addition of the annual and quarterly
reporting requirements in the Interim Final Rule and Capital
Program Reporting Guidance.
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.
SSBCI Application
1505-0227 Emergency Justification Memo 5-19-22 (Reporting guidance and IFR).docx
Reporting Guidance - Quarterly Report