FY 2006 LIHEAP Block Grant and Emergency Contingency Fund Appropriations and FY 2006 Block Grant Fund Allocations
THIS CONTAINS INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE U.S. ADMINISTRATION FOR
CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN LIHEAP INFORMATION MEMORANDUM TRANSMITTAL
NO. LIHEAP-IM-2006-8, DATED 8/22/06
TO: LOW INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (LIHEAP)
GRANTEES AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES
SUBJECT: FY 2006 LIHEAP Block Grant and Emergency Contingency
Fund Appropriations and FY 2006 Block Grant Fund
Allocations
RELATED
REFERENCES: The Deficit Reduction Act Of 2005, as amended
(P.L. 109-204); the Departments of Labor, Health
and Human Services, and Education, and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 (P.L. 109-149);
the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006
(P.L. 109-148); the Consolidated Appropriations
Act of 2005 (P.L. 108-447); the Low-Income Home
Energy Assistance Act, Title XXVI of the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (Public Law
(P.L.) 97-35), as amended
PURPOSE: To advise grantees of FY 2006 allocations of
$2.48 billion in regular LIHEAP block grant funds
and $600 million in LIHEAP emergency contingency
funds.
SUMMARY: In FY 2006, Congress funded LIHEAP through a
series of continuing resolutions (CRs), a January
appropriation, and a March supplemental action.
The key provisions of these actions were as
follows:
_ The CRs enabled us to make near-normal first
quarter grant awards to States, territories,
and tribal grantees and allowed us to honor
up to 95 percent of States' first quarter
allocation requests.
_ The January appropriation provided $1.98
billion for the block grant fund and $181.17
million for the emergency contingency fund.
_ The March supplemental of $1 billion provided
an additional $500 million for the block grant
fund and an additional $500 million for the
emergency contingency fund.
CONTENT: October 2005
Congress passed a series of continuing resolutions
(CRs), beginning October 1, 2005, which provided
funds for the LIHEAP program based on the FY 2005
block grant appropriation level.
The FY 2006 funds available under the CRs enabled
us to make normal first quarter grant awards to
States, territories, and tribal grantees after OCS
determined that their plan applications were
complete. The amount of funds available under the
CRs allowed us to honor up to 95 percent of the
States' first quarter allocation percentage
requests. Tribes and territories received 95
percent of their annual allocations.
December 2005/January 2006
The President signed the Departments of Labor,
Health and Human Services, and Education, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2006 (P.L.
109-149) on December 30, 2005. This act
appropriated $2 billion to the LIHEAP block grant
fund and $183 million to the LIHEAP emergency
contingency fund. The Department of Defense
Appropriations Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-148) applied
a 1 percent rescission that affected many
government programs, resulting in net
appropriations of $1.98 billion for the LIHEAP
block grant and $181.17 million for the emergency
contingency fund.
Shortly after the FY 2006 appropriations bill was
passed on December 30, we recalculated block grant
allocations based on the revised appropriation
level of $1.98 billion and began making additional
grant awards as soon as possible to all LIHEAP
grantees. These additional awards reflected the
increased funding above the CR level. OMB waived
its normal rules that restrict states to 90
percent of their funds through the second quarter,
and allowed states to receive 100 percent of their
FY 2006 funds immediately (if states requested it
and had complete plans). We began awarding second
quarter grants on January 2, 2006.
We allocated the $1.98 billion to the States using
percentages derived from a formula that was
developed when LIHEAP was originally established
(the "old formula"). The LIHEAP statute requires
us to use these percentages in any year in which
the amount available to the States from the block
grant (i.e., non-emergency contingency) fund is
less than $1.975 billion. After the set-asides
for the territories; the Leveraging Incentive
(Leveraging) program (which includes the
Residential Energy Assistance Challenge Option
Program (REACH)); and Training and Technical
Assistance (T&TA), approximately $1.95 billion
became available as "grants to the states". We
then deducted allocations for Indian tribes and
tribal organizations from the gross amounts of the
States, resulting in the States' net allocations.
Once we determined the allocations, we issued
grant awards using the old formula percentages.
The following attachment shows how we calculated the
January FY 2006 block grant allocations from the
$1.98 billion appropriation (Attachment 5.)
The States tab shows how we calculated each
State's and territory's allocation; the Tribes tab
shows how we calculated each HHS-funded Indian
tribe's and tribal organization's allocation; and
the Summary tab shows January FY 2006 allocations
for each State, territory, and tribal grantee.
In addition to the $181.17 million in emergency
contingency funds that were appropriated in
January, $20.35 million of emergency contingency
funds that were not released in FY 2005 were
carried over to FY 2006. The Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2005 (P.L. 108-447)
designated FY 2005 emergency contingency funds as
"no-year" funds. As a result, a total of $201.52
million of emergency contingency funds were
available for release after the January
appropriation was passed.
We released $100 million of these funds on January
5, 2006, leaving $101.52 million of these funds
available for future emergencies. (See LIHEAP-IM-
2006-9, dated June 16, 2006, for details on how we
allocated the $100 million in contingency funds.)
March 2006
Supplemental LIHEAP funds became available on
March 20, 2006, with passage of P.L. 109-204.
This law provided an additional $1 billion to the
LIHEAP program, with $500 million appropriated for
the regular block grant and $500 million in
emergency contingency funds. This $1 billion was
shifted from the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005
(P.L. 109-171), where the LIHEAP funds had
previously been appropriated for FY 2007. The 1
percent rescission, which was applied to the
December appropriation, did not affect these
funds. However, P.L. 109-204 provided that none
of the $1 billion could be used by LIHEAP grantees
for administration costs.
This supplemental provided an additional $500
million in LIHEAP block grant funds (the "March"
supplemental). As a result of the January
appropriation and this supplemental, the total FY
2006 amount available to the States from the block
grant fund exceeded $1.975 billion. Section 8623
(a)(2) of the LIHEAP statute required us to
allocate funds to the States by using a different
formula (the "new formula") than we used for the
January block grant appropriation. This was the
first time since FY 1986 that we used the new
formula to calculate State allocations. Under the
new formula, the States' gross allocations are
based on their share of low income home energy
expenditures, subject to two "hold-harmless"
provisions that guarantee minimum amounts and
minimum allocation shares to many of the states.
The following table summarizes the FY 2006 block
grant and emergency contingency funds from the
January appropriation, the March supplemental, the
FY 2005 "no-year" contingency funds and the
resulting totals. In June, $1 million of the
remaining contingency funds was transferred to HHS
for the Medicare program. The final total for
contingency reflects this reduction.
December/January Block Grant Emergency
Appropriation Contingency
Appropriated Amount 2,000,000,00 $183,000,000
1% Rescission $20,000,000 -$1,830,000
Total January $1,980,000,00 $181,170,000
Appropriations
after Rescission
March Supplemental Block Grant Emergency
Contingency
Supplemental Amount $500,000,000 $500,000,000
Carryover of No-Year Block Grant Emergency
Funds Contingency
Funds Carried Over $0 $20,350,000
from FY05
Block Grant Emergency
Total Funds Contingency
Available for
FY 2006 $2,480,000,00 $701,520,000
HHS Transfer -$1,000,000
Total Block Grant
and Emergency $3,180,520,000
Contingency Funds
Available
Because of the change in formulas, we calculated
total FY 2006 State allocations at $2.48 billion
under the new formula, subtracted what states
received under the old formula at $1.98 billion,
and determined the additional allocations for each
state resulting from the extra $500 million.
States received the "difference", or additional
funds, as part of their second or third quarter
LIHEAP allocations. The hold-harmless provisions,
as outlined in the LIHEAP statute, prevented any
State from receiving less than what it would have
received under a $1.975 billion appropriation.
New Formula Spreadsheet Calculations
The following attachment shows details of how we
calculated the $2.48 billion to determine block
grant allocations, which reflect the additional
$500 million from the March 2006 Supplemental
(Attachment 6.)
The "$2.48BBG" tab shows how we calculated the
State and Territorial allocations with the
additional $500 million supplemental. The
following elements are described in more detail:
_ We multiplied the old percents column (the
State allocation percentages under the old
formula) by the total amount available to
the States in order to determine the lowest
allocations that the states can receive under
the first hold-harmless provision. These
amounts are shown in the floor column.
_ We determined which states were eligible for
the second hold-harmless provision and
multiplied their allocation percentages at
a $2.14 billion block grant appropriation
(the appropriation amount that is specified
in the statute) to determine their minimum
allocation amounts under this provision.
These amounts are shown in the 2.14 B% amt
column.
_ We multiplied the new percents column (the
State allocation percentages under the new
formula) by the amount available to the
states in order to determine the allocations
that the states would have received if none
of the hold harmless provisions applied.
These amounts are shown in the new % amounts
column.
_ We multiplied the "Ceiling Ratio" by the floor
column in order to calculate the allocations
of the States that are neither raised to a
hold-harmless level nor capped at their new
formula percentage level. These States are
considered to have their allocations "ratably
reduced" in order to fund other States' hold-
harmless floor amounts.
_ We applied statutorily-defined tests to
determine which states had their allocations
o raised to the first hold-harmless level
(the Floor Amount 1 column),
o raised to the second hold-harmless level
(the Floor Amount 2 column),
o set at their new formula percent amounts
(the new % amount column), or
o ratably reduced to fund the states that
were raised to their hold-harmless levels
(the (I) ceiling amt column)
_ We set an initial Ceiling Ratio of around 1.0
and, in an iterative process, increased it
until the "CAP/Floor + or -" (the difference
between the sum of the new % amounts column
and the sum of the Total FY06 Allotments of
$2.48 Billion column) reached 0. At this
point the full amount available to the states
had been allocated.
_ We totaled the allocations at $2.48 billion
(the Total FY06 Allotments of $2.48 Billion
column) and subtracted the allocations at
$1.98 billion (the $1.98 Billion Allotments
column) to calculate the allocations at $500
million (the $500M BG Allotments column).
We calculated allocations to HHS-funded Indian
tribes and tribal organizations on the "TribesMar"
tab using the State gross allocations from the
"$2.48BBG" tab. The TRIBAL GRANT AMOUNT column
shows the FY 2006 LIHEAP allocation for each tribe
at the $2.48 billion level.
For more details on the procedures we used to
determine block grant allocations under the new
formula, see the Revised LIHEAP Allocation Formula
("New" Formula) section at:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/liheap/funding/formula/formula.html.
We immediately issued additional block grant
awards to States, Indian tribes and tribal
organizations, and Territories. Many grantees
received the additional funds as part of their
third quarter grants
We released the full $500 million of the
supplemental emergency contingency funds on March
23, 2006 to 25 states. With this release, a total
of $101.52 million in contingency funds remains
available for any future heating or cooling crises
in FY 2006. (See LIHEAP-IM-2006-9, dated June 16,
2006, for details on how we allocated the $500
million in contingency funds).
Use of LIHEAP Funds
Grantees must add together FY 2006 block grant and
emergency contingency allocations when determining
the following limitations:
_ The 15% limit (25% if a waiver has been granted)
on weatherization activities, The 10% carryover
limit (for carrying over unobligated funds into
FY 2007),
_ The 5% limit on Assurance 16 activities, and
_ The 10% limit on administrative costs. Note:
Grantees may not use any of the supplemental
block grant or emergency contingency funds that
were allocated in March for planning and
administration. However, grantees can include
these funds in the base for calculating the 10
percent limitation on such costs.
FY 2006 Leveraging, REACH and T&TA Funding
In keeping with the intent of Congress, we set
aside $27,500,000 of the January block grant
appropriation for the Leveraging Incentive
Program. With the 1 percent rescission, this
amount was reduced to $27,225,000. In June, a
further reduction was taken by HHS for a funds
transfer to the Medicare program-besides
contingency funds, the HHS transfer also affected
the amounts for leveraging and T&TA, but did not
affect block grant funds. Therefore, the amount
available for leveraging is $26,952,750. We set
aside the full 25 percent of leveraging funds
allowed for the Residential Energy Assistance
Challenge Option Program (REACH) from this revised
amount. Therefore, $20,214,562 is available for
leveraging awards and $6,738,188 is available for
REACH grants in FY 2006.
Also, as allowed by the LIHEAP statute, we set
aside $300,000 for Training and Technical
Assistance (T&TA) in the January appropriation.
The 1% rescission applied to this category as
well, and the HHS transfer further reduced the
amount available for T&TA activities. Therefore,
$294,250 is available for T&TA in FY 2006.
The appropriation and rescission amounts for the
Leveraging Incentive Program, REACH and T & TA are
shown below:
FY 2006 FY 2006
Allocation Amount with
Rescission &
HHS transfer
Leveraging Incentive $20,625,000 $20,214,562
Program
REACH $6,875,000 $6,738,188
TOTAL Leveraging/ $27,500,000 $26,952,750
REACH
LIHEAP T&TA $300,000 $294.250
Total Leveraging/ $27,800,000 $27,247,000
REACH and T&TA
Applications for FY 2006 leveraging incentive
award funds (based on leveraging activities
carried out during FY 2005), must have been
postmarked no later than November 30, 2005.
Information on applying for FY 2006 REACH funds
was announced in an Action Transmittal (LIHEAP-AT-
2006-03) to grantees on June 2, 2006.
In addition, we set aside the full $294,250 of
FY 2006 funds allowed for training and technical
assistance projects. If we later determine that
less money is needed for this purpose, we will
redistribute the unused funds to the grantees.
Please refer to the Attachments to see the various
Public Laws that impacted the FY 2006 appropriation
for the LIHEAP program.
ATTACHMENTS: (1) A copy of the relevant portion of the
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005 (Enrolled as
Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate)
(P.L. 108-447)
(2) A copy of the relevant portion of the
Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006
(Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and
Senate) (P.L. 109-148)
(3) A copy of the relevant portion of the
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services,
and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations
Act, 2006 (P.L. 109-149)
(4) A copy of the relevant portion of the Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005, as amended (P.L. 109-204)
(5) Allocations of LIHEAP block grant funds under
the $1.98 billion appropriation for States, Indian
tribes and tribal organizations, and territories.
(6) Allocation of LIHEAP block grant funds to
reflect additional $500 million in supplemental
funds (appropriation level of $2.48 billion).
_____________/s____________
Josephine Robinson
Director
Office of Community Services
Attachment 1
H.R. 4818 (P.L. 108-447)
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005 (Enrolled as Agreed to or
Passed by Both House and Senate)
LOW-INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE
For making payments under title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1981, $300,000,000, to remain available
until expended: Provided, That these funds are for the
unanticipated home energy assistance needs of one or more States,
as authorized by section 2604(e) of the Act: Provided further,
That the entire amount is designated as an emergency requirement
pursuant to section 402 of S. Con. Res. 95 (108th Congress) as
made applicable to the House of Representatives by H. Res. 649
(108th Congress) and applicable to the Senate by section 14007 of
Public Law 108-287.
[Back to Attachments Section]
Attachment 2
H.R. 2863 (P.L. 109-148)
Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006 (Enrolled as
Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate)
Section 3801(a)
ACROSS-THE-BOARD RESCISSIONS -- There is hereby rescinding an
amount equal to 1 percent
(1) the budget authority provided (or obligation limit imposed)
for fiscal year 2006 for any discretionary account of this Act
and in any other fiscal year 2006 appropriation Act;
(2) the budget authority provided in any advance appropriation
for fiscal year 2006 for any discretionary account in any prior
fiscal year appropriation Act;
(3) the contract authority provided in fiscal year 2006 for any
program subject to limitation contained in any fiscal year
appropriation Act."
[Back to Attachments Section]
Attachment 3
H.R. 3010 (P.L. 109-149)
Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education,
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
LOW-INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE
For making payments under title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1981, $2,000,000,000.
For making payments under title XXVI of the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1981, $183,000,000, to remain available
until September 30, 2006: Provided, That these funds are for the
unanticipated home energy assistance needs of one or more States,
as authorized by section 2604(e) of such Act, and notwithstanding
the designation requirement of section 2602(e) of such Act.
[Back to Attachments Section]
Attachment 4
S. 2320 (P.L. 109-204)
An Act to make available funds included in the Deficit Reduction
Act of 2005 for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program for
fiscal year 2006, and for other purposes.
SECTION 1. FUNDS FOR LOW-INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM.
Section 9001 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 is amended-
(1) in subsection (a)-
(A) by striking "for a 1-time only obligation and
expenditure";
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking "$250,000,000 for
fiscal year 2007" and inserting "$500,000,000 for
fiscal year 2006"; and
(C) in paragraph (2), by striking "$750,000,000 for
fiscal year 2007" and inserting "$500,000,000 for
fiscal year 2006";
(2) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (c);
(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following:
"(b) LIMITATION.-None of the funds made available under this
section may be used for the planning and administering described
in section 2605(b)(9) of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
Act of 1981 (42 U.S.C. 8624(b)(9))."; and
(4) in subsection (c) (as redesignated by paragraph
(2)), by striking "September 30, 2007" and inserting
"September 30, 2006".
|
