LIHEAP AT 2022-05 Carryover and Reallotment Report for FFY 2022

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

Action Transmittal

AT#:  LIHEAP-AT-2022-05

DATE:  September 30, 2022

TO:  LOW INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (LIHEAP) GRANT RECIPIENTS AND OTHER INTRESTED PARTIES

SUBJECT:  LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment Report for Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2022

ATTACHMENT(S):  A. Instructions for completing the Carryover and Reallotment Report for FY 2022

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 8621 et seq.).; 45 CFR 96.81 in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) block grant regulations; and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program Carryover and Reallotment Report, OMB approval 0970-0106, expires June 30, 2025.

PURPOSE:

1. To provide instructions to LIHEAP grant recipients about how to submit their estimated and final FFY 2022 Carryover and Reallotment Report;
2. To inform grant recipients that the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has revised this report in the Online Data Collection (OLDC) system to reflect the reallotment grant awards issued on September 28, 2022; and
3. To confirm for grant recipients, that the estimated and the final versions of this report are due no later than November 1, 2022, and December 30, 2022, respectively. ACF will begin its FFY 2022 reallotment award review process in early January 2023, based on reallotment amounts reflected in this report; grant recipients will be able to make future allowable changes to this report to reconcile audit disallowances, HHS monitoring findings, vendor refunds, and other allowable financial events.
4. To inform state grant recipients that they must ensure that data reported in the final carryover and reallotment report reconciles with their FFY 2022 Standard Form (SF) 425 reports and grantee survey module of the LIHEAP Performance Data Form. These forms will be announced at a later date.
5. To inform grant recipients that they must separately track and report LIHEAP supplemental funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) they  obligated in FFY 2022 as follows:
   1. For all grant recipients: On their FFY 2022 Standard Forms (SF) 425 for that funding source;
   2. For all grant recipients except territories that consolidate with SSBG: On their FFY 2022 Carryover and Realloment Reports; and
   3. For all state grant recipients: On the grantee survey modules of the FFY 2022 LIHEAP Performance Data Forms.
       

BACKGROUND:

LIHEAP Block Grant Allocation and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Appropriations Act (IIJA) Allocation

Section 2607(b)(2)(B) of the LIHEAP statute (42 U.S.C. § 8626(b)(2)(B)) requires that “No amount may be held available…for a State from a prior fiscal year to the extent such amount exceeds 10 percent of the amount payable to such State for such prior fiscal year. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the amount payable to a State for a fiscal year shall be determined without regard to any amount held available under this paragraph for such State for such fiscal year from the prior fiscal year.”

Grant recipients may request to carry over from one FFY to the next FFY up to 10% of the amount payable to the grant recipient for the first fiscal year. The total funds payable for FFY 2022 include all regular block grant awards in FFY 2022, plus all IIJA grant awards in FFY 2022, plus any reallotted FFY 2021 funds ACF redistributes in FFY 2022. Congress did not appropriate any emergency contingency funds in FFY 2022.

Grant recipients must obligate the funds that are carried over by the end of the federal fiscal year following the year in which they are awarded. For example, at least 90% of the funds allocated to you in FFY 2022 must be obligated by September 30, 2022, the end of FFY 2022. Up to 10% may be carried over for use in FFY 2023 and those funds must be obligated no later than September 30, 2023. Please note that this requirement applies to obligation only, not expenditure of funds.

Any funds carried over from the previous year are not to be included in the base for calculating carryover in the following year. If more than 10% of a grant recipient’s funds payable remains unobligated at the end of the federal fiscal year in which they were allotted, those excess funds must be returned to HHS and are subject to reallotment among all grant recipients in the next federal fiscal year.

LIHEAP Supplemental funding under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) (Pub. L. 117-2).

The ARPA allows LIHEAP grant recipients to obligate any portion of these supplemental funds in FFY 2021 and/or FFY 2022, contingent upon their own rules for obligating their own funds (45 CFR 96.30(a)). This means that LIHEAP grant recipients may have carried over up to 100% of the ARPA supplemental funding for obligation in FFY 2022—that is, by September 30, 2022. The supplemental ARPA LIHEAP funding from this award cannot be carried over into FFY 2023 or beyond, for obligation purposes. There will be no reallotment of unused ARPA LIHEAP funds.

If ARPA funds remain unobligated beyond September 30, 2022, grant recipients must exclude the amount of these supplemental funds from the total amount of the base funding when determining total amount of LIHEAP resources available to carry over to FFY 2023. That is because at least 90% of the non-supplemental FFY 2022 funding must still be obligated by September 30, 2022 (this fiscal year).

The LIHEAP statute and regulations require LIHEAP grant recipients to report information to HHS concerning funds to be carried forward and funds subject to reallotment. They further require that the Carryover and Reallotment Report for one federal fiscal year be submitted to HHS by the grant recipients before the allotment for the next federal fiscal year may be awarded.

In 2022, HHS made non-substantive changes to the LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment Report for FFY 2022 and FFY 2023. These changes allow for reporting by separate LIHEAP funding provided by the following:

1. LIHEAP regular and IIJA FFY 2022 appropriations acts;
2. LIHEAP supplemental appropriations acts, including ARPA (Pub. L. 117-2);
3. A line is reserved for future supplemental appropriation.

ACF has updated the OLDC system by adding the amount of reallotted FFY 2021 funds awarded by ACF in FFY 2022 to the FFY 2022 regular Block Grant and IIJA award amount on the first line in Section 1 of this report in OLDC for FFY 2022. We have also updated the maximum carryover limit by excluding funds awarded under ARP Act. Line 1 in Section 2 also have been pre-populated with ARP Act award amounts respectively.

Grant recipients must take reasonable steps to mitigate the risk of returning FFY 2022 federal LIHEAP block grant and LIHEAP ARP Act funds.  ACF will accept all necessary properly executed adjustments after this date. The LIHEAP ARP Act obligation (federal performance period) ends on September 30, 2022. Grant recipients must complete/execute all obligations of ARP Act funding by September 30, 2022, or grant recipients will lose the authority to obligate against their ARP grant. LIHEAP grant recipients will have at least 90 days following the end of that performance period to expend/liquidate/draw down the LIHEAP ARP grant from the federal Payment Management System (PMS). However, any draw-downs must be based on executed obligations made during the federal performance period (ending September 30, 2022), and in accordance with your state-wide/territory-wide/tribe-wide rules on obligations and expenditures (45 C.F.R. 96.30(a )). Grant recipients cannot draw down funds prior to making the obligation first.

CONTENT:

Completing and Submitting the Carryover and Reallotment Report.

All FFY 2022 grant recipients are required to submit the Carryover and Reallotment Report electronically via the ACF Grant Solutions/Online Date Collection system (OLDC) .

Please contact the Grant Solutions/OLDC helpdesk at: 1-866-577-0771 or (202) 401-5282 or your Federal LIHEAP Liaison if you need assistance accessing your Grant Solutions/OLDC account or if you are a new user.

All grant recipients must submit a report, even if no funds are to be carried over or made available for reallotment. In OLDC, under “Low Income Home Energy Assistance” you select a report type of “Carryover and Reallotment (0970-0106)” then search by “Period End Date” or “Fiscal Year”, and then search by your grant recipient’s name.

After you open your report, please confirm that the amount on Line 1 (total amount payable to you for FFY 2022) that ACF prepopulated on the report is correct.  If it is not, then you must launch a new version of your report or re-save and validate the existing version.  After you take this step to correct the amount on Line 1, you must enter the required data on all data entry lines.

This report must be submitted by November 1, 2022. This requirement does not apply to the Territory of Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Remember to save your progress frequently (at least once every 15 minutes), particularly if you enter partial information and intend to finish it later. Remember to click “End OLDC” when you are ready to log out of the system.

The following information (if it is not already pre-populated) must be submitted on the form:

Section 1

1.1 The total amount payable for FFY 2022 of regular block grant funds, Infrastructure Act funds, and reallotted FFY 2021 funds.
1.2 10 percent of the amount payable (automatically calculated and pre-populated).
1.3 Projected unobligated balance of FFY 2022 regular block grant funds and reallotted FFY 2021 funds.
1.4 Projected unobligated balance of FFY 2022 Infrastructure Act funds.

If you carried over any of the funds on Lines 1.3 or 1.4 to FFY 2023, (1) a statement of the reasons that these funds will not be used in FFY 2022; AND (2) a description of the types of assistance to be provided with these funds (into Lines 1.4(a) and 1.4(b)).

Section 2

2.1 Total amount of ARP Act only funds payable (pre-populated).
2.2 Skip this line.
2.3 Report FY 2021 LIHEAP ARP Act funds that you will not obligate as of September 30, 2022. State the reasons that these ARP Act funds will not be obligated.

Section 3

Is reserved for any additional LIHEAP Supplemental Funds Appropriate through additional Acts. For the FY 2022 reporting this will not be populated.

Once the data is entered, the submission must be validated, certified and submitted through OLDC. The individuals who have permission to certify and submit may vary based on how you initially set up your OLDC account, but the user with the role “Grant Administrator” may perform all actions by default.

OLDC Assistance

If you experience technical difficulties with Grant Solutions/OLDC then please contact the Help Desk at help@grantsolutions.gov or 1-866-577-0771 or (202) 401-5282 Monday-Friday between 8:00am and 6:00pm (Eastern Time).  If you need any other assistance with your submission, then please contact your Federal LIHEAP Liaison.

Additional Resources

We have attached, as an additional resource, a more detailed set of instructions for such submission through OLDC (PDF).

INQUIRIES TO:

For questions regarding accurate completion of the FFY 2022 LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment Report, contact:

Peter Edelman, Program Analyst
Division of Energy Assistance
Office of Community Services
Administration for Children and Families
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
330 C Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C.  20201
201-401-5292 (Voice)
202-401-5661 (Fax)
peter.edelman@acf.hhs.gov
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/liheap/

SUBMISSION TO:

The deadline for all grant recipients to submit their estimated LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment Report for FFY 2022 in OLDC is November 1, 2022.  The deadline to submit final data is December 30, 2022. 

Grant recipients access OLDC report forms via the GrantSolutions’ homepage .  If you have not yet created an account in OLDC, contact your Federal LIHEAP Liaison for assistance.  In addition, for questions regarding accessing OLDC and or completing the OLDC form, contact your Federal LIHEAP Liaison.

Thank you for your attention to these matters. OCS looks forward to continuing to provide high-quality services to OCS partners.

/s/
J. Janelle George
Deputy Director
Office of Community Services