LIHWAP AT-2023-04 LIHWAP Forecast FY2023

Low Income Household Water Assistance Program

Action Transmittal

AT#:                                  LIHWAP-AT-2023-04

DATE:                               February 1, 2023

TO:                                    Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) Grant Recipients

SUBJECT:                         LIHWAP Forecast

ATTACHMENT(S):          1.  LIHWAP Forecast (Not 508-compliant) (XLSX) 2. LIHWAP Forecast Instructions (PDF)

Purpose

This AT provides LIHWAP grant recipients with the template and instructions for how to complete the LIHWAP Forecast. The LIHWAP Forecast must be submitted by all LIHWAP grant recipients by March 6, 2023.

In addition, this AT includes guidance on prioritizing obligation and expenditure of LIHWAP funds awarded under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and provides information related to LIHWAP reallotment.

LIHWAP Forecast

LIHWAP is an emergency program with a limited obligation period. All funds must be obligated by September 30, 2023, in addition, funds must be liquidated by December 30, 2023.

To support monitoring and expenditures of LIHWAP funds, the Office of Community Services (OCS) is asking all LIHWAP grant recipients to submit a LIHWAP Forecast. The LIHWAP Forecast is an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved form. It serves as a monitoring tool that provides a snapshot of current expenditure rates and requires each LIHWAP grant recipient to develop monthly expenditure targets for remaining LIHWAP grant funds.

Each grant recipient will receive a LIHWAP Forecast that is prepopulated with current expenditure rates based on OCS records from the Payment Management System (PMS). This prepopulated form will be sent to each grant recipient from their LIHWAP Program Specialist by Friday, February 3, 2023. Grant recipients will complete the form by entering the forecasted amount of LIHWAP funds they plan to expend each month within the authorized project period (through September 30, 2023).

LIHWAP grant recipients should submit the LIHWAP Forecast via email to LIHWAPReports@acf.hhs.gov, no later than March 6, 2023.  Please copy your program specialist.

LIHWAP Forecast OMB #0970-0558 (XLSX)

LIHWAP Forecast Instructions (PDF)

Prioritizing Obligation and Expenditure from LIHWAP Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) Funding First

LIHWAP grant recipients received two awards based on two separate authorizations: the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Due to guidelines established in the authorizing language, LIHWAP funds awarded under the Consolidated Appropriations Act are not eligible for reallotment. However, OCS has determined that funds appropriated under the American Rescue Plan Act can be reallocated.

Therefore, all LIHWAP grant recipients should plan to draw down from their remaining Consolidated Appropriations Act funding first. This will allow any unobligated grant funding from American Rescue Plan appropriation to be reallotted to grant recipients with unmet household needs.

LIHWAP Reallotment Process

While the primary goal of the forecast process is to ensure that each grant recipient has a plan for timely obligation and expenditure of LIHWAP funds to meet household needs within its service area, a secondary goal is to identify any amounts that will be unobligated. For any American Rescue Plan funds that grant recipients report will be unobligated at the end of the current LIHWAP project period (September 30, 2023), OCS will implement a reallotment process.

Criteria and Funding Amounts for Reallotment

The amount available for reallotment will be based on the amount of American Rescue Plan grant funding that grant recipients forecast will remain unobligated at the end of the authorized LIHWAP obligation period (Sept. 30, 2023). After review, clarification, and confirmation of American Rescue Plan grant amounts that are forecast by a grant recipient to be unobligated by September 30, 2023, these funds will be de-obligated from the grant recipient’s PMS accounts. 

OCS plans to make unobligated American Rescue Plan grant funds that are de-obligated from grant recipient PMS accounts available for reallotment among grant recipients that have :

1. expended at least 75% of their funding by March 1, 2023
2. project a full expenditure of remaining grant funds by September 30, 2023; and
3. indicate a need for additional funding above the current grant award to meet the demand for benefits assistance in their state, territory, tribe.  

Individual reallotment amounts will be determined by applying the same formula used to determine the initial LIHWAP allotment, per criteria included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act and American Rescue Plan Act. To maintain the mandated 3% set aside for tribes, unobligated amounts identified from tribal LIHWAP recipients will only be reallotted to other tribal LIHWAP recipients and unobligated amounts from state and territory LIHWAP recipients will only be reallotted to states and territories.

Reallotment Process and Timeline

• February: Grant recipients will forecast their LIHWAP expenditures and identify the amount of American Rescue Plan funding  they will not be able to obligate within the approved project period.
• March: OCS will follow up to support grant recipients in confirming the amount of American Rescue Plan funding that will be returned for reallotment. That amount will be frozen in grant recipients’ PMS accounts and then de-obligated by the Office of Grants Management.
• March: Grant recipients that are eligible for additional LIHWAP funding will submit confirmation that they would like to receive a reallotment supplement.
• May: Supplemental amounts are awarded to eligible grant recipients.

Please contact your LIHWAP program specialist with any question or comments related the LIHWAP Expenditure Forecast and reallotment process.

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

/s/
Dr. Lanikque Howard
Director
Office of Community Services