LIHEAP DCL First Quarter Funds Under the Continuing Resolution
Date: December 1, 2011
Subject: Reminder to States
This is a follow up to the email sent on October 28 that announced first quarter LIHEAP funds under the CR. We specifically mentioned the “cushion” of funds that is available ONLY to the small group of states that requested and were awarded less than 95 percent. These states may still request the additional monies, according to the instructions provided in the October 28 “Dear Colleague” letter (portion reprinted below for your convenience). An additional award will be issued to any state that received less than 95 percent, if a request is received, by submitting an amended ACF-535 form, per the instructions provided below, to the Office of Grants Management in ACF. Thank you.
Availability of $1.853 billion
The $1.853 billion includes $1.717 billion that is available immediately, and a “cushion” of $136 million that would enable some states to ask for additional funds above their initial requests if their needs change. A state that received funds below the 95% limitation and wishes to increase its initial first quarter request, may submit an amended ACF-535 form to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Grants Management.
Nick St. Angelo
Director, Division of Energy Assistance
nstangelo@acf.hhs.gov
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From: St.Angelo, Nick (ACF)
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 4:14 PM
To: States
Subject: FY 2012 LIHEAP CR Allocations
October 28, 2011
Dear Colleagues:
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made a total of $1.853 billion available in first quarter LIHEAP block grant funds under the FY 2012 continuing resolution (CR). These funds represent states’ first quarter requests of FY 2012 funds, up to 95% of those requests, based on the FY 2012 President’s budget request level of $1.98 billion. This means that states requesting 95% or less of their annual allocations in the first quarter will receive their full requests. States requesting over 95% in the first quarter (96% to 100%) will receive 95% under the CR limitation. The current CR expires on November 18.
Tribes and Territories will also be limited to 95% of their annual allocations. A grantee will receive a LIHEAP award once the Division of Energy Assistance (DEA) has determined its FY 2012 LIHEAP plan to be complete. We are currently making the first round of awards to those grantees with complete plans. In advance of the official grants package, which is sent to grantees by the ACF Grants office, DEA staff will scan or fax the grant award letters to LIHEAP coordinators once our office receives them.
Availability of $1.853 billion
The $1.853 billion includes $1.717 billion that is available immediately, and a “cushion” of $136 million that would enable some states to ask for additional funds above their initial requests if their needs change. A state that received funds below the 95% limitation and wishes to increase its initial first quarter request, may submit an amended ACF-535 form to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Grants Management.
Funding Level of $1.98 billion
HHS determined that, for purposes of this initial release, to use the President’s Budget request of $1.98 billion as the basis for computing the CR funding request. Since there is uncertainty of the final funding level, using this level allows Congress to complete their funding negotiations without impinging on Congressional funding prerogatives to use another funding level.
HHS released significantly more LIHEAP funding for this CR period than is made available for most other programs. Under the current CR, most programs have been allocated 13.39 percent of base funding levels. Recognizing that many states need to begin their winter heating programs and that a disproportionate share of LIHEAP funds are spent early in the year, we released a significant amount of funding within the framework of the CR while final FY 2012 funding decisions are being negotiated for the program.
Recovered Funds Released
A small amount of no-year (or X-year) appropriated funds totaling $35,933 is also being released as part of the first quarter distribution. The $35,933 represents recovered LIHEAP funds from past years’ appropriations that do not expire and were recovered due to lack of drawdown. All states, and one tribe and one territory, will see these additional funds as part of their first quarter award. (Allocations of the $35,933 that were calculated to be less than $25 were not awarded.)
Grant Award Letter
For states, the tribe and the territory receiving a share of the $35,933: you will see amounts under two CANs—one is the normal block grant CAN (G992201), and the second CAN number (G99BX11) represents the small amount of money from the “X” year funds. The $35,933 are also regular block funds, should be treated as such and added to the grantee’s overall total of FY 2012 funds received. This will be important later, as grantees will need to include these funds in their calculations for carryover next year (as well as for calculating the program caps for planning and administration, weatherization and Assurance 16 activities).
Table
Attached are the grantee allocations of first quarter funds for states, tribes, and territories under the 95% CR limitation, and a separate table that shows the allocation of the $35,933 in no-year funds.
Jeannie L. Chaffin, Director of the Office of Community Services
Nick St. Angelo, Director of the Division of Energy Assistance