LIHEAP AT-2021-04 Carryover Reallotment FY2021

Publication Date: September 13, 2021
Current as of:

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

Action Transmittal

AT#:                                  LIHEAP-AT-2021-04

DATE:                               September 13, 2021

TO:                                   LOW INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (LIHEAP) GRANTEES AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES

SUBJECT:                         LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment Report for Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2021

ATTACHMENT(S):          A. Instructions for completing the Carryover and Reallotment Report for FFY 2021 (PDF)

RELATED REFERENCES:

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 on April 30, 2022.

PURPOSE:

  1. To provide instructions to LIHEAP grantees about how to submit their estimated and final FFY 2021 Carryover and Reallotment Report;
  2. To inform grantees that the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) will revise this report in the Online Data Collection (OLDC) system to reflect the reallotment grant awards expected to be issued in September 2021; and
  3. To confirm for grantees, and in follow-up to our informal emails over the past several weeks, that the estimated and the final versions of this report are due no later than September 17, 2021 and December 31, 2021 respectively. ACF will begin its FFY 2021 reallotment award review process in early January 2022, based on reallotment amounts reflected in this report; grantees 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. All state grantees must ensure that data reported in the final carryover and reallotment report reconciles with their FFY 2021 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. Grantees must separately track and report LIHEAP supplemental Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funds obligated in FFY 2021 on the FFY 2021 Carryover and Realloment Report, FFY 2021 Standard Form (SF) 425 for each funding source, and the grantee survey module of the FFY 2021 LIHEAP Performance Data Form (for state grantees only).

BACKGROUND:

LIHEAP Block Grant 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.”

Grantees may request to carry over from one federal fiscal year to the next FFY up to 10% of the amount payable to the grantee for the first fiscal year. The total funds payable for FFY 2021 include all regular block grant awards in FFY 2021, plus any reallotted FFY 2020 funds ACF redistributes in FFY 2021, plus any oil overcharge funds designated for use in LIHEAP for FFY 2021. Congress did not appropriate any emergency contingency funds in FFY 2021.

Grantees 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 2021 must be obligated by September 30, 2021, the end of FFY 2021. Up to 10% may be carried over for use in FFY 2022 and those funds must be obligated no later than September 30, 2022. 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 grantee'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 grantees in the next fiscal year.

LIHEAP Supplemental funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act) (Pub. L. 116-136).

The CARES Act allows LIHEAP grantees to obligate any portion of these supplemental funds in FFY 2020 and/or FFY 2021, contingent upon their own rules for obligating their own funds (45 CFR 96.30(a)). This means that LIHEAP grantees could have carried over up to 100% of the CARES supplemental funding for obligation in FFY 2021—that is, by September 30, 2021. The supplemental CARES Act LIHEAP funding from this award must not be carried over into FFY 2022 or beyond, for obligation purposes.  There is no reallotment of unused CARES LIHEAP funding.

Grantees 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 carryover to FFY 2022. That is because at least 90% of the non-supplemental FFY 2021 funding must still be obligated by September 30, 2021 (this fiscal year).

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

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

The ARPA allows LIHEAP grantees 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 grantees may carryover 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 must not be carried over into FFY 2023 or beyond, for obligation purposes.  There will be no reallotment of unused ARPA LIHEAP funds.

Grantees 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 carryover to FFY 2022. That is because at least 90% of the non-supplemental FFY 2021 funding must still be obligated by September 30, 2021 (this fiscal year).

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

In 2020, HHS made non-substantive changes to the LIHEAP Carryover and Realloment Report for FFY 2021 and FFY 2022.  These changes allow for reporting by separate LIHEAP funding provided by the following:

  1. LIHEAP regular FFY 2021 appropriations acts;
  2. LIHEAP supplemental appropriations acts, including the CARES Act (Pub. L. 116-136) and ARPA (Pub. L. 117-2).
  3. A line is reserved for future supplemental appropriation.

ACF will update the OLDC system by adding the amount of anticipated reallotted FFY 2020 funds to be awarded by ACF in FFY 2021 to the FFY 2021 regular Block Grant award amount on the first line in Section 1 of this report in OLDC for FFY 2021. We will also update the maximum carryover limit by excluding funds awarded under the CARES Act and ARP Act. Line 1 in Section 2 and Section 3 also have been pre-populated with CARES Act and ARP Act award amounts respectively. 

Grantees must take reasonable steps to mitigate the risk of returning FFY 2021 federal LIHEAP block grant and the LIHEAP CARES Act funds after October 1, 2021. ACF will accept all necessary properly executed adjustments after this date. The LIHEAP CARES Act obligation (federal performance period) ends on September 30, 2021. Grantees must complete/execute all obligations of CARES Act funding by September 30, 2021 or grantees will lose the authority to obligate against their CARES grant. LIHEAP grantees will have at least 90 days following the end of that performance period to expend/liquidate/draw down the LIHEAP CARES 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, 2021), and in accordance with your state-wide/territory-wide/tribe-wide rules on obligations and expenditures (45 C.F.R. 96.30(a )).  Grantees cannot draw down funds prior to making the obligation first.

CONTENT:

Completing and Submitting the Carryover and Reallotment Report.

All FFY 2021 grantees 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 grantees 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 grantee’s name.

After you open your report, please confirm that the amount on Line 1 (total amount payable to you for FFY 2021) 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.

In follow-up to our informal emails over the past several weeks, if you have not started a report, you must immediately start and submit it by September 17, 2021. 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 2021 (pre-populated).

1.2 10 percent of the amount payable (automatically calculated and pre-populated).

1.3 Projected unobligated balance. If you carryover funds to FFY 2022, (1) a statement of the reasons that these funds will not be used in FFY 2021; AND (2) a description of the types of assistance to be provided with these funds (into Lines 1.3(a) and 1.3(b)).

Section 2

2.1 Total amount of CARES Act only funds payable (pre-populated).

2.2 Skip this line.

2.3 Report FY 2020 LIHEAP CARES Act funds that you will not obligate as of September 30, 2021. State the reasons that these CARES Act funds will not be obligated.

Section 3

3.1 Total amount of ARP Act only funds payable (pre-populated).

3.2 Projected Carryover ARP Act funds. If you report an ARP Act carryover amount, a statement describing the types of assistance to be provided with these funds (into Line 3.2(a)).

              In line 3.3(b) state the reasons that these ARPA funds will not be obligated in FY 2021.

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 2021 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 grantees to submit their estimated LIHEAP Carryover and Reallotment Report for FFY 2021 in OLDC is September 17, 2021.  The deadline to submit final data is December 31, 2021

Grantees 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 grantees.

/s/
Lauren Christopher
Director, Division of Energy Assistance
Office of Community Services