Updated Resources to Assist NEU Municipalities with ARPA Reports – Due April 30, 2023

NLC is providing state leagues with lots of resources to help their members this year. 

U.S. Treasury Resources:

• April 2023 Project and Expenditure Report User Guide
• Self-help resources for completing a report can be found here >>
• A new, simplified video on how to report for smaller communities produced by the U.S. Department of Treasury can be accessed here >>. This video came from NLC's urging of Treasury to make the process simpler for the smallest cities with the least capacity. 
• For help from the U.S. Treasury regarding ARPA reporting questions, contact the help desk at SLFRF@treasury.gov or call (844) 529-9527.  

 

NLC Resources:

• NLC posted a blog letting cities know that the portal for reporting is open, that they have to report by April 30, and providing best practices, which is available here >>. The blog post also contains a video walk-through of the reporting portal. 
• NLC created a step-by-step walk through in PowerPoint slide format of everything a city needs to know to file a report. Access the slide deck here >>.
• Unfortunately, NLC will not be able to provide the prioritization of cases to the Treasury help desk like it did last year for members. 
• NLC Legislative Direct Mike Gleeson (gleeson@nlc.org) is NLC’s point of contact to U.S. Treasury for reporting escalations. For inquiries from cities or state leagues, please use SLFRFhelp@nlc.org.  
• Second, NLC's point of contact will raise thematic issues that recipients are facing that cannot be resolved through existing materials/channels so that U.S. Treasury can try to address these issues holistically. NLC will monitor the inbox and raise flags that are thematic but will not be able to provide the individualized service as we did last year.  

ARPA SLFRF Project and Expenditure Report User Guide

All recipients of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) are required to report on their projects, obligations and expenditures, subaward data, and certain required programmatic data.The U.S. Treasury has issued a new Project and Expenditure Report User Guide just in time for the April 30, 2022 reporting deadline.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has also published new guidance intended to reduce the burden of the single audit for eligible recipients, including many smaller local governments. The Federal Register guidance, published April 8, 2022, allows the use of attestation instead of a single audit in limited circumstances for recipients receiving less than $10 million. If your jurisdiction is eligible, be sure to discuss this with your auditor. A single audit is still required if the recipient spends over $750,000 in other federal funds.

 

Recipient Compliance and Reporting Responsibilities

On February, 28, 2022, Treasury released the updated Compliance and Reporting Guidance for the SLFRF Program on its website. Please see this link. Open this document with ReadSpeaker docReader for updated information. The guidance provides additional detail and clarification for each recipient’s compliance and reporting responsibilities, and should be read in concert with the Award Terms and Conditions, the authorizing statute, the final rule, and other regulatory and statutory requirements.

 

NLC’s “Deep Dive” into the Updated Compliance and Reporting Guidance

NLC conducted a deeper dive into the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Compliance and Guidance Reporting document released on February 28. Many of the items listed are new. Some are refreshers that NLC thought would be useful to reiterate ahead of the April 30, 2022, NEU reporting deadline.

1. The Treasury Department rearranged the reporting tiers in the Compliance and Guidance Reporting document from six to five. Starting after April 30, 2022, NEUs with a grant of more than $10 million will have to report on a quarterly basis instead of yearly. NLC estimates that this could affect 163 NEUs. Additionally, NLC caught an interesting line that appears in the document. “The total SLFRF allocations across all sources for a given jurisdiction will be used to identify that jurisdiction’s Reporting Tier, beginning in April of 2022. Treasury may reach out to jurisdictions to update Reporting Tiers.” NLC has asked for clarity on exactly what Treasury means and if a local government receives SLFRF monies from a county or state above their initial allocation if that could change their reporting tier.
2. In the final rule, local governments can make an irrevocable decision as to whether it will take the $10 million standard allowance or use the lost revenue calculation. Municipalities must decide in their April 30, 2022, report which option it is electing.
3. Consolidated governments (city/county governments) are only required to file once per reporting period, and such reports will cover the total SLFRF allocations received by the jurisdiction. This includes non-entitlement units of local government and/or Units of general local government within counties that are not units of general local government (Non-UGLGs).
4. To facilitate reporting, each NEU will need a NEU Local government Number. This is a unique identification code for each NEU assigned by the State or territory to the NEU as part of its request for funding.
5. For municipalities that must file quarterly reports, quarterly reports will cover one calendar quarter and must be submitted to the Treasury by the last day of the month following the end of the period covered. This is a change from the Treasury’s previous position. Under the old rules, a quarterly filer had 30 calendar days after the end of each calendar quarter to file a report.
6. The Treasury added a new piece of required information that applies to all local governments. Local governments should report the program income earned and expended to cover eligible project costs, if applicable.
7. This is in older versions of the Compliance and Reporting Guidance but is worth repeating. Local governments do not need to submit separate monthly subaward reports to FSRS.gov as required pursuant to the 2 CFR Part 170, Appendix A.
8. Local governments should also note that subrecipients do not include individuals and organizations that received SLFRF funds as end users. Such individuals and organizations are beneficiaries and not subject to audit pursuant to the Single Audit Act and 2 C.F.R. Part 200, Subpart F.
9. A local government must provide detailed information to the Treasury if aid is provided to impacted industries other than tourism, and hospitality.
10. Describe if the industry experienced at least 8 percent employment loss from pre-pandemic levels, or if the industry is experiencing comparable or worse economic impacts than national tourism, travel, and hospitality industries as of the date of the final rule, and rationale for providing aide to the industry.
11. For each subaward, the local government will need to provide the sector of the employer (Note: additional detail, including list of sectors, to be provided in the user guide posted to www.treasury.gov/SLFRP.
12. Purpose of funds (e.g., payroll support, safety measure implementation)
13. The Treasury Department will require local governments that pursue water and sewer projects to provide additional reporting data once the project starts.
14. If a local government chooses a water and sewer project listed in expenditure categories 5.1-5.18 (a list of 5.1-5.18 can be found in the Appendix 1, seen below), it will need to provide:

• Median Household Income of service area (Collection to begin in April 2022)
• Lowest Quintile Income of the service area (Collection to begin in April 2022)

 

ARPA Reporting Portal

On December 14, 2021, the U.S. Treasury opened its ARPA Reporting Portal to NEUs. Email notifications about this were sent to the people entered as contacts (“Authorized Representative” and “Secondary Contact”) during the certification process through the State of Delaware to receive ARPA funds last June. The full text of the email can be found HERE.

On December 14, 2021, the U.S. Treasury released an Agreements and Supporting Documents User Guide for Non-Entitlement Units of Government (NEUs). This thirteen page document provides NEUs with information on how to use Treasury’s Reporting Portal to submit information in accordance with the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) Compliance & Reporting Guidance. It is strongly suggested that your jurisdiction’s ARPA Authorized Representative and Secondary Contact carefully review this Guide prior to the reporting that is due April 30, 2022.

On November 15, 2021, the U.S. Treasury released an update of their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). including much anticipated updates on Compliance & Reporting responsibilities.

For additional information, including access to the Final Rule and and guidance specific to Non-Entitlement Units of local government, visit the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds webpage and DLLG’s ARPA – Final Rule webpage.