79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014, unless otherwise noted.
85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020, unless otherwise noted.
(a) Participant support costs. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has supplemented 2 CFR 200.1, Participant support costs, to provide that allowable participant support costs under EPA assistance agreements include:
(1) Rebates or other subsidies provided to program participants for purchases and installations of commercially available, standard (“off the shelf”) pollution control equipment or low emission vehicles under the Diesel Emission Reduction Act program or programs authorized by EPA appropriation acts and permitted by terms specified in EPA assistance agreements or guidance, when the program participant rather than the recipient owns the equipment.
(2) Subsidies, rebates, and other payments provided to program beneficiaries to encourage participation in statutorily authorized programs to encourage environmental stewardship and enable the public to participate in EPA funded research, pollution abatement, and other projects or programs to the extent permitted by statutes and terms specified in EPA assistance agreements or guidance.
(b) [Reserved]
Under the authority listed above the Environmental Protection Agency adopts the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards to Non-Federal Entities (subparts A through F of 2 CFR part 200), as supplemented by this part, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policies and procedures for financial assistance administration. This part satisfies the requirements of 2 CFR 200.110(a) and gives regulatory effect to the OMB guidance as supplemented by this part. EPA also has programmatic regulations located in 40 CFR Chapter 1 Subchapter B.
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) Uniform administrative requirements and cost principles (subparts A through E of 2 CFR part 200 as supplemented by this part) apply to foreign public entities or foreign organizations, except where EPA determines that the application of this part would be inconsistent with the international obligations of the United States or the statutes or regulations of a foreign government.
(b) Requirements for subrecipient monitoring and management at 2 CFR 200.331 through 200.333 do not apply to loan, loan guarantees, interest subsidies and principal forgiveness, purchases of insurance or local government debt or similar transactions with borrowers by recipients of Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) capitalization grants and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) capitalization grants. Requirements for reporting subaward and executive compensation in 2 CFR part 170 and internal controls described at 2 CFR 200.303 continue to apply to CWSRF and DWSRF grant recipients and borrowers.
[85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
Consistent with 2 CFR 200.102(b):
(a) In the EPA, the Director, Office of Grants and Debarment or designee, is authorized to grant exceptions on a case-by-case basis for non-Federal entities.
(b) The EPA Director or designee is also authorized to approve exceptions, on a class or an individual case basis, to EPA program specific assistance regulations other than those which implement statutory and executive order requirements.
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
Effective December 26, 2014, this part supersedes the following regulations under Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations:
(a) 40 CFR part 30, “Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and other Non-profit Organizations.”
(b) 40 CFR part 31, “Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements to State and Local Governments.”
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
In the EPA, programs awarding fixed amount awards will do so in accordance with guidance issued from the Office of Grants and Debarment. (See 2 CFR 200.201(b)).
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) In the EPA, some programs require longer retention requirements for records by statute.
(b) When there is a difference between the retention requirements for records of the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR 200.333) and the applicable statute, the non-federal entity will follow to the retention requirements for records in the statute.
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) Governmental revenues. Permit fees are governmental revenue and not program income. (See 2 CFR 200.307(c)).
(b) Use of program income. The default use of program income for EPA awards is addition even if the amount of program income the non-Federal entity generates exceeds the anticipated amount at time of the award of the assistance agreement. Unless the terms of the agreement provide otherwise, recipients may deduct costs incidental to the generation of program income from gross income to determine program income, provided these costs have not been charged to any Federal award. (See 2 CFR 200.307(b)). The program income shall be used for the purposes and under the conditions of the assistance agreement. (See 2 CFR 200.307(e)(2)).
(c) Brownfields Revolving Loan. To continue the mission of the Brownfields Revolving Loan fund, recipients may use EPA grant funding prior to using program income funds generated by the revolving loan fund. Recipients may also keep program income at the end of the assistance agreement as long as they use these funds to continue to operate the revolving loan fund or some other brownfield purpose as outlined in their respective closeout agreements.
(d) Other revolving loan programs. Recipients of EPA funding for other revolving loan fund programs may use EPA grant funding prior to using program income funds generated by the revolving loan fund. Recipients may also keep program income at the end of the assistance agreement as long as they use these funds to continue to operate the revolving loan fund or some other authorized purpose as outlined in their closeout agreement. This paragraph (d) does not apply to EPA's Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs which are subject to their own regulations.
[85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020]
Pre-award Costs. EPA award recipients may incur allowable project costs 90 calendar days before the Federal awarding agency makes the Federal award. Expenses more than 90 calendar days pre-award require prior approval of EPA. All costs incurred before EPA makes the award are at the recipient's risk. EPA is under no obligation to reimburse such costs if for any reason the recipient does not receive a Federal award or if the Federal award is less than anticipated and inadequate to cover such costs.
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) EPA will limit its participation in the salary rate (excluding overhead) paid to individual consultants retained by recipients, and their contractors or subcontractors to the maximum daily rate for level 4 of the Executive Schedule unless a greater amount is authorized by law. (These non-Federal entities may, however, pay consultants more than this amount with non-EPA funds.) The limitation in this paragraph (a) applies to consultation services of designated individuals with specialized skills who are paid at a daily or hourly rate. This rate does not include transportation and subsistence costs for travel performed; recipients will pay these in accordance with their normal travel reimbursement practices.
(b) All contracts between recipients and subrecipients and individual consultants are subject to the procurement standards in subpart D of 2 CFR part 200. Contracts or subcontracts with multi-employee firms for consulting services are not affected by the limitation in paragraph (a) of this section provided the contractor or subcontractor rather than the recipient or subrecipient selects, directs and controls individual employees providing consulting services.
(c) Borrowers under EPA revolving loan fund capitalization grant programs are not subject to paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.
[85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) If the recipient is satisfied with the qualifications and performance of the architect or engineer who provided any or all of the facilities planning or design services for a waste-water treatment works project and wishes to retain that firm or individual during construction of the project, it may do so without further public notice and evaluation of qualifications, provided:
(1) The recipient received a facilities planning (Step 1) or design grant (Step 2), and selected the architect or engineer in accordance with EPA's procurement regulations in effect when EPA awarded the grant; or
(2) The award official approves noncompetitive procurement under 2 CFR 200.320(f) for reasons other than simply using the same individual or firm that provided facilities planning or design services for the project; or
(3) The recipient attests that:
(i) The initial request for proposals clearly stated the possibility that the firm or individual selected could be awarded a subaward for services during construction; and
(ii) The firm or individual was selected for facilities planning or design services in accordance with procedures specified in this section.
(iii) No employee, officer or agent of the recipient, any member of their immediate families, or their partners have financial or other interest in the firm selected for award; and
(iv) None of the recipient's officers, employees or agents solicited or accepted gratuities, favors or anything of monetary value from contractors or other parties to subawards.
(b) However, if the recipient uses the procedures in paragraph (a) of this section to retain an architect or engineer, any Step 3 subawards between the architect or engineer and the grantee must meet all of the other procurement provisions in 2 CFR 200.317 through 200.326.
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) Quality assurance applies to all assistance agreements that involve environmentally related data operations, including environmental data collection, production or use.
(b) Recipients shall develop a written quality assurance system commensurate with the degree of confidence needed for the environmentally related data operations.
(c) If the recipient complies with EPA's quality policy, the system will be presumed to be in compliance with the quality assurance system requirement. The recipient may also comply with the quality assurance system requirement by complying with American National Standard ASQ/ANSI E4:2014: Quality management systems for environmental information and technology programs.
(d) The recipient shall submit the written quality assurance system for EPA review. Upon EPA's written approval, the recipient shall implement the EPA-approved quality assurance system.
(e) EPA Quality Policy is available at: http://www.epa.gov/quality.
(f) The standards required in this section are incorporated by reference into this section with the approval of the Director of the Federal Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51.
The material is available for inspection at the Environmental Protection Agency's Headquarters Library, Room 3340, EPA West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20004, (202) 566-0556. A copy is also available for inspection at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call 202-741-6030, or go to: http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/code_of_federal_regulations/ibr_locations.html.
(1) American Society for Quality, 600 North Plankinton Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53201, 1-800-248-1946, http://asq.org.
(i) American National Standard ASQ/ANSI E4:2014: Quality management systems for environmental information and technology programs - Requirements with guidance for use, approved February 4, 2014.
(ii) [Reserved]
(2) [Reserved]
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014, as amended at 80 FR 61088, Oct. 9, 2015. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) This section provides the process for the resolution of pre-award and post-award assistance agreement disputes as described in § 1500.14, except for:
(1) Assistance agreement competition-related disputes which are covered by EPA's Grant Competition Dispute Resolution Procedures; and,
(2) Any appeal process relating to an award official's determination that an entity is not qualified for award that may be developed pursuant to guidance implementing Section 872 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. L. 110-417, as amended).
(b) Pre-award and post-award disagreements between affected entities and EPA related to an assistance agreement should be resolved at the lowest level possible. If an agreement cannot be reached, absent any other applicable statutory or regulatory dispute provisions, affected entities must follow the dispute procedures outlined in this subpart.
(c) Determinations affecting assistance agreements made under certain Agency decision-making processes are not subject to review under the procedures in this subpart or the Agency's procedures for resolving assistance agreement competition-related disputes. These determinations include, but are not limited to:
(1) Decisions on requests for exceptions under § 1500.4;
(2) Bid protest decisions under 2 CFR 200.318(k);
(3) National Environmental Policy Act decisions under 40 CFR part 6;
(4) Policy decisions of the EPA Internal Audit Dispute Resolution Process (formerly known as Audit Resolution Board);
(5) Suspension and Debarment Decisions under 2 CFR parts 180 and 1532;
(6) Decisions to decline to fund non-competitive applications or not to award incremental or supplemental funding based on the availability of funds or agency priorities;
(7) Decisions on requests for reconsideration of specific award conditions under 2 CFR 200.208;
(8) Decisions to deny requests for no-cost extensions under 2 CFR 200.308(e)(2), 40 CFR 35.114(b), and 40 CFR 35.514(b); and
(9) Denials of requests for EPA approval of procurement through noncompetitive proposals under 2 CFR 200.320(c)(4).
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020; 85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020]
As used in this subpart:
(a) Action Official (AO) is the EPA official who authors the Agency Decision to the Affected Entity regarding a pre-award or post-award matter.
(b) Affected Entity is an entity that applies for and/or receives Federal financial assistance from EPA including but not limited to: State and local governments, Indian Tribes, Intertribal Consortia, Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and other Non-profit Organizations, and Individuals.
(c) Agency Decision is the agency's initial pre-award or post-award assistance agreement determination that may be disputed in accordance with this subpart. The Agency Decision is sent by the Action Official (AO) to the Affected Entity electronically and informs them of their dispute rights and identifies the Dispute Decision Official (DDO). An Agency Decision based on audit findings serves as EPA's Management decision as defined in 2 CFR part 200.1.
(d) Dispute is a disagreement by an Affected Entity with a specific Agency Decision submitted to the DDO in accordance with this subpart.
(e) Dispute Decision Official (DDO) is the designated agency official responsible for issuing a decision resolving a Dispute.
(1) The DDO for a Headquarters Dispute is the Director of the Grants and Interagency Agreement Management Division in the Office of Grants and Debarment or designee. To provide for a fair and impartial review, the AO for the challenged Agency Decision may not serve as the Headquarters DDO.
(2) The DDO for a Regional Assistance Agreement Dispute is the Regional Administrator or the official designated by the Regional Administrator to issue the written decision resolving the Dispute. To provide for a fair and impartial review, the AO for the challenged Agency Decision may not serve as the Regional DDO.
(f) Review Official is the EPA official responsible for issuing a decision resolving an Affected Entity's request for review of a DDO's Appeal decision.
(1) For a Headquarters DDO Appeal decision, the Review Official is the Director of the Office of Grants and Debarment or designee.
(2) For a Regional DDO Appeal decision, the Review Official is the Regional Administrator or designee.
[79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020; 85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020]
An Affected Entity or its authorized representative may dispute an Agency Decision by electronically submitting a Dispute to the DDO identified in the Agency Decision. In order for the DDO to consider the Dispute, it must satisfy the following requirements:
(a) Timeliness. The DDO must receive the Dispute no later than 30 calendar days from the date the Agency Decision is electronically sent to the Affected Entity. The DDO will dismiss any Dispute received after the 30-day period unless the DDO grants an extension of time to submit the Dispute. The Affected Entity must submit a written request for extension to the DDO before the expiration of the 30-day period. The DDO may grant a one-time extension of up to 30 calendar days when justified by the situation, which may include the unusual complexity of the Dispute or because of exigent circumstances.
(b) Method of submission. The Affected Entity must submit the Dispute electronically via email to the DDO, with a copy to the AO, using the email addresses specified in the Agency Decision within the 30-day period stated in paragraph (a) of this section.
(c) Contents of Dispute. The Dispute submitted to the DDO must include:
(1) A copy of the disputed Agency Decision;
(2) A detailed statement of the specific legal and factual grounds for the Dispute, including copies of any supporting documents;
(3) The specific remedy or relief the Affected Entity seeks under the Dispute; and
(4) The name and contact information, including email address, of the Affected Entity's designated point of contact for the Dispute.
[85 FR 61575, Sept. 30, 2020]
Within 15 calendar days of receiving the Dispute, the DDO will provide the Affected Entity a written notice, sent electronically, acknowledging receipt of the Dispute.
(a) Timely Disputes. If the Dispute was timely submitted, the notice of acknowledgement may identify any additional information or documentation that is required for a thorough consideration of the Dispute. The notice should provide no more than 30 calendar days for the Affected Entity to provide the requested information. If it is not feasible to identify such information or documentation in the notice the DDO may request it at a later point in time prior to issuance of the Dispute decision.
(b) Untimely Disputes. If the DDO did not receive the Dispute within the required 30-day period, or any extension of it, the DDO will notify the Affected Entity that the Dispute is being dismissed as untimely and the Agency Decision of the AO becomes final. The dismissal of an untimely Dispute constitutes the final agency action. In appropriate circumstances, the DDO may, as a matter of discretion, consider an untimely Dispute if doing so would be in the interests of fairness and equity.
[85 FR 61575, Sept. 30, 2020]
(a) In determining the merits of the Dispute, the DDO will consider the record related to the Agency Decision, any documentation that the Affected Entity submits with its Dispute, any additional documentation submitted by the Affected Entity in response to the DDO's request under § 1500.16(a), and any other information the DDO determines is relevant to the Dispute provided the DDO gives notice of that information to the Affected Entity. The Affected Entity may not on its own initiative submit any additional documents except in the support of a request for reconsideration under paragraph (c) of this section.
(b) The DDO will issue the Dispute decision within 180 calendar days from the date the Dispute is received by the DDO unless a longer period is necessary based on the complexity of the legal, technical, and factual issues presented. The DDO will notify the Affected Entity if the expected decision will not be issued within the 180-day period and if feasible will indicate when the decision is expected to be issued. The DDO will issue the Dispute decision electronically and advise the Affected Entity of procedures for requesting reconsideration. The DDO's decision will constitute the final agency action unless the Affected Entity electronically petitions the DDO for reconsideration within 15 calendar days of issuance of the DDO Decision. The Affected Entity must include a detailed statement of the factual and legal grounds warranting reversal or modification of the DDO decision. In addition, the Affected Entity may submit additional documents that were not previously provided to the DDO.
(c) If a petition for reconsideration is submitted, the DDO's will advise the Affected Entity within 15 calendar days of receipt of the petition whether the DDO Decision will be reconsidered. The DDO will issue this determination electronically. DDO's will only grant a reconsideration petition if the Affected Entity provides relevant and material evidence that was not available to the Affected Entity at the time the Dispute was submitted or to correct a clear and prejudicial error of fact or law. Denial of a petition for reconsideration constitutes final agency action and the DDO will advise the Affected Entity of the reasons for denying the reconsideration in writing.
(d) If the DDO grants a reconsideration petition, the DDO will issue a revised DDO Decision within 30 calendar days of acceptance of the reconsideration petition unless a longer period is necessary based on the complexity of the legal, technical, and factual issues presented. The DDO will issue the revised DDO Decision electronically. The revised DDO Decision and any new material considered by the DDO in making the revised DDO Decision will become part of the record of the Dispute. The revised DDO Decision will constitute final agency action.
(e) The DDO may consider untimely filed reconsideration petitions only if necessary, to correct a DDO Decision that is manifestly unfair and inequitable in light of relevant and material evidence that the Affected Entity could not have discovered during the 30-day period for petitioning for reconsideration. This evidence must be submitted within six months of the date of the DDO Decision. The DDO will advise the Affected Entity within 30 days of receipt of an untimely filed reconsideration petition whether the DDO will accept the petition. Denial of an untimely filed reconsideration petition constitutes final agency action.
[85 FR 61575, Sept. 30, 2020]