Sneak Preview: Emergency Matching Waiver Proposed for ANA Funds
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants 360 article.) Native American entities that are applicants and recipients of financial assistance under programs funded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Native Americans (ANA) can now comment on an ANA proposal to allow for an emergency waiver of part or all of their 20% nonfederal matching requirement.
In a Dec. 7 Federal Register proposed rule, ANA, an office within HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, explained that under current regulations at 45 C.F.R. §1336.50, grant recipients can only request a waiver of their nonfederal share at the time of application or while applying for a noncompetitive continuation award. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted current ANA recipients.
“The pandemic has greatly increased the risk of language and cultural decline among Native communities, with many elders dying from the COVID-19 virus,” ANA notes in the proposed rule. “As tribes began closing their revenue-generating businesses and other governmental operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they lost income they needed to fund federal projects requiring a nonfederal share. In addition, planned sources of income, such as use of tribal-owned facilities from which to operate the project, … also diminished.”
The Native American Programs Act (Pub. L. 93-644), which applies to American Indians, Native Hawaiians, other Native American Pacific Islanders (including American Samoan Natives) and Alaska Natives, requires a 20% match requirement, and ANA’s current cost-share waiver does not address a recipient’s inability to meet the cost-share due to an emergency in the middle of a budget period. The proposed revisions to the regulations (45 C.F.R. §1336.50(b)(2)(ii)) would add a provision allowing grant recipients to apply for an emergency waiver within the current budget period to remedy this burden.
The ANA proposal has three facets. First, if an new applicant, or an applicant seeking noncompeting continuation funding from the agency, anticipates that it will temporarily be unable to meet the matching requirement and seeks to request a waiver of the requirement, the proposal would require it to include within its application: a revised SF-424A; a written justification that clearly explains why the applicant cannot provide the matching share, including the amount of nonfederal share to be waived; and how it intends to meet the criteria necessary for a waiver.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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