On March 11, 2021, the President
signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (the “Act”), Pub. L.
No. 117-2. Title III, Subtitle B, Section 3206 of the Act
established the Homeowner Assistance Fund and provides $9.961
billion for the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to make
payments to States (defined to include the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands,
and American Samoa), Indian tribes or tribally designated housing
entities, as applicable, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands
(collectively the “eligible entities”) to mitigate financial
hardships associated with the coronavirus pandemic, including for
the purposes of preventing homeowner mortgage delinquencies,
defaults, foreclosures, loss of utilities or home energy services,
and displacements of homeowners experiencing financial hardship
after January 21, 2020, through qualified expenses related to
mortgages and housing. Section 3206(c)(1) requires the eligible
entities to use the funds for the purpose of preventing homeowner
mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures, loss of utilities
or home energy services, and displacements of homeowners
experiencing financial hardship after January 21, 2020, through
qualified expenses related to mortgages and housing. Section
3206(e)(1) provides that not later than 45 days after March 11,
2021, the Secretary shall pay each eligible entity. Treasury
intends to begin making payments as soon as possible given the
urgent need for the funds being disbursed.
Pursuant to the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) procedures established at 5 C.F.R. §
1320.13, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) requests
emergency processing for the Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF)
program’s Interim Report Guidance and FAQs and templates, revising
OMB Control Number 1505-0269. On March 11, 2021, the American
Rescue Plan Act was signed into law, and established the Homeowner
Assistance Fund program. This program is intended to mitigate
financial hardships associated with the coronavirus pandemic by
providing funds to eligible entities for the purpose of preventing
homeowner mortgage delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures, loss of
utilities or home energy services, and displacements of homeowners
experiencing financial hardship after January 21, 2020, through
qualified expenses related to mortgages and housing. On April 14,
2021, Treasury published the Homeowner Assistance Fund Guidance
that HAF participants need to comply with to fulfill their
reporting requirements. Treasury has directly engaged with various
interested agencies and stakeholders as well as required HAF
Participants submitting plans to provide input on reporting and
metrics. In recognition of open questions from recipients and
external stakeholders on HAF eligible uses, the HAF program, in
coordination with policy, Office of General Counsel (OGC) and
Office of Recovery Programs (ORP) leadership, recommended a series
of updates to reporting requirements and timelines included in the
FAQs and Reporting Guidance. Treasury is currently working on
developing the interim reporting portal that is expected to go live
around February 14, 2022 but will also require outreach and
communication with recipients throughout the remainder of December
and January. Recipients will use this portal to transmit the
necessary reporting information. As a result, Treasury is
requesting a waiver from the requirement to publish notice in the
Federal Register seeking public comment for the following reasons:
• Treasury will need to provide the Interim Report guidance to
recipients well ahead of the Portal launch date and provide a high
degree of certainty that it will not change, so that recipients can
gather the necessary information and build their own
tools/processes to comply within a 2 month timeframe. Similarly,
the recipients will also need the final templates published to have
confidence to invent in properly building out their processes for
compliance and reporting. • The Interim Report is intended as a
one-time, preliminary report that will include information that
will also be collected as part of the upcoming Quarterly Reports
expected to launch in April, 2022. Given the overlap in information
collected and the timeframe for interim reporting, Treasury
believes it will be more constructive to seek public comment on the
Quarterly Report. • An emergency approval of the Interim Report and
opportunity for public comment for the Quarterly Report will also
reduce duplication of efforts and align the timing better with the
expected PRA renewal for the HAF program information collections
prior to 05/31/2022. For these reasons, Treasury requests emergency
processing and approval as soon as possible for the FAQs and
Reporting Guidance, which set forth substantially all the
information collections of the interim reporting. Treasury plans to
publish the FAQs and Reporting Guidance on December 8, 2021.
The changes since the previous
approval include the burden increases of 1,302 hours associated
with performing compliance reporting, including the one-time
Interim Report.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Interim Reporting
Emergency Justification Memo-HAF Updated Reporting Guidance_signed.pdf
1505-0269 - HAF Supporting Statement - Interim Reports.docx
Interim Reporting