[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 53 (Monday, March 18, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11081-11082]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-6417]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Community Development Financial Institutions Fund


Community Development Financial Institutions Program; Bank 
Enterprise Award Program

AGENCY: Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Department 
of the Treasury.

ACTION: Notice of waiver.

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SUMMARY: The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (the 
Fund) has granted a waiver of the deadline for receipt of an 
application under the Community Development Financial Institutions 
(CDFI) Program and the Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) Program for certain 
applications which were received after the deadline of 4 p.m. Eastern 
Standard Time on January 29, 1996. The waiver is applicable to those 
applications for which the Fund has determined that on or before 
January 29, 1996, the actual process of delivering the application to 
the Fund was initiated.

ADDRESSES: All questions or comments concerning the contents of this 
action should be addressed to the Director, Community Development 
Financial Institutions Fund, Department of the Treasury, 1500 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20220.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The Community Development Financial 
Institutions Fund, Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue 
NW., Washington, DC 20220 at (202) 622-8662. (This is not a toll free 
number.).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The interim regulations for the CDFI Program 
(12 CFR part 1805) and the BEA Program (12 CFR part 1806), published in 
the Federal Register on October 19, 1995 (60 FR 54110), provide that 
the deadline for submission of applications will be established in a 
Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) published in the Federal Register. 
(Sec. 1805.700, Sec. 1806.206) The regulations also provide that the 
Fund may waive any requirement of such regulations that is not required 
by law upon a determination of good cause.

[[Page 11082]]
(Sec. 1805.105, Sec. 1806.104) Each such waiver must be in writing and 
supported by a statement of the facts and grounds forming the basis of 
the waiver. For waivers of general applicability, the Fund is required 
to publish notice of granted waivers in the Federal Register.
    On October 19, 1995 the Department of the Treasury published a NOFA 
for the CDFI Program (60 FR 54136) and a separate NOFA for the BEA 
Program (60 FR 54140) which established initial deadlines for receipt 
by the Fund of applications. The Department of the Treasury 
subsequently published Notices on December 8, 1995 (60 FR 63120) and 
January 17, 1996 (61 FR 1204) which had the ultimate effect of 
extending the application receipt deadlines for both the CDFI Program 
and the BEA Program to 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 29, 
1996. Each of these Notices stated that an application received by the 
Fund after the specified date and time would not be accepted and would 
be returned to the sender.
    The Fund has determined to waive the application deadline with 
respect to applications as to which the process of delivery to the Fund 
was commenced on or before January 29, 1996. The Fund received certain 
applications for both the CDFI Program and the BEA Program after the 
stated deadline with respect to which the Fund has determined that the 
actual process of delivering the application to the Fund was initiated 
on or before January 29, 1996. In this connection, the Fund has 
determined that the actual process of delivery will be considered to 
have been initiated on or before January 29, 1996 if: (1) the 
application was actually received by the Fund on January 29, 1996; (2) 
the application was mailed with a postmark dated on or before January 
29, 1996; or (3) the application was delivered to a professional 
courier service on or before January 29, 1996. This waiver of the 
deadline for receipt by the Fund of these applications is based upon 
the Fund's determination that such a waiver will promote the 
achievement of the purposes of the CDFI Program and the BEA Program and 
their underlying statutes.
    Several factors contributed to the Fund's determination to grant 
this waiver. First, in this first year of implementation of these 
programs it is in the Fund's interest to seek the broadest possible 
participation. Second, preparing an application required an extensive 
amount of work which without the waiver might go to waste merely 
because of a technical failure in the mail or delivery process. Third, 
given the fact that these programs are new, and some applicants had 
never previously applied to the Federal government for funding, there 
appears to have been a certain amount of confusion about the precise 
requirements for delivery of an application in a timely fashion. 
Finally, the effect of the requirement that the Fund be in receipt of 
an application by a specified time appears to have had a 
disproportionately adverse effect on applications from geographically 
remote places. Thus a strict enforcement of the deadline could hinder 
the Fund in achieving its geographic diversity objectives.
    By granting this waiver of the application deadline for this 
initial round of funding, the Fund does not intend in any way to 
establish a precedent for granting similar waivers in subsequent 
funding rounds.

    Authority: 12 U.S.C. 4703, 4717; Chapter X, Pub. L. 104-19, 109 
Stat. 237; 12 CFR 1805.105, 1806.104.

    Dated: March 13, 1996.
Kirsten S. Moy,
Director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
[FR Doc. 96-6417 Filed 3-15-96; 8:45 am]
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