[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 217 (Tuesday, November 10, 2015)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 69563-69564]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-28432]



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 Rules and Regulations
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  Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 217 / Tuesday, November 10, 2015 / 
Rules and Regulations  

[[Page 69563]]



SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

2 CFR Part 2300

20 CFR Parts 435 and 437

[Docket No. SSA-2015-0022]
RIN 0960-AH73


Federal Awarding Agency Regulatory Implementation of Office of 
Management and Budget's Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost 
Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards

AGENCY: Social Security Administration.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: This final rule adopts the joint interim final rule that was 
published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2014. This final rule 
implements the final guidance Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost 
Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform 
Guidance) published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on 
December 26, 2013. This rule brings into effect the Uniform Guidance as 
required by OMB. Implementation of this guidance by all Federal award-
making agencies will reduce administrative burden and risk of waste, 
fraud, and abuse for the approximately $600 billion per year awarded in 
Federal financial assistance government wide. The result will be more 
Federal dollars reprogrammed to support the mission, an increase in the 
number of new entities able to compete and win awards, and ultimately a 
stronger framework to provide key services to American citizens and 
support the basic research that underpins the United States economy.

DATES: This final rule is effective November 10, 2015.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For general information, please 
contact Christopher Brennan, Division Director, at the Social Security 
Administration Office of Acquisition and Grants, 6401 Security 
Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235, or via telephone at (410) 966-0392.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    This final rule adopts the joint interim final rule that was 
published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2014 (available at 79 
FR 75871).\1\ The joint interim final rule implemented for all Federal 
award-making agencies the final guidance Uniform Administrative 
Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal 
Awards published by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on 
December 26, 2013 in 2 CFR part 200 (Uniform Guidance--available at 78 
FR 78589). The Uniform Guidance followed on a Notice of Proposed 
Guidance issued February 1, 2013 (available at 78 FR 7282), and an 
Advanced Notice of Proposed Guidance issued February 28, 2012 
(available at 77 FR 11778). The final guidance incorporated feedback 
received from the public in response to those earlier issuances. 
Additional supporting resources are available from the Council on 
Financial Assistance Reform at www.cfo.gov/COFAR.
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    \1\ The Interim Final Rule is available at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2014-12-19/pdf/2014-28697.pdf.
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    The Uniform Guidance delivered on two presidential directives; 
Executive Order 13520 on Reducing Improper Payments (74 FR 62201; 
November 15, 20019), and February 28, 2011 Presidential Memorandum on 
Administrative Flexibility, Lower Costs, and Better Results for State, 
Local, and Tribal Governments, (Daily Comp. Pres. Docs.; http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/DCPD-201100123/pdf/DCPD-201100123.pdf). It 
reflected more than two years of work by the Council on Financial 
Assistance Reform to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of 
Federal financial assistance. For a detailed discussion of the reform 
and its impacts, please see the Federal Register notice for the 
issuance of the final guidance (78 FR 78589).
    With this final rule, we are adopting OMB's uniform guidance to 
make technical corrections where needed into our chapter of title 2 of 
the CFR. With respect to the technical corrections that OMB is issuing, 
these corrections are included only where it has come to the attention 
of the COFAR that particular language in the final guidance did not 
match with the COFAR's intent and would result in an erroneous 
implementation of the guidance. These technical corrections were 
detailed in the interim final rule published in the Federal Register on 
December 19, 2014 (available at 79 FR 75871).

Regulatory Procedures

Executive Order 12866 as Supplemented by Executive Order 13563

    Pursuant to Executive Order 12866 as supplements by Executive Order 
13563, OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has 
designated this joint interim final rule to be not significant.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) requires an agency that is 
issuing a final rule to provide a final regulatory flexibility analysis 
or to certify that the rule will not have a significant economic impact 
on a substantial number of small entities. The common interim final 
rule implemented OMB final guidance issued on December 26, 2013, and 
will not have a significant economic impact beyond the impact of the 
December 2013 guidance.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 
Ch. 3506; 5 CFR 1320 Appendix A.1) (PRA), each agency reviewed its 
final rule and determined that there are no new collections of 
information contained therein. However, the OMB uniform guidance in 2 
CFR 200 may have a negligible effect on burden estimates for existing 
information collections, including recordkeeping requirements for non-
Federal entities that receive Federal awards.

Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553)

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking in General

    OMB offered the public two opportunities to comment on the Uniform 
Guidance, first through an advanced notice of proposed guidance and, 
second, through a notice of proposed guidance. OMB considered over 300 
comments submitted in

[[Page 69564]]

response to each of these notices. OMB has directed agencies to adopt 
the uniform guidance in part 200 without change, except to the extent 
that an agency can demonstrate that any conflicting agency requirements 
are required by statute or regulations, or consistent with longstanding 
practice and approved by OMB. Finally, OMB made clear that the 
requirements in 2 CFR part 200, including the audit requirements in 
subpart F, will apply, starting on December 26, 2014, which gave 
recipients of all types of financial assistance advance notice of when 
the regulations would become effective. Therefore, under 5 U.S.C. 
553(b)(B), there is good cause for waiving proposed rulemaking as 
unnecessary.

Waiver of Delayed Effective Date in General

    Generally, those agencies that are subject to the Administrative 
Procedures Act (APA) are required to delay the effective date of their 
final regulations by 30 days after publication, as required under 5 
U.S.C. 553(d), unless an exception under subsection (d) applies.
    Under 5 U.S.C. 553(d), these agencies may waive the delayed 
effective date requirement if they find good cause and explain the 
basis for the waiver in the final rulemaking document or if the 
regulations grant or recognize an exemption or relieve a restriction. 
In the present case, there is good cause to waive the delayed effective 
date for two reasons.
    First, OMB informed the public on December 26, 2013, that agencies 
would be required to adopt the Uniform Guidance and make it effective 
by December 26, 2014. The public has had significant time to prepare 
for the promulgation of these interim final regulations.
    Second, while these interim final regulations are based on a new, 
more effective method for establishing government-wide requirements, 
the substance of the regulations are, in most cases, virtually 
identical to the requirements that exist in current agency regulations. 
In virtually all cases where the new regulations depart from prior OMB 
guidance to agencies, the new regulations reduce burdens on the public, 
for example, by increasing the threshold for single audits from 
$500,000 to $750,000.
    Based on these considerations, since we are subject to the APA, we 
have determined that there is good cause to waive the delayed effective 
date for this final rule.

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 Determination

    Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (Unfunded 
Mandates Act) (2 U.S.C. 1532) requires that covered agencies prepare a 
budgetary impact statement before promulgating a rule that includes any 
Federal mandate that may result in the expenditure by State, local, and 
tribal governments, in the aggregate, or by the private sector, of $100 
million or more in any one year. If a budgetary impact statement is 
required, section 205 of the Unfunded Mandates Act also requires 
covered agencies to identify and consider a reasonable number of 
regulatory alternatives before promulgating a rule. OMB has determined 
that the joint interim final rule will not result in expenditures by 
State, local, and tribal governments, or by the private sector, of $100 
million or more in any one year. Accordingly, we have not prepared a 
budgetary impact statement or specifically addressed the regulatory 
alternatives considered.

Executive Order 13132 Determination

    OMB determined that the joint interim final rule did not have any 
Federalism implications, as required by Executive Order 13132.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program Nos. 96.001, Social 
Security--Disability Insurance; 96.002, Social Security--Retirement 
Insurance; 96.004, Social Security--Survivors Insurance; 96.006, 
Supplemental Security Income; 96.007, Social Security Research and 
Demonstration; 96.008, Social Security--Work Incentives Planning and 
Assistance Programs; 96.009, Social Security State Grants for Work 
Incentives Assistance to Disabled Beneficiaries.)

Carolyn W. Colvin,
Acting Commissioner of Social Security.

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, we are adopting the 
interim final rule, which was published on December 19, 2014 (available 
at 79 FR 75871) that amended 2 CFR chapter XXIII and, under the 
authority of 5 U.S.C. 301, removed and reserved parts 435 and 437 of 
title 20, chapter III of the Code of Federal Regulations as a final 
rule without any further changes.

[FR Doc. 2015-28432 Filed 11-9-15; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4191-02-P