[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 12, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8947-8949]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-04440]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY


Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; Request for 
Public Comment Announcement Type: Notice and Request for Public Comment

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing 
effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general 
public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment 
on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by 
the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). Currently, the Community Development 
Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), U.S. Department of the 
Treasury, is soliciting comments concerning the Community Development 
Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and the Native American 
CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program) Financial Assistance and 
Technical Assistance Applications, for the FY 2020-FY 2022 funding 
rounds (hereafter, the Application or Applications). The Financial 
Assistance Application includes optional questions that addresses 
Healthy Food Financing Initiative--Financial Assistance (HFFI-FA), 
Persistent Poverty Counties--Financial Assistance (PPC-FA) and 
Disability Funds--Financial Assistance (DF-FA).
    The CDFI Fund is required by law to make the Applications 
publically available for comment prior to submission for a new PRA 
number.

DATES: Written comments must be received on or before May 13, 2019 to 
be assured of consideration.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments via email to Amber Bell, CDFI Program 
and NACA Program Manager, CDFI Fund, at [email protected] or 
Service Request in the Award Management Information System (AMIS).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amber Bell, CDFI Program and NACA 
Program Manager, CDFI Fund, U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1500 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20220 or email to 
[email protected].
    The Applications may be obtained from the CDFI Program page and 
NACA Program page of the CDFI Fund's website https://www.cdfifund.gov/Lists/CDFI%20News/View.aspx.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Title: CDFI Program and NACA Program Financial Assistance and 
Technical Assistance Applications; OMB Number: 1559-0021.
    Abstract: The CDFI Program is authorized by the Riegle Community 
Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 
103-325, 12 U.S.C. 4701 et seq.). Funding for the CDFI Program and the 
NACA Program is made available by Congress to the CDFI Fund through its 
annual appropriations. The regulations governing the CDFI Program are 
found at 12 CFR parts 1805 and 1815 (the Regulations) and set forth 
evaluation criteria and other program requirements. For a complete 
understanding of the programs, the CDFI Fund encourages Applicants to 
review the Regulations, the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) for the 
FY 2018 application round of the CDFI Program (83 Federal Register 
8322, February 1, 2018), the NOFA for the FY 2018 application round of 
the NACA Program (83 Federal Register 8342, February 1, 2018), the 
Application, and the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost 
Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR 200) 
(Uniform Administrative Requirements). Capitalized terms in this 
Request for Public Comment are defined in the CDFI Program's 
authorizing statute, the Regulations, the FY 2018 CDFI Program and NACA 
Program NOFAs, the Application, and the Uniform Administrative 
Requirements.
    Through the CDFI Program and NACA Program's Financial Assistance 
awards and Technical Assistance grants, the CDFI Fund invests in and 
builds the capacity of for-profit and nonprofit community based lending 
organizations known as Community Development Financial Institutions 
(CDFIs).
    CDFI Program and NACA Program award Recipients will be 
competitively selected after the CDFI Fund's careful review of their 
Applications. The proposed Financial Assistance Application requires 
the submission of quantitative and qualitative information about the 
Applicant's Business Strategy,

[[Page 8948]]

Products and Services, Market and Competitive Analysis, Management and 
Staffing, Financial Position, and Growth and Projections. The proposed 
Technical Assistance Application requires the submission of 
quantitative and qualitative information about CDFI Certification 
Qualifications, an Organizational Overview, and Use of Funds. Please 
refer to the FY 2018 CDFI Program and NACA Program NOFAs for additional 
guidance on the review and application process for past funding rounds.
    This request for public comment seeks to gather information on the 
CDFI Program and NACA Program Financial Assistance which includes the 
optional questions for PPC-FA, HFFI-FA and DF-FA and Technical 
Assistance Applications.
    Current Actions: Renewal of existing Information Collection, the 
retirement of OMB Number: 1559-0048 for Disability Funds-Financial 
Assistance and OMB Number 1559-0040 for Healthy Food Financing 
Initiative-Financial Asssitance (HFFI-FA) and the consolidation of the 
DF-FA and HFFI-FA Application under OMB Number 1559-0021.
    Type of Review: Regular Review.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profit institutions, non-
profit entities, and State, local and Tribal entities participating in 
CDFI Fund programs.
    Estimated Number of Respondents for Financial Assistance: 400.
    Estimated Annual Time per Respondent for Financial Assistance 
Including Optional Questions: 200 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours for Financial Assistance: 
80,000.
    Estimated Number of Respondents for Technical Assistance: 100.
    Estimated Annual Time per Respondent for Technical Assistance: 50 
hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours for Technical Assistance: 
5,000.
    Requests for Comments: Comments submitted in response to this 
notice will be summarized and/or included in the request for Office of 
Management and Budget approval. All comments will become a matter of 
public record and may be published on the CDFI Fund's website at http://www.cdfifund.gov. The CDFI Fund is seeking input on the content of the 
CDFI Program and NACA Program Financial Assistance and Technical 
Assistance Applications. The Applications may be obtained on the CDFI 
Fund's website at https://www.cdfifund.gov/Lists/CDFI%20News/View.aspx. 
CDFI Program and NACA Program Financial Assistance awards must be used 
for Financial Products, Financial Services, and/or Development Services 
for commercial facilities, commercial real estate, small businesses, 
microenterprises, community facilities, consumer financial products and 
services, affordable housing, and intermediary lending to nonprofits 
and CDFIs--so long as those activities allow the Recipient to achieve 
at least one of the following statutorily required Financial Assistance 
activities: Expand operations into a new Geographic Area(s); serve a 
new Targeted Population(s); provide additional or new Financial 
Products and Services; and/or increase the volume of current Financial 
Products and/or Development.
    Comments concerning the Applications are invited on: (a) Whether 
the collection of information is necessary for the proper performance 
of the functions of the agency, including whether the information shall 
have practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of 
the burden of the collection of information; (c) ways to enhance the 
quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; (d) 
ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
respondents, including through the use of technology; and (e) estimates 
of capital or start-up costs and costs of operation, maintenance, and 
purchase of services required to provide information.
    In addition, the CDFI Fund requests comments in response to the 
following questions:

Financial Assistance (FA) Application

    1. Is the information that is proposed to be collected by the 
Application necessary and appropriate for the CDFI Fund to consider for 
the purpose of making award decisions?
    2. Are certain questions or tables redundant or unnecessary?
    3. Should any questions or tables be added to ensure collection of 
relevant information?
    4. In general, does the data and information requested in the 
Application allow an Applicant to demonstrate its ability explain its 
business plan and ability to meet the FA Ojectives described in the 
Application?
    5. Is the data and information requested in the Application to 
assess the business plan adequate to assess the different CDFI 
activities?
    6. What, if any, additional data and information should be 
collected to assess business plan activities?
    7. Are any of the questions particularly burdensome or difficult to 
answer? If so, please be specific as to type of CDFI (e.g., regulated, 
non-profit, sector) that find it difficult.
    8. Are the character limitations for narrative responses 
appropriate? Should certain questions allow additional or fewer 
characters? If so, please specify.
    9. Are there questions that lack clarity as to intent or purpose? 
If so, which questions, and what needs to be clarified in order for 
Applicants to provide a comprehensive response?
    10. Tables in Questions 6 a-d ask for certain data and information 
that will be used to assess an Applicant's projected Financial 
Assistance Objectives. Is the data collected in these tables adequate 
to assess an Applicant's projected Financial Assistance Objectives?
    11. Is there other information not requested in the Application 
that would demonstrate an Applicant's projected business plan 
activities?
    12. The proposed application includes new questions from the 
Treasury Office of Civil Rights and Diversity (OCRD) concerning data 
collection for civil rights compliance and enforcement purposes under 
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and similar statutes applicable to 
Federal financial assistance.
    a. Will Applicants be able to answer the questions?
    b. Are there any questions that regulated insitutions cannot 
answer?
    c. What is the anticipated level of burden to answer the proposed 
questions?
    13. Are there requests for data in the Application that Applicants 
do not have readily available or that are burdensome to obtain and/or 
calculate?
    14. In previous application rounds, the CDFI Fund mandated that FA 
Applicants must be Certified as CDFIs prior to the announcement of 
award decisions in order to receive an FA award. Beginning with the FY 
2020 application round, the CDFI Fund plans to change this requirement 
so that FA Applicants must be Certified CDFIs as of the date the NOFA 
is published in the Federal Register. In your opinion, would this 
requirement limit the number of organizations that apply for the FA 
award or cause undue hardship on Applicants? If so, in what way?
    15. The CDFI Fund is seeking input in order to update the current 
definition of Financial Services to better reflect the range of 
Financial Services offered by the industry. Financial Services is 
currently defined as FA expended for providing checking, savings 
accounts, check cashing, money orders, certified checks, automated 
teller machines, deposit taking, safe deposit box services, and other 
similar services. The CDFI Fund is also seeking input on how

[[Page 8949]]

different Financial Services are measured in the industry.
    a. What, if any, updates should the CDFI Fund make to the 
definition of Financial Services?
    b. How should the CDFI Fund measure each type of Financial Service 
based on industry practice?
    The following are examples of the type of responses the CDFI Fund 
is hoping to receive from the industry. These examples are provided for 
illustrative purposes and the responses you provide may vary. Example 
1: For the type of Financial Service of providing checking accounts the 
unit of measurement could be the number of clients opening a new 
checking account. Example 2: For the type of Financial Service of 
automatic teller machines the unit of measurement could be the number 
of ATMs opened.
    16. The current application has the following predetermined 
Eligible Lines of Business for the FA Award: Affordable Housing, 
Commercial Financial Services, Commercial Real Estate, Community 
Facilities, Consumer Financial Products, Consumer Financial Services, 
Intermediary Lending, Microenterprise, and Small Business. Are there 
other commonly provided Lines of Business not captured in this list?

Technical Assistance (TA) Application

    17. Based on its applicant type, do the questions in the TA 
Application allow the Applicant to clearly address the evaluation 
criteria for:
    (a) An Emerging and Certifiable CDFI and its ability to achieve 
certification;
    (b) A Sponsoring Entity and its ability to create and certify a new 
CDFI; and
    (c) A Certified CDFI and its ability to build its capacity to 
expand operations, offer new products or services, or increase the 
volume of current business?
    18. How do CDFIs improve their capacity by spending TA award funds 
on Supplies, and Equipment? What questions could the Application 
contain that would provide this information about these capacity 
improvements?
    19. Are there questions in the TA Application that are unclear and/
or repetitive?
    20. What additional guidance can the CDFI Fund provide in order to 
assist applicants with completing a TA application?
    21. Can the CDFI Fund adjust its TA application in order to better 
collect information and evaluate an applicant's ability to serve the 
unique needs of Native Communities? If yes, what questions should the 
CDFI Fund include in the TA application and what evaluation factors 
should the CDFI Fund consider when evaluating an applicant's ability to 
serve the unique needs of Native Communities?
    22. Should the CDFI Fund develop NACA Program TA application 
questions that are specific to organizations applying as Sponsoring 
Entities? If yes, what questions should the application include in 
order to assess an organization's ability to successfully create an 
emerging CDFI within one year and ensure that the emerging CDFI 
achieves CDFI Certification within four years?
    23. The primary purpose of making a Technical Assistance Award to a 
certified CDFI is to increase its capacity to serve its Target 
Market(s). How can the CDFI and NACA Programs update their Technical 
Assistance applications in order to make a more accurate determination 
as to whether or not a TA award will increase a certified CDFI's 
capacity to serve its Target Market?
    24. Does the current TA application, related guidance materials, 
and NOFAs provide sufficient clarity to help potential applicants 
clearly understand what are, and are not, eligible uses of TA funds?

Healthy Food Financing Initiative-Financial Assistance (HFFI-FA) 
Application; OMB Number 1559-0040 (OMB Number To Be Retired)

    25. Is the information being collected sufficient to determine 
whether an Applicant is financing eligible Healthy Foods transactions? 
If no, what other information should the CDFI Fund collect in order to 
determine whether an Applicant is financing eligible Healthy Foods 
transactions?

Persistent Poverty Counties-Financial Assistance (PPC-FA) Application

    26. Is the information collected sufficient to determine whether an 
Applicant is providing eligible financing in Persistent Poverty 
Counties? What other information should the CDFI Fund consider in order 
to determine whether an Applicant is providing financing in Persistent 
Poverty Counties?

Disability Funds-Financial Assistance (DF-FA) Application OMB Number: 
1559-0048 (OMB Number To Be Retired)

    Requested Comments: None.

    Authority:  Pub. L. 110-289, 12 CFR 1807.

Jodie L. Harris,
Director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
[FR Doc. 2019-04440 Filed 3-11-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4810-05-P