[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 61 (Tuesday, March 31, 2026)] [Notices] [Pages 16004-16006] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2026-06130] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families [Assistance Listing Number: 93.568] Proposed Reallotment of Fiscal Year 2025 Funds for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program AGENCY: Office of Community Services (OCS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ACTION: Notice for public comment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The ACF OCS announces a preliminary determination that funds from the federal fiscal year 2025 (FY25) Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) are available for reallocation to states, territories, tribes, and tribal organizations that received FY26 direct LIHEAP awards. The purpose of this proposed action is to redistribute FY25 annual LIHEAP funds and FY24 and FY25 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funds that recipients were unable to obligate or carry over to FY26. No subrecipients of these recipients or other entities may apply for these funds. DATES: Comments are due April 30, 2026. ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted to: Kate Thomas, Senior Advisor, Office of Community Services, 330 C Street SW, 5th Floor, Mail Room 5425, Washington, DC 20201. Telephone: 202-690-5737; email: [email protected]. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kate Thomas, Senior Advisor, Office of Community Services, 330 C Street SW, 5th Floor, Mail Room 5425, Washington, DC 20201. Telephone: 202-690-5737; email: [email protected]. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Based on a review of FY25 Quarter 3 (Q3) reports and the Carryover and Reallotment Reports (CRR), which include information on unobligated balances, ACF has determined that $2,697,089 of FY25 LIHEAP funds will be available for reallotment for FY26. In addition, $484,019.07 in IIJA funds will be reallotted. The total of the two combined is $3,181,108.07. LIHEAP recipients submitted the FY25 Q3 reports and FY25 CRRs to OCS in accordance with the requirements of 45 CFR 96.81(b). The LIHEAP statute allows recipients who have funds unobligated at the end of the FY to request permission to carry over up to 10 percent of their full-year allotments to the next FY (42 U.S.C. 8626(b)(2)). Funds in excess of this amount must be returned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and are subject to reallotment under 42 U.S.C. 8626(b)(1). In accordance with 42 U.S.C. 8626(b)(1)(B), beginning the week of August 25, 2025, ACF began outreach to each of the 35 recipients with unobligated block grant funds above their carryover caps according to their Q3 reports and CRR, and 60 recipients that had IIJA funds about the carryover caps. Using emails and phone calls, ACF informed each recipient of the amount that, according to the recipients' reports, the recipient needed to obligate before September 30, 2025, or would need to return for de-obligation and redistribution to FY26 recipients as part of the reallotment. ACF conducted outreach the week of February 2, 2026, to finalize these reallotment amounts based on Q3 reports and CRR information. All LIHEAP recipients who receive a portion of these funds will be notified of the final reallotment amount redistributed to them for FY26. This decision will also be published in the Federal Register. The FY25 LIHEAP funds ACF preliminarily expects to become available for reallotment determination, come from the following recipients in the following amounts: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Preliminary amount Name of recipient that has block grant available for reallotment funds to be returned for reallotment \1\ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alaska.................................... $258,497 Absentee Shawnee Tribe.................... 2,478 Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town............. 12,595 Sitka Tribe Of Alaska..................... 25,391 Ponca Tribe Of Oklahoma................... 26,304 Karuk Tribe of California................. 32,265 Kalispel Indian Community of the Kalispel 5,284 Reservation.............................. Sac & Fox Nation.......................... 2,792 Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians of NJ,..... 50,587 Hoh Indian Tribe.......................... 5,114 Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. 5,052 Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma................ 2,828 Monacan Indian Nation..................... 20,195 Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians....... 15,976 Nooksack Tribe............................ 5,441 Poarch Band of Creek Indians.............. 49,986 Standing Rock Sioux Tribe................. 638,197 Mowa Band of Choctaw Indians.............. 88,421 Pleasant Point Indian Reservation......... 122,023 Confederated Tribes Of Warm Springs 77,481 Reservation Of Oregon.................... Inter Tribal Council of Michigan Inc...... 9,495 Jicarilla Apache Nation................... 19,004 White Mountain Apache..................... 101,103 Colorado River Indian Tribes.............. 947 Northern Arapaho Tribe.................... 16,828 Oglala Sioux Tribe........................ 369,377 Eastern Shoshone Tribe.................... 70,093 Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah............... 11,991 Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakama 118,386 Nation................................... Three Affiliated Tribes................... 376,883 [[Page 16005]] Northern Cheyenne Tribe................... 42,986 Lower Elhwa Tribal Community Council...... 15,720 Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.................. 43,980 Pueblo of Jemez........................... 13,343 Chuathbaluk............................... 40,046 ----------------------------- Total................................. 2,697,089 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ \1\ Preliminary funds identified for reallotment are based on amounts reported as unobligated and in excess of LIHEAP's 10 percent carryover cap by 35 recipients, as reflected in either the FY25 Quarter 3 (Q3) report or the Carryover and Reallotment Report (CRR). These figures are subject to further reconciliation by OCS using recipients' Federal Financial Reports (FFRs), CRRs, and PMS data. Final reallotment amounts may change following reconciliation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Preliminary amount Name of recipient that has IIJA funds to available for reallotment be returned for reallotment \1\ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ United Cherokee Ani-Yun Wiya Nation....... $936.20 State of Alaska Department of Health...... 278,613 Chuathbaluk Traditional Council........... 569.80 Kenaitze Indian Tribe..................... 1.90 Sitka Tribe of Alaska..................... 1,995.60 Cocopah Tribe............................. 467.10 San Carlos Apache Tribe................... 2,872.50 White Mountain Apache Tribe............... 4,103.00 Berry Creek Rancheria..................... 166.50 Enterprise Rancheria...................... 63.90 Hopland Band.............................. 174.60 Karuk Tribe............................... 1,733 Riverside-San Bernardino Indian Health.... 1,147.70 Round Valley.............................. 738.10 Southern Indian Health Council............ 147.60 Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians.......... 4,490.60 Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians.......... 4,490.60 Grand Traverse Ottawa/Chippewa Band....... 596.70 Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan.......... 2,268.20 Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians (also 4,095.40 in Indiana).............................. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians....... 1,506.80 Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes (Fort Peck).... 3,950.10 Blackfeet Tribe........................... 27,103.00 Confederated Salish and Kootenai.......... 25,766 Chippewa-Cree Tribe....................... 20.70 Fort Belknap Community.................... 9,371.00 Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation...... 2,498.00 Jicarilla Apache Tribe.................... 264.33 Pueblo of Jemez........................... 296.10 Pueblo of Laguna.......................... 1,153.90 Pueblo of Nambe........................... 211.50 Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.......... 2,289.00 Three Affiliated Tribes (Fort Berthold)... 27,676.40 Absentee Shawnee Tribe.................... 170.20 Comanche Indian Tribe..................... 2,239.60 Delaware Tribe of Indians................. 720.10 Fort Sill Apache Tribe.................... 88.20 Kiowa Indian Tribe........................ 1,351.10 Osage Tribe............................... 3,287.30 Otoe-Missouria Tribe...................... 203.50 Pawnee Tribe.............................. 805.60 Ponca Tribe............................... 4,435.90 Quapaw Tribe.............................. 607.60 Sac & Fox Tribe of Oklahoma............... 3,261.88 United Keetoowah.......................... 5,741.00 Klamath Tribe............................. 3,907.80 Narragansett Indian Tribe................. 851.50 Oglala Sioux Tribe........................ 7,258.28 Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah............... 2,662.50 Colville Confederated Tribes.............. 7,340.98 Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe................. 226.80 Makah Indian Tribe........................ 1,790.10 Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.................. 819.00 Nooksack Indian Tribe..................... 630.00 Quinault Tribe............................ 1,991.70 Swinomish Indians......................... 970.20 Yakama Indian Nation...................... 8,244.00 Eastern Shoshone of the Wind River........ 4,713.80 [[Page 16006]] Northern Arapaho Nation................... 7,860.60 ----------------------------- Total................................. 484,019.07 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ \1\ Reallotment amounts were calculated by subtracting the allowable 10 percent carryover from each grant recipient's IIJA fund balance in the Payment Management System (PMS). These figures include IIJA funds from both FY 2024 and FY 2025 and reflect amounts from 60 grant recipients. Karuk, Nanticoke, and Sac & Fox are the only grant recipients returning IIJA funds from both FY 2024 and FY 2025. Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma did not receive funding in FY 2026 and is not eligible for reallotment. If funds are reallotted, then they will be allocated in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 8623 and must be treated by LIHEAP recipients that receive them as funds appropriated for FY26. As FY26 funds, they will be subject to all requirements of the LIHEAP statute, including 42 U.S.C. 8626(b)(2), which requires that a recipient obligate at least 90 percent of its total block grant allocation for a FY by the end of the FY for which the funds are appropriated; that is, by September 30, 2026. Furthermore, recipients who receive these funds may use them for any purpose authorized under LIHEAP and must add them to their total LIHEAP funds payable for FY26 to calculate statutory caps on administrative costs, carryover, Assurance 16 activities, and weatherization assistance. Additionally, all recipients of these funds must (1) ensure that these funds are included in the amounts on Lines 1.1 of their FY26 CRRs; (2) reconcile these funds, to the extent that they received them, on their corresponding FFRs; and (3) record, on their FY26 Household Reports, households that receive benefits at least partly from these funds. State recipients must also ensure that these funds are included in the Grantee Survey sections of their FY26 LIHEAP Performance Data Forms. Statutory Authority: 42 U.S.C. 8626(b). Elizabeth Leo, Grants Policy Branch Chief, Office of Grants Policy, Office of Administration. [FR Doc. 2026-06130 Filed 3-30-26; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4184-80-P