General

29 C.F.R. Part ..., Subpart A
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01

29 C.F.R. § 97.1 Purpose and scope of this part.

This part establishes uniform administrative rules for Federal grants and cooperative agreements and subawards to State, local and Indian tribal governments.

29 C.F.R. § 97.2 Scope of subpart.

This subpart contains general rules pertaining to this part and procedures for control of exceptions from this part.

29 C.F.R. § 97.3 Definitions.

As used in this part: Accrued expenditures mean the charges incurred by the grantee during a given period requiring the provision of funds for: (1) Goods and other tangible property received; (2) Services performed by employees, contractors, subgrantees, subcontractors, and other payees; and (3) Other amounts becoming owed under programs for which no current services or performance is required, such as annuities, insurance claims, and other benefit payments. Accrued income means the sum of: (1) Earnings during a given period from services performed by the grantee and goods and other tangible property delivered to purchasers, and (2) Amounts becoming owed to the grantee for which no current services or performance is required by the grantee. Acquisition cost of an item of purchased equipment means the net invoice unit price of the property including the cost of modifications, attachments, accessories, or auxiliary apparatus necessary to make the property usable for the purpose for which it was acquired. Other charges such as the cost of installation, transportation, taxes, duty or protective in-transit insurance, shall be included or excluded from the unit acquisition cost in accordance with the grantee's regular accounting practices. Administrative requirements mean those matters common to grants in general, such as financial management, kinds and frequency of reports, and retention of records. These are distinguished from programmatic requirements, which concern matters that can be treated only on a program-by-program or grant-by-grant basis, such as kinds of activities that can be supported by grants under a particular program. Awarding agency means: (1) With respect to a grant, the Federal agency, and (2) With respect to a subgrant, the party that awarded the subgrant. Cash contributions means the grantee's cash outlay, including the outlay of money contributed to the grantee or subgrantee by other public agencies and institutions, and private organizations and individuals. When authorized by Federal legislation, Federal funds received from other assistance agreements may be considered as grantee or subgrantee cash contributions. Contract means (except as used in the definitions for grant and subgrant in this section and except where qualified by Federal) a procurement contract under a grant or subgrant, and means a procurement subcontract under a contract. Cost sharing or matching means the value of the third party in-kind contributions and the portion of the costs of a federally assisted project or program not borne by the Federal Government. Cost-type contract means a contract or subcontract under a grant in which the contractor or subcontractor is paid on the basis of the costs it incurs, with or without a fee. Equipment means tangible, nonexpendable, personal property having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost of $5,000 or more per unit. A grantee may use its own definition of equipment provided that such definition would at least include all equipment defined above. Expenditure report means: (1) For nonconstruction grants, the SF-269 “Financial Status Report” (or other equivalent report); (2) For construction grants, the SF-271 “Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement” (or other equivalent report). Federally recognized Indian tribal government means the governing body or a governmental agency of any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community (including any Native village as defined in section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 85 Stat 688) certified by the Secretary of the Interior as eligible for the special programs and services provided by him through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Government means a State or local government or a federally recognized Indian tribal government. Grant means an award of financial assistance, including cooperative agreements, in the form of money, or property in lieu of money, by the Federal Government to an eligible grantee. The term does not include technical assistance which provides services instead of money, or other assistance in the form of revenue sharing, loans, loan guarantees, interest subsidies, insurance, or direct appropriations. Also, the term does not include assistance, such as a fellowship or other lump sum award, which the grantee is not required to account for. Grantee means the government to which a grant is awarded and which is accountable for the use of the funds provided. The grantee is the entire legal entity even if only a particular component of the entity is designated in the grant award document. Local government means a county, municipality, city, town, township, local public authority (including any public and Indian housing agency under the United States Housing Act of 1937) school district, special district, intrastate district, council of governments (whether or not incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under state law), any other regional or interstate government entity, or any agency or instrumentality of a local government. Obligations means the amounts of orders placed, contracts and subgrants awarded, goods and services received, and similar transactions during a given period that will require payment by the grantee during the same or a future period. OMB means the United States Office of Management and Budget. Outlays (expenditures) mean charges made to the project or program. They may be reported on a cash or accrual basis. For reports prepared on a cash basis, outlays are the sum of actual cash disbursement for direct charges for goods and services, the amount of indirect expense incurred, the value of in-kind contributions applied, and the amount of cash advances and payments made to contractors and subgrantees. For reports prepared on an accrued expenditure basis, outlays are the sum of actual cash disbursements, the amount of indirect expense incurred, the value of inkind contributions applied, and the new increase (or decrease) in the amounts owed by the grantee for goods and other property received, for services performed by employees, contractors, subgrantees, subcontractors, and other payees, and other amounts becoming owed under programs for which no current services or performance are required, such as annuities, insurance claims, and other benefit payments. Percentage of completion method refers to a system under which payments are made for construction work according to the percentage of completion of the work, rather than to the grantee's cost incurred. Prior approval means documentation evidencing consent prior to incurring specific cost. Real property means land, including land improvements, structures and appurtenances thereto, excluding movable machinery and equipment. Share, when referring to the awarding agency's portion of real property, equipment or supplies, means the same percentage as the awarding agency's portion of the acquiring party's total costs under the grant to which the acquisition costs under the grant to which the acquisition cost of the property was charged. Only costs are to be counted—not the value of third-party in-kind contributions. State means any of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or possession of the United States, or any agency or instrumentality of a State exclusive of local governments. The term does not include any public and Indian housing agency under United States Housing Act of 1937. Subgrant means an award of financial assistance in the form of money, or property in lieu of money, made under a grant by a grantee to an eligible subgrantee. The term includes financial assistance when provided by contractual legal agreement, but does not include procurement purchases, nor does it include any form of assistance which is excluded from the definition of grant in this part. Subgrantee means the government or other legal entity to which a subgrant is awarded and which is accountable to the grantee for the use of the funds provided. Supplies means all tangible personal property other than equipment as defined in this part. Suspension means depending on the context, either (1) Temporary withdrawal of the authority to obligate grant funds pending corrective action by the grantee or subgrantee or a decision to terminate the grant, or (2) An action taken by a suspending official in accordance with agency regulations implementing E.O. 12549 to immediately exclude a person from participating in grant transactions for a period, pending completion of an investigation and such legal or debarment proceedings as may ensue. Termination means permanent withdrawal of the authority to obligate previously-awarded grant funds before that authority would otherwise expire. It also means the voluntary relinquishment of that authority by the grantee or subgrantee. Termination does not include: (1) Withdrawal of funds awarded on the basis of the grantee's underestimate of the unobligated balance in a prior period; (2) Withdrawal of the unobligated balance as of the expiration of a grant; (3) Refusal to extend a grant or award additional funds, to make a competing or noncompeting continuation, renewal, extension, or supplemental award; or (4) Voiding of a grant upon determination that the award was obtained fraudulently, or was otherwise illegal or invalid from inception. Terms of a grant or subgrant mean all requirements of the grant or subgrant, whether in statute, regulations, or the award document. Third party in-kind contributions mean property or services which benefit a federally assisted project or program and which are contributed by non-Federal third parties without charge to the grantee, or a cost-type contractor under the grant agreement. Unliquidated obligations for reports prepared on a cash basis mean the amount of obligations incurred by the grantee that has not been paid. For reports prepared on an accrued expenditure basis, they represent the amount of obligations incurred by the grantee for which an outlay has not been recorded. Unobligated balance means the portion of the funds authorized by the Federal agency that has not been obligated by the grantee and is determined by deducting the cumulative obligations from the cumulative funds authorized.

29 C.F.R. § 97.4 Applicability.

(a) General. Subparts A-D of this part apply to all grants and subgrants to governments, except where inconsistent with Federal statutes or with regulations authorized in accordance with the exception provision of § 97.6, or: (1) Grants and subgrants to State and local institutions of higher education or State and local hospitals. (2) The block grants authorized by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (Community Services; Preventive Health and Health Services; Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Services; Maternal and Child Health Services; Social Services; Low-Income Home Energy Assistance; States' Program of Community Development Block Grants for Small Cities; and Elementary and Secondary Education other than programs administered by the Secretary of Education under title V, subtitle D, chapter 2, Section 583—the Secretary's discretionary grant program) and titles I-III of the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 and under the Public Health Services Act (section 1921), Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Block Grant and part C of title V, Mental Health Service for the Homeless Block Grant). (3) Entitlement grants to carry out the following programs of the Social Security Act: (i) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (title IV-A of the Act, not including the Work Incentive Program (WIN) authorized by section 402(a)19(G); HHS grants for WIN are subject to this part); (ii) Child Support Enforcement and Establishment of Paternity (title IV-D of the Act); (iii) Foster Care and Adoption Assistance (title IV-E of the Act); (iv) Aid to the Aged, Blind, and Disabled (titles I, X, XIV, and XVI-AABD of the Act); and (v) Medical Assistance (Medicaid) (title XIX of the Act) not including the State Medicaid Fraud Control program authorized by section 1903(a)(6)(B). (4) Entitlement grants under the following programs of The National School Lunch Act: (i) School Lunch (section 4 of the Act), (ii) Commodity Assistance (section 6 of the Act), (iii) Special Meal Assistance (section 11 of the Act), (iv) Summer Food Service for Children (section 13 of the Act), and (v) Child Care Food Program (section 17 of the Act). (5) Entitlement grants under the following programs of The Child Nutrition Act of 1966: (i) Special Milk (section 3 of the Act), and (ii) School Breakfast (section 4 of the Act). (6) Entitlement grants for State Administrative expenses under The Food Stamp Act of 1977 (section 16 of the Act). (7) A grant for an experimental, pilot, or demonstration project that is also supported by a grant listed in paragraph (a)(3) of this section; (8) Grant funds awarded under subsection 412(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1522(e)) and subsection 501(a) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980 (Pub. L. 96-422, 94 Stat. 1809), for cash assistance, medical assistance, and supplemental security income benefits to refugees and entrants and the administrative costs of providing the assistance and benefits; (9) Grants to local education agencies under 20 U.S.C. 236 through 241-1(a), and 242 through 244 (portions of the Impact Aid program), except for 20 U.S.C. 238(d)(2)(c) and 240(f) (Entitlement Increase for Handicapped Children); and (10) Payments under the Department of Veterans Affairs' State Home Per Diem Program (38 U.S.C. 641(a)). (b) Entitlement programs. Entitlement programs enumerated above in § 97.4(a)(3) through (8) are subject to subpart E.

29 C.F.R. § 97.5 Effect on other issuances.

All other grants administration provisions of codified program regulations, program manuals, handbooks and other nonregulatory materials which are inconsistent with this part are superseded, except to the extent they are required by statute, or authorized in accordance with the exception provision in § 97.6.

29 C.F.R. § 97.6 Additions and exceptions.

(a) For classes of grants and grantees subject to this part, Federal agencies may not impose additional administrative requirements except in codified regulations published in the Federal Register. (b) Exceptions for classes of grants or grantees may be authorized only by OMB. (c) Exceptions on a case-by-case basis and for subgrantees may be authorized by the affected Federal agencies.

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