Revising the Budget Period Limitation for Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements, 52008-52010 [E7-18000]

Agencies

• ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 176 (Wednesday, September 12, 2007)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 52008-52010]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-18000]



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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 40

[EPA-HQ-ORD-2007-0419; FRL-8466-9]
RIN 2080-AA12


Revising the Budget Period Limitation for Research Grants and 
Cooperative Agreements

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final rule.

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SUMMARY: EPA is taking direct final action on Revising the Budget 
Period Limitation for Research Grants and Cooperative Agreements. This 
amendment will remove the budget period limitation for research and 
demonstration grants and cooperative agreements. This change is 
administrative in nature. The current rule sets forth a maximum budget 
period of 24 months for all grants and cooperative agreements awarded 
for research and demonstration projects, which can be extended on a 
case-by-case basis. Extensions are often requested creating an 
administrative burden for the EPA. All research and demonstration 
grants will continue to adhere to the project period limitation of five 
years. This change will not adversely affect any current or future 
research or demonstration efforts.

DATES: This rule is effective on November 13, 2007 without further 
notice, unless EPA receives adverse comments by October 12, 2007. If we 
receive such comments, we will publish a timely withdrawal in the 
Federal Register to notify the public that this direct final rule will 
not take effect.

ADDRESSES: Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-
ORD-2007-0419 by one of the following methods:
     www.regulations.gov: Follow the on-line instructions for 
submitting comments.
     E-mail: ord.docket@epa.gov.
     Fax: 202-566-9744.
     Mail: Office of Research and Development (ORD) Docket, 
Environmental Protection Agency, Mail Code: 2822T, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460.
     Hand Delivery: EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), Room 3334, EPA 
West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460, 
Attention Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-2007-0419. Deliveries are only 
accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding 
legal holidays.
    Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-ORD-
2007-0419. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included 
in the public docket without change and may be made available online at 
www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided, 
unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential 
Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is 
restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to 
be CBI or otherwise protected through www.regulations.gov or e-mail. 
The www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, 
which means EPA will not know your identity or contact information 
unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an e-
mail comment directly to EPA without going through www.regulations.gov 
your e-mail address will be automatically captured and included as part 
of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available 
on the Internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends 
that you include your name and other contact information in the body of 
your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read 
your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for 
clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic 
files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of 
encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses. For additional 
information about EPA's public docket visit the EPA Docket Center 
homepage at https://www.epa.gov/epahome/dockets.htm.
    Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the 
www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some 
information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information 
whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such 
as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. 
Publicly available docket materials are available either electronically 
in www.regulations.gov or in hard copy at the ORD Docket, EPA/DC, EPA 
West, Room 3334, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC. The 
Public Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through 
Friday, excluding legal holidays. The telephone number for the Public 
Reading Room is (202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the ORD 
Docket is (202) 566-1752.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John J. Nanartowicz III, Office of 
Research and Development (ORD) Mail Code 8102R, 1200 Pennsylvania 
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20460. The telephone number is (202) 564-
4756; facsimile number is (202) 565-2904; and e-mail is 
Nanartowicz.John@epa.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Constituency Effected: All Office of 
Research and Development award recipients for research grants and 
cooperative agreements.

I. Background

    Forty CFR part 40 establishes the applicable policies and 
procedures governing the award of research and demonstration grants by 
the EPA. The provisions found in part 40 are the principal mechanisms 
that ORD uses to provide grant assistance. This direct final rule will 
address an issue that has become an administrative burden for the EPA. 
The current regulation at Sec.  40.125-1(a) restricts the budget period 
for research and demonstration projects to 24 months. This restriction 
is in conflict with 40 CFR Part 30 (Subpart A, Section 30.2(z)), which 
stipulates that the project period for grants is established through 
the award document, during which Federal sponsorship begins and ends. 
This section allows for the creation of project periods of up to 5 
years through the award document (grant or cooperative agreement).
    Project period definitions are historically based on grantee 
applications. The budget period limitation specified at Sec.  40.125-
1(a) has become a burden for EPA in both programmatic and 
administrative terms. This self imposed restriction has impacted active 
assistance agreements by requiring that grantees apply for budget 
period extensions for their project grants. Accordingly, the Agency is 
compelled to respond to these requests. Due to the unpredictability of 
research, many projects fail to adhere to the two-year time limitation 
set forth in part 40. These deviation requests have become a routine 
occurrence for many research grants. A recent procedures and policy 
review by the Grants Administration Division (GAD) identified this 
issue to the Agency and highlighted the administrative burden that has 
accompanied the processing of these rule deviations.
    EPA's amendment of the rule is the final solution for the 
restrictive budget period limitation. This change will substantially 
reduce the administrative burden for the Agency and grantees by 
minimizing the number of administrative actions (i.e., deviations) that 
will be processed during the life of a grant or cooperative agreement. 
This change will not adversely affect any current or future research 
efforts.

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II. Additional Supplementary Information

    This action announces EPA's amendment of 40 CFR 40.125.

III. Statutory and Executive Order Reviews

A. Executive Order 12866

    This action is not a ``significant regulatory action'' under the 
terms of Executive Order (EO) 12866 (58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993) and 
is therefore not subject to review under the EO.

B. Paperwork Reduction Act

    This action does not impose an information collection burden under 
the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., 
since the proposed change addresses an administrative requirement, 
which is internal to the Agency. No information will be collected from 
either current or future grantees by way of this proposed change.
    Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources 
expended by persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or 
provide information to or for a Federal agency. This includes the time 
needed to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize 
technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and 
verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and 
disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to 
comply with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; 
train personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; 
search data sources; complete and review the collection of information; 
and transmit or otherwise disclose the information.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number. The OMB control numbers for EPA's 
regulations in 40 CFR are listed in 40 CFR part 9.

C. Regulatory Flexibility Act

    This direct final rule is not subject to the Regulatory Flexibility 
Act (RFA), which generally requires an agency to prepare a regulatory 
flexibility analysis for any rule that will have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities. The RFA applies only 
to rules subject to notice and comment rulemaking requirements under 
the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) or any other statute. This 
direct final rule is not subject to notice and comment requirements 
under the APA or any other statute because this rule pertains to grant 
award and administration matters which the APA expressly exempts from 
notice and comment rulemaking requirements (5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2)).

D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

    Title II of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA), Public 
Law 104-4, establishes requirements for Federal agencies to assess the 
effects of their regulatory actions on State, local, and tribal 
governments and the private sector. Under section 202 of the UMRA, EPA 
generally must prepare a written statement, including a cost-benefit 
analysis, for proposed and final rules with ``Federal mandates'' that 
may result in expenditures to State, local, and tribal governments, in 
the aggregate, or to the private sector, of $100 million or more in any 
one year. Before promulgating an EPA rule for which a written statement 
is needed, section 205 of the UMRA generally requires that EPA identify 
and consider a reasonable number of regulatory alternatives and adopt 
the least costly, most cost-effective or least burdensome alternative 
that achieves the objectives of the rule. The provisions of section 205 
do not apply when they are inconsistent with applicable law. Moreover, 
section 205 allows EPA to adopt an alternative other than the least 
costly, most cost-effective or least burdensome alternative if the 
Administrator publishes with the final rule an explanation why that 
alternative was not adopted. Before EPA establishes any regulatory 
requirements that may significantly or uniquely affect small 
governments, including tribal governments, it must have developed under 
section 203 of the UMRA a small government agency plan. The plan must 
provide for notifying potentially affected small governments, enabling 
officials of affected small governments to have meaningful and timely 
input in the development of EPA regulatory proposals with significant 
Federal intergovernmental mandates, and informing, educating, and 
advising small governments on compliance with the regulatory 
requirements. The EPA has determined that this rule change contains no 
Federal mandates (under the regulatory provisions of Title II of the 
UMRA) for State, local, or tribal governments or the private sector. 
Additionally, the rule change does not contain any regulatory 
requirements that might significantly or uniquely affect small 
governments. UMRA does not apply to rules that govern the award and 
administration of grants. Thus, today's direct final rule is not 
subject to the requirements of sections 202 and 205 of the UMRA.

E. Executive Order 13132--Federalism

    Executive Order 13132, entitled ``Federalism'' (64 FR 43255, August 
10, 1999), requires EPA to develop an accountable process to ensure 
``meaningful and timely input by State and local officials in the 
development of regulatory policies that have federalism implications.'' 
``Policies that have federalism implications'' is defined in the 
Executive Order to include regulations that have ``substantial direct 
effects on the States, on the relationship between the national 
government and the States, or on the distribution of power and 
responsibilities among the various levels of government.''
    Under section 6 of Executive Order 13132, EPA may not issue a 
regulation that has federalism implications, that imposes substantial 
direct compliance costs, and that is not required by statute, unless 
the federal government provides the funds necessary to pay the direct 
compliance costs incurred by state and local governments, or EPA 
consults with state and local officials early in the process of 
developing the proposed regulation. EPA also may not issue a regulation 
that has federalism implications and that preempts state law, unless 
the Agency consults with state and local officials early in the process 
of developing the proposed regulation.
    This proposed direct final rule does not have federalism 
implications. It will not have substantial direct effects on the 
States, on the relationship between the national government and the 
States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the 
various levels of government, as specified in Executive Order 13132. 
Thus, the requirements of section 6 of the Executive Order do not apply 
to this rule. Further, because this rule regulates the use of federal 
financial assistance, it will not impose substantial direct compliance 
costs to the states.

F. Executive Order 13175 (Consultation And Coordination With Indian 
Tribal Governments)

    Executive Order 13175, entitled ``Consultation and Coordination 
with Indian Tribal Governments'' (65 FR 67249, November 6, 2000), 
requires EPA to develop an accountable process to ensure ``meaningful 
and timely input by Tribal officials in the development of regulatory 
policies that have Tribal implications.'' ``Policies that have Tribal 
implications'' is defined in the Executive Order to include regulations 
that have ``substantial direct effects on one or more Indian tribes, on 
the relationship between the Federal

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government and the Indian tribes, or on the distribution of power and 
responsibilities between the Federal government and Indian tribes.''
    This proposed direct final rule does not have Tribal implications. 
It will not have substantial direct effects on Tribal governments, on 
the relationship between the Federal government and Indian tribes, or 
on the distribution of power and responsibilities between the Federal 
government and Indian tribes, as specified in Executive Order 13175. 
This rule applies to the terms that define the availability of use for 
federal financial assistance for research and demonstration grants. 
Thus, Executive Order 13175 does not apply to this rule.

G. Executive Order 13045--Protection of Children From Environmental 
Health Risks and Safety Risks

    Executive Order 13045 applies to any rule that is determined to be: 
(1) ``economically significant'' as defined under Executive Order 
12866, and (2) concerns an environmental health or safety risk that EPA 
has reason to believe may have a disproportionate effect on children. 
If the regulatory action meets both criteria, EPA must evaluate the 
environmental health or safety effects of the planned rule on children; 
and explain why the planned regulation is preferable to other 
potentially effective and reasonably feasible alternatives considered 
by the Agency.
    EPA interprets Executive Order 13045 as applying only to those 
regulatory actions that are based on health or safety risks, such that 
the analysis required under section 5-501 of the Order has the 
potential to influence the regulation. This proposed direct final rule 
is not subject to Executive Order 13045 because it does not establish 
an environmental standard intended to mitigate health or safety risks.

H. Executive Order 13211 (Actions Concerning Regulations That 
Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution, or Use)

    This rule is not subject to Executive Order 13211, ``Actions 
Concerning Regulations That Significantly Affect Energy Supply, 
Distribution, or Use'' (66 FR 28355 (May 22, 2001)) because it is not a 
significant regulatory action under Executive Order 12866.

I. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act

    Under section 12(d) of the National Technology Transfer and 
Advancement Act (NTTAA), EPA is required to use voluntary consensus 
standards in its regulatory activities unless to do so would be 
inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impractical. Voluntary 
consensus standards are technical standards (e.g., materials 
specifications, test methods, sampling procedures, business practices, 
etc.) that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards 
bodies. The NTTAA requires EPA to provide Congress, through the Office 
of Management and Budget, an explanation of the reasons for not using 
such standards.
    This proposed direct final rule does not involve any technical 
standards. Therefore, EPA did not consider the use of any voluntary 
consensus standards.

J. Federal Actions To Address Environmental Justice in Minority 
Populations and Low-Income Populations

    Executive Order (EO) 12898 (59 FR 7629, Feb. 16, 1994) establishes 
federal executive policy on environmental justice. Its main provision 
directs federal agencies, to the greatest extent practicable and 
permitted by law, to make environmental justice part of their mission 
by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high 
and adverse human health or environmental effects of their programs, 
policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income 
populations in the United States.
    EPA has determined that this proposed direct final rule will not 
have disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental 
effects on minority or low-income populations, because it does not 
affect the level of protection provided to human health or the 
environment. This rule change pertains to grant award and 
administration matters.

K. Congressional Review Act

    The Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801 et seq., as added by the 
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, generally 
provides that before a rule may take effect, the agency promulgating 
the rule must submit a rule report, which includes a copy of the rule, 
to each House of the Congress and to the Comptroller General of the 
United States. EPA will submit a report containing this rule and other 
required information to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of 
Representatives, and the Comptroller General of the United States prior 
to publication of the rule in the Federal Register. A Major rule cannot 
take effect until 60 days after it is published in the Federal 
Register. This action is not a ``major rule'' as defined by 5 U.S.C. 
804(2). This rule will be effective November 13, 2007.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 40

    Environmental protection, Administrative practice and procedure, 
Research and demonstration grants, Grant programs--environmental 
protection, Grant limitations, and Reporting and recordkeeping 
requirements.

    Dated: September 6, 2007.
Stephen L. Johnson,
Administrator.

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For the reasons set out in the preamble, 40 CFR part 40 is amended as 
follows:

PART 40--[AMENDED]

0
1. The authority citation for part 40 is revised to read as follows:

    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 1857 et seq.

Sec.  40.125-1  [Amended]

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2. Section 40.125-1 is amended by removing and reserving paragraph (a).

[FR Doc. E7-18000 Filed 9-11-07; 8:45 am]
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