PART 1500—UNIFORM ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS, COST PRINCIPLES, AND AUDIT REQUIREMENTS FOR FEDERAL AWARDS Authority: 5 U.S.C. 301, 7 U.S.C. 136 et seq., et seq., et seq., et seq., et seq., et seq., et seq., et seq., et seq., et seq.; Source: 79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014, unless otherwise noted. Subpart A—Acronyms and Definitions Source: 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020, unless otherwise noted. § 1500.1 Definitions. (a) Participant support costs. Participant support costs, (1) Rebates or other subsidies provided to program participants for purchases and installations of commercially available, standard (“off the shelf”) pollution control equipment or low emission vehicles under the Diesel Emission Reduction Act program or programs authorized by EPA appropriation acts and permitted by terms specified in EPA assistance agreements or guidance, when the program participant rather than the recipient owns the equipment. (2) Subsidies, rebates, and other payments provided to program beneficiaries to encourage participation in statutorily authorized programs to encourage environmental stewardship and enable the public to participate in EPA funded research, pollution abatement, and other projects or programs to the extent permitted by statutes and terms specified in EPA assistance agreements or guidance. (b) [Reserved] Subpart B—General Provisions § 1500.2 Adoption of 2 CFR Part 200. Under the authority listed above the Environmental Protection Agency adopts the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards to Non-Federal Entities (subparts A through F of 2 CFR part 200), as supplemented by this part, as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) policies and procedures for financial assistance administration. This part satisfies the requirements of 2 CFR 200.110(a) and gives regulatory effect to the OMB guidance as supplemented by this part. EPA also has programmatic regulations located in 40 CFR Chapter 1 Subchapter B. [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020] § 1500.3 Applicability. (a) Uniform administrative requirements and cost principles (subparts A through E of 2 CFR part 200 as supplemented by this part) apply to foreign public entities or foreign organizations, except where EPA determines that the application of this part would be inconsistent with the international obligations of the United States or the statutes or regulations of a foreign government. (b) Requirements for subrecipient monitoring and management at 2 CFR 200.331 through 200.333 do not apply to loan, loan guarantees, interest subsidies and principal forgiveness, purchases of insurance or local government debt or similar transactions with borrowers by recipients of Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) capitalization grants and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) capitalization grants. Requirements in 2 CFR part 25, Universal Identifier and System for Award Management, 2 CFR part 170, Reporting subaward and executive compensation and internal controls described at 2 CFR 200.303 continue to apply to CWSRF and DWSRF grant recipients and borrowers. [85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020, as amended at 87 FR 30397, May 19, 2022] § 1500.4 Exceptions. Consistent with 2 CFR 200.102(b): (a) In the EPA, the Director, Office of Grants and Debarment or designee, is authorized to grant exceptions on a case-by-case basis for non-Federal entities. (b) The EPA Director or designee is also authorized to approve exceptions, on a class or an individual case basis, to EPA program specific assistance regulations other than those which implement statutory and executive order requirements. [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020] § 1500.5 Supersession. Effective December 26, 2014, this part supersedes the following regulations under Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations: (a) 40 CFR part 30, “Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and other Non-profit Organizations.” (b) 40 CFR part 31, “Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Cooperative Agreements to State and Local Governments.” [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020] Subpart C—Pre-Federal Award Requirements and Contents of Federal Awards § 1500.6 Fixed Amount Awards. In the EPA, programs awarding fixed amount awards will do so in accordance with guidance issued from the Office of Grants and Debarment. (See 2 CFR 200.201(b)). [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020] Subpart D—Post Federal Award Requirements. Standards for Financial and Program Management § 1500.7 Retention requirements for records. (a) In the EPA, some programs require longer retention requirements for records by statute. (b) When there is a difference between the retention requirements for records of the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR 200.334) and the applicable statute, the non-federal entity will follow to the retention requirements for records in the statute. [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020, as amended at 87 FR 30397, May 19, 2022] § 1500.8 Program income. (a) Governmental revenues. (b) Use of program income. (c) Brownfields Revolving Loan. (d) Other revolving loan programs. [85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020] § 1500.9 Revision of budget and program plans. Pre-award Costs. [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020] Procurement Standards § 1500.10 General procurement standards. (a) EPA will limit its participation in the salary rate (excluding overhead) paid to individual consultants retained by recipients, and their contractors or subcontractors to the maximum daily rate for level 4 of the Executive Schedule unless a greater amount is authorized by law. (These non-Federal entities may, however, pay consultants more than this amount with non-EPA funds.) The limitation in this paragraph (a) applies to consultation services of designated individuals with specialized skills who are paid at a daily or hourly rate. This rate does not include transportation and subsistence costs for travel performed; recipients will pay these in accordance with their normal travel reimbursement practices. (b) All contracts between recipients and subrecipients and individual consultants are subject to the procurement standards in subpart D of 2 CFR part 200. Contracts or subcontracts with multi-employee firms for consulting services are not affected by the limitation in paragraph (a) of this section provided the contractor or subcontractor rather than the recipient or subrecipient selects, directs and controls individual employees providing consulting services. (c) Borrowers under EPA revolving loan fund capitalization grant programs are not subject to paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section. [85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020] § 1500.11 Use of the same architect or engineer during construction. (a) If the recipient is satisfied with the qualifications and performance of the architect or engineer who provided any or all of the facilities planning or design services for a waste-water treatment works project and wishes to retain that firm or individual during construction of the project, it may do so without further public notice and evaluation of qualifications, provided: (1) The recipient received a facilities planning (Step 1) or design grant (Step 2), and selected the architect or engineer in accordance with EPA's procurement regulations in effect when EPA awarded the grant; or (2) The award official approves noncompetitive procurement under 2 CFR 200.320(c)(4) for reasons other than simply using the same individual or firm that provided facilities planning or design services for the project; or (3) The recipient attests that: (i) The initial request for proposals clearly stated the possibility that the firm or individual selected could be awarded a contract for services during construction; and (ii) The firm or individual was selected for facilities planning or design services in accordance with procedures specified in this section. (iii) No employee, officer or agent of the recipient, any member of their immediate families, or their partners have financial or other interest in the firm selected for award; and (iv) None of the recipient's officers, employees or agents solicited or accepted gratuities, favors or anything of monetary value from contractors or other parties to contracts. (b) However, if the recipient uses the procedures in paragraph (a) of this section to retain an architect or engineer, any Step 3 contracts between the architect or engineer and the grantee must meet all other procurement provisions in 2 CFR 200.317 through 200.327. [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020, as amended at 87 FR 30397, May 19, 2022] Performance and Financial Monitoring and Reporting § 1500.12 Quality Assurance. (a) Quality assurance applies to all assistance agreements that involve environmentally related data operations, including environmental data collection, production or use. (b) Recipients shall develop a written quality assurance system commensurate with the degree of confidence needed for the environmentally related data operations. (c) If the recipient complies with EPA's quality policy, the system will be presumed to be in compliance with the quality assurance system requirement. The recipient may also comply with the quality assurance system requirement by complying with American National Standard ASQ/ANSI E4:2014: Quality management systems for environmental information and technology programs. (d) The recipient shall submit the written quality assurance system for EPA review. Upon EPA's written approval, the recipient shall implement the EPA-approved quality assurance system. (e) EPA Quality Policy is available at: https://www.epa.gov/quality. (f) The standards required in this section are incorporated by reference into this section with the approval of the Director of the Federal Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. The material is available for inspection at the Environmental Protection Agency's Headquarters Library, Room 3340, EPA West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20004, (202) 566-0556. A copy is also available for inspection at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call 202-741-6030, or go to: http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/code_of_federal_regulations/ibr_locations.html (1) American Society for Quality, 600 North Plankinton Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53201, 1-800-248-1946, http://asq.org (i) American National Standard ASQ/ANSI E4:2014: Quality management systems for environmental information and technology programs—Requirements with guidance for use, approved February 4, 2014. (ii) [Reserved] (2) [Reserved] [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014, as amended at 80 FR 61088, Oct. 9, 2015. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020, as amended at 87 FR 30397, May 19, 2022] Subpart E—Disputes § 1500.13 Purpose and scope of this subpart. (a) This section provides the process for the resolution of pre-award and post-award assistance agreement disputes as described in § 1500.14, except for: (1) Assistance agreement competition-related disputes which are covered by EPA's Grant Competition Dispute Resolution Procedures; and, (2) Any appeal process relating to an award official's determination that an entity is not qualified for award that may be developed pursuant to guidance implementing Section 872 of the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. L. 110-417, as amended). (b) Pre-award and post-award disagreements between affected entities and EPA related to an assistance agreement should be resolved at the lowest level possible. If an agreement cannot be reached, absent any other applicable statutory or regulatory dispute provisions, affected entities must follow the dispute procedures outlined in this subpart. (c) Determinations affecting assistance agreements made under certain Agency decision-making processes are not subject to review under the procedures in this subpart or the Agency's procedures for resolving assistance agreement competition-related disputes. These determinations include, but are not limited to: (1) Decisions on requests for exceptions under § 1500.4; (2) Bid protest decisions under 2 CFR 200.318(k); (3) National Environmental Policy Act decisions under 40 CFR part 6; (4) Policy decisions of the EPA Internal Audit Dispute Resolution Process (formerly known as Audit Resolution Board); (5) Suspension and Debarment Decisions under 2 CFR parts 180 and 1532; (6) Decisions to decline to fund non-competitive applications or not to award incremental or supplemental funding based on the availability of funds or agency priorities; (7) Decisions on requests for reconsideration of specific award conditions under 2 CFR 200.208; (8) Decisions to deny requests for no-cost extensions under 2 CFR 200.308(e)(2), 40 CFR 35.114(b), and 40 CFR 35.514(b); and (9) Denials of requests for EPA approval of procurement through noncompetitive proposals under 2 CFR 200.320(c)(4). [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020; 85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020] § 1500.14 Definitions. As used in this subpart: (a) Action Official (AO) (b) Affected Entity (c) Agency Decision Management decision (d) Dispute (e) Dispute Decision Official (DDO) (1) The DDO for a Headquarters Dispute is the Director of the Grants and Interagency Agreement Management Division in the Office of Grants and Debarment or designee. To provide for a fair and impartial review, the AO for the challenged Agency Decision may not serve as the Headquarters DDO. (2) The DDO for a Regional Assistance Agreement Dispute is the Regional Administrator or the official designated by the Regional Administrator to issue the written decision resolving the Dispute. To provide for a fair and impartial review, the AO for the challenged Agency Decision may not serve as the Regional DDO. [79 FR 76050, Dec. 19, 2014. Redesignated at 85 FR 61573, Sept. 30, 2020; 85 FR 61574, Sept. 30, 2020, as amended at 87 FR 30397, May 19, 2022] § 1500.15 Submission of Dispute. An Affected Entity or its authorized representative may dispute an Agency Decision by electronically submitting a Dispute to the DDO identified in the Agency Decision. In order for the DDO to consider the Dispute, it must satisfy the following requirements: (a) Timeliness. (b) Method of submission. (c) Contents of Dispute. (1) A copy of the disputed Agency Decision; (2) A detailed statement of the specific legal and factual grounds for the Dispute, including copies of any supporting documents; (3) The specific remedy or relief the Affected Entity seeks under the Dispute; and (4) The name and contact information, including email address, of the Affected Entity's designated point of contact for the Dispute. [85 FR 61575, Sept. 30, 2020] § 1500.16 Notice of receipt of Dispute to Affected Entity. Within 15 calendar days of receiving the Dispute, the DDO will provide the Affected Entity a written notice, sent electronically, acknowledging receipt of the Dispute. (a) Timely Disputes. (b) Untimely Disputes. [85 FR 61575, Sept. 30, 2020] § 1500.17 Determination of Dispute. (a) In determining the merits of the Dispute, the DDO will consider the record related to the Agency Decision, any documentation that the Affected Entity submits with its Dispute, any additional documentation submitted by the Affected Entity in response to the DDO's request under § 1500.16(a), and any other information the DDO determines is relevant to the Dispute provided the DDO gives notice of that information to the Affected Entity. The Affected Entity may not on its own initiative submit any additional documents except in the support of a request for reconsideration under paragraph (c) of this section. (b) The DDO will issue the Dispute decision within 180 calendar days from the date the Dispute is received by the DDO unless a longer period is necessary based on the complexity of the legal, technical, and factual issues presented. The DDO will notify the Affected Entity if the expected decision will not be issued within the 180-day period and if feasible will indicate when the decision is expected to be issued. The DDO will issue the Dispute decision electronically and advise the Affected Entity of procedures for requesting reconsideration. The DDO's decision will constitute the final agency action unless the Affected Entity electronically petitions the DDO for reconsideration within 15 calendar days of issuance of the DDO Decision. The Affected Entity must include a detailed statement of the factual and legal grounds warranting reversal or modification of the DDO decision. In addition, the Affected Entity may submit additional documents that were not previously provided to the DDO. (c) If a petition for reconsideration is submitted, the DDO's will advise the Affected Entity within 15 calendar days of receipt of the petition whether the DDO Decision will be reconsidered. The DDO will issue this determination electronically. DDO's will only grant a reconsideration petition if the Affected Entity provides relevant and material evidence that was not available to the Affected Entity at the time the Dispute was submitted or to correct a clear and prejudicial error of fact or law. Denial of a petition for reconsideration constitutes final agency action and the DDO will advise the Affected Entity of the reasons for denying the reconsideration in writing. (d) If the DDO grants a reconsideration petition, the DDO will issue a revised DDO Decision within 30 calendar days of acceptance of the reconsideration petition unless a longer period is necessary based on the complexity of the legal, technical, and factual issues presented. The DDO will issue the revised DDO Decision electronically. The revised DDO Decision and any new material considered by the DDO in making the revised DDO Decision will become part of the record of the Dispute. The revised DDO Decision will constitute final agency action. (e) The DDO may consider untimely filed reconsideration petitions only if necessary, to correct a DDO Decision that is manifestly unfair and inequitable in light of relevant and material evidence that the Affected Entity could not have discovered during the 15-calendar day period for petitioning for reconsideration. This evidence must be submitted within six months of the date of the DDO Decision. The DDO will advise the Affected Entity within 30 days of receipt of an untimely filed reconsideration petition whether the DDO will accept the petition. Denial of an untimely filed reconsideration petition constitutes final agency action. [85 FR 61575, Sept. 30, 2020, as amended at 87 FR 30397, May 19, 2022]