[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 53 (Monday, March 18, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11081-11082]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-6417]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Community Development Financial Institutions Fund
Community Development Financial Institutions Program; Bank
Enterprise Award Program
AGENCY: Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Department
of the Treasury.
ACTION: Notice of waiver.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (the
Fund) has granted a waiver of the deadline for receipt of an
application under the Community Development Financial Institutions
(CDFI) Program and the Bank Enterprise Award (BEA) Program for certain
applications which were received after the deadline of 4 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time on January 29, 1996. The waiver is applicable to those
applications for which the Fund has determined that on or before
January 29, 1996, the actual process of delivering the application to
the Fund was initiated.
ADDRESSES: All questions or comments concerning the contents of this
action should be addressed to the Director, Community Development
Financial Institutions Fund, Department of the Treasury, 1500
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20220.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund, Department of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue
NW., Washington, DC 20220 at (202) 622-8662. (This is not a toll free
number.).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The interim regulations for the CDFI Program
(12 CFR part 1805) and the BEA Program (12 CFR part 1806), published in
the Federal Register on October 19, 1995 (60 FR 54110), provide that
the deadline for submission of applications will be established in a
Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) published in the Federal Register.
(Sec. 1805.700, Sec. 1806.206) The regulations also provide that the
Fund may waive any requirement of such regulations that is not required
by law upon a determination of good cause.
[[Page 11082]]
(Sec. 1805.105, Sec. 1806.104) Each such waiver must be in writing and
supported by a statement of the facts and grounds forming the basis of
the waiver. For waivers of general applicability, the Fund is required
to publish notice of granted waivers in the Federal Register.
On October 19, 1995 the Department of the Treasury published a NOFA
for the CDFI Program (60 FR 54136) and a separate NOFA for the BEA
Program (60 FR 54140) which established initial deadlines for receipt
by the Fund of applications. The Department of the Treasury
subsequently published Notices on December 8, 1995 (60 FR 63120) and
January 17, 1996 (61 FR 1204) which had the ultimate effect of
extending the application receipt deadlines for both the CDFI Program
and the BEA Program to 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 29,
1996. Each of these Notices stated that an application received by the
Fund after the specified date and time would not be accepted and would
be returned to the sender.
The Fund has determined to waive the application deadline with
respect to applications as to which the process of delivery to the Fund
was commenced on or before January 29, 1996. The Fund received certain
applications for both the CDFI Program and the BEA Program after the
stated deadline with respect to which the Fund has determined that the
actual process of delivering the application to the Fund was initiated
on or before January 29, 1996. In this connection, the Fund has
determined that the actual process of delivery will be considered to
have been initiated on or before January 29, 1996 if: (1) the
application was actually received by the Fund on January 29, 1996; (2)
the application was mailed with a postmark dated on or before January
29, 1996; or (3) the application was delivered to a professional
courier service on or before January 29, 1996. This waiver of the
deadline for receipt by the Fund of these applications is based upon
the Fund's determination that such a waiver will promote the
achievement of the purposes of the CDFI Program and the BEA Program and
their underlying statutes.
Several factors contributed to the Fund's determination to grant
this waiver. First, in this first year of implementation of these
programs it is in the Fund's interest to seek the broadest possible
participation. Second, preparing an application required an extensive
amount of work which without the waiver might go to waste merely
because of a technical failure in the mail or delivery process. Third,
given the fact that these programs are new, and some applicants had
never previously applied to the Federal government for funding, there
appears to have been a certain amount of confusion about the precise
requirements for delivery of an application in a timely fashion.
Finally, the effect of the requirement that the Fund be in receipt of
an application by a specified time appears to have had a
disproportionately adverse effect on applications from geographically
remote places. Thus a strict enforcement of the deadline could hinder
the Fund in achieving its geographic diversity objectives.
By granting this waiver of the application deadline for this
initial round of funding, the Fund does not intend in any way to
establish a precedent for granting similar waivers in subsequent
funding rounds.
Authority: 12 U.S.C. 4703, 4717; Chapter X, Pub. L. 104-19, 109
Stat. 237; 12 CFR 1805.105, 1806.104.
Dated: March 13, 1996.
Kirsten S. Moy,
Director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
[FR Doc. 96-6417 Filed 3-15-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-70-M
