Beginning on October 1, 2009, recipients who have received Federal financial assistance such as grants, cooperative agreements or loans, are required by Section 1512 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to report certain information about the assistance award. This applies to contracts awarded as well.
Recipients may access FederalReporting.gov for reporting purposes. Updates and instructions may be found here.
Additional information may be found at Recovery.gov, the general Recovery Act information site. The FAQs and Resources section of the website provides additional reporting information.
USDA has additional information specific to the Department. That information may be found below.
1. Supplemental USDA Guidance on Measuring and Reporting Job Estimates
Section 5.4 of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Guidance Memorandum 09-21 (PDF)( 41pp, 550k, about PDF) requires Federal agencies to issue supplementary guidance concerning situations in which a recipient uses a statistical methodology to support job estimate reporting. These questions and answers seek to address questions arising with the use of statistical methods in estimating job impacts of the Recovery Act.
Question: What types of jobs-related data should recipients collect, whether through comprehensive reporting or statistical samples?
Answer: Prime recipients are required to report a single estimate of jobs directly created and retained by project and activity or contract. A job created is a new position created and filled or an existing unfilled position that is filled as a result of the Recovery Act; a job retained is an existing position that would not have continued to be filled were it not for Recovery Act funding. A specific example calculation is provided in section 5.3 of the OMB guidance (M09.21, page 35) (PDF)(41pp, 550k, about PDF). The estimate of the number of jobs should be expressed as 'full time equivalents.'
Additional explanation for the 'Number of Jobs' field: A job cannot be counted as both created and retained. Also, only compensated employment in the United States or outlying areas1 should be counted. Recipients are required to report an aggregate number for the cumulative jobs created and jobs retained for each quarter. Recipients are not required to distinguish between created and retained jobs when reporting the aggregate number of cumulative jobs created and jobs retained for the quarter - only a single number that captures estimates of both types is required to be reported in the designated field on the form (NumberofJobs field, described on page 9 of the data dictionary within the Recipient Reporting Data Model) (PDF) (22pp, 353k).
Additional explanation for the 'Job Creation' field: Directly created means that employees are directly charged to Recovery Act supported projects or activities and directly compensated with Recovery Act funds Recipients are also instructed to provide a narrative description of the employment impact in a separate field in the Section 1512 form( JobCreation field, described on page 10 of the data dictionary within the Recipient Reporting Data Model) (Word)(22pp, 353k).
Question: Under what circumstances might a statistical estimate, rather than direct and comprehensive job counts, be appropriate or acceptable?
Answer: OMB and USDA strongly prefer that recipients adopt a comprehensive reporting approach. It is expected that statistical methods will rarely be requested and used by recipients to produce job estimates.
If a recipient requests to use a statistical method to calculate the number of jobs, the recipient will be required to obtain approval from USDA on the use of a statistical methodology, as well as the specific methodology the recipient is proposing. In addition, USDA will have to obtain concurrence from OMB prior to preparing a response to the recipient's request.
Question: What information must a recipient provide to the USDA to obtain approval to use a statistical method to quantify the number of jobs created and retained?
Answer: A recipient must include the following information in a request seeking permission to employ a statistical methodology rather than directly collecting specific data from all sub-recipients and vendors: Written justification as to why directly collecting information from all sub-recipients and vendors is overly costly or burdensome; A technical description of the recipient's proposed statistical methodology with sufficient detail and supporting documentation of the sample design and estimation procedures that the validity of the methodology can be assessed; A statement of the professional qualifications and technical experience of the organization and individuals who will carry out the statistical methodology; A statement on the length of time the recipient anticipates making use of the statistical method (e.g., the first effective Section 1512 recipient reporting period; or for an extended period of time, such as the duration of the period during which the project receives Recovery Act funds); and Point of contact information including telephone and e-mail information for transmitting USDA and OMB response, and any follow-up questions arising during the review of the request.
Question: Who should the recipient contact to request USDA concurrence on the use of a statistical estimate and the proposed methodology, and by what date?
Answer: Each USDA program receiving Recovery Act funds will manage the process to accept and review applications from recipients. Please e-mail your request to the appropriate USDA program contact associated with the Recovery Act award you received.
All requests must be submitted no later than September 25. This will allow USDA and OMB to reach a decision in time for the recipient to implement the statistical method (if request is approved), or pursue a direct and comprehensive approach to gathering job information from subrecipients and vendors (if request is declined) and meet the October 10, 2009 reporting deadline for Section 1512 recipient reports (M09.21, page 12) (PDF)(41pp, 550k, about PDF).
2. Recipient Report Communications:
The following links provide additional guidance from USDA agencies who have received Recovery Act funding.
