By National Council of Nonprofits
The U.S. Department of Treasury is proposing to require grantees (including states, territories, local governments, Tribes, nonprofits and others) to report retroactively on personal identifiable information (PII) for all beneficiaries of American Rescue Plan Act funds administered by the agency. If implemented, the changes would require grantees to report to Treasury PII – including addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers, for example – for staff, board members, and community members. The deadline to submit public comments is March 6.
This change, if implemented, would place an enormous administrative burden on grantees. Many COVID-era programs were designed to streamline and expedite the delivery of federal resources, while keeping reporting requirements to a minimum. Most grantees have already expended their COVID-era funds, so there are no new resources to offset the costs to collect such data. Moreover, there is concern that this effort comes at a time when the Trump Administration has increased its focus on alleged claims of fraud and abuse.
For more information, see these resources from the U.S. Conference of Mayors:
NCN is working on a comment letter responding to this proposal at Treasury.