In August, President Biden
issued a memorandum to the Department of Homeland Security to urge FEMA to maximize its assistance to help state, local, tribal, and territorial governments respond to COVID-19. It directed FEMA to provide 100% of the federal cost share for eligible work/expenses incurred under the Public Assistance Category B program from January 20, 2020 through December 31, 2021. FEMA published new guidance providing more information on this directive, and also notes that eligible work conducted after December 31, 2021 will be reimbursed at the federal cost share established at that time.
Read FEMA's newest policy here, which is effective September 8, 2021.What does this mean for schools?
This updated policy revised the time period for which work associated with safely opening and operating Public Assistance-eligible facilities
to the beginning of the incident period until FEMA issues an end to the period of performance.
Since the timeline for 100% reimbursement for eligible expenses has been extended from 1/20/20 through 12/31/21, that means some expenses that were previously deemed ineligible under the prior administration and during the transition to the current administration (
between 9/1/20 and 1/19/21)
may now be eligible for reimbursement.
FEMA is in the process of reaching out to all Public Assistance applicants affected by this change to let them know specific next steps related to their projects. Members can also reach out to their FEMA or state Program Delivery Manager regarding these projects. Contact information for these individuals is available in the member's Applicant Profile at
grantee.fema.gov. Finally, districts can also submit a new project application to pursue reimbursement by visiting
grantee.fema.gov.
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ASBO USA
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