Reovery Program Plans

What is required for program-specific Recovery Act plans?

Agency Program plans will be due to OMB no later than May 1st. These separate plans are required for each Recovery Act program specifically named in the legislation and corresponding to new Treasury accounts established. To the extent possible, each agency's Recovery Program Plan should be a summary of the specific Recovery Act projects and activities planned.
Each Recovery Program Plan must minimally include:

  • Funding Table: agency funding listed by program, project, and activity categories, as possible. Funds returned to the program or any offsetting collections received as a result of carrying out recovery actions are to be specifically identified.
  • Objectives: a general Recovery Act description of the program's Recovery Act objectives and relationships with corresponding goals and objectives through on-going agency programs/activities. Expected public benefits should demonstrate cost-effectiveness and be clearly stated in concise, clear and plain language targeted to an audience with no in-depth knowledge of the program. To the extent possible, Recovery Act goals should be expressed in the same terms as programs' goals in departmental Government Performance Results Act strategic plans.
  • Activities: kinds and scope of activities to be performed (e.g. construction, provision of services, conduct of research and development, assistance to governmental units or individuals, etc.)
  • Characteristics: types of financial awards to be used (with estimated amount of funding for each), targeted type of recipients, beneficiaries and estimated dollar amounts of total Recovery Act funding for Federal in-house activity, non-federal recipients and methodology for award selection.
  • Delivery Schedule: schedule with milestones for major phases of the program's activities (e.g. the procurement phase, planning phase, project execution phase, etc., or comparable) with planned delivery date(s).
  • Environmental Review Compliance: description of the status of compliance with National Environmental Policy Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and related statutes.
  • Savings or costs: expected increases or reductions in future operational costs (e.g., savings due to energy efficient facilities or increased operational costs as a result of having more buildings to manage and maintain).
  • Measures: expected quantifiable outcomes consistent with the intent and requirements of the legislation and the risk management requirements of Section 3.5, with each outcome supported by a corresponding quantifiable output(s) (in terms of incremental change against present level of performance of related agency programs or projects/activities specified in the plan) - agencies must specify the length of the period between measurements (e.g., monthly, quarterly), the measurement methodology, and how the results will be made readily accessible to the public. The measures currently used to report programs' performance in relationship to these goals (consistent with Administration policy) should be retained. In addition to reducing burden on grant recipients and contractors, use of existing measures will allow the public to see the marginal performance impact of Recovery Act investments.
  • Monitoring/Evaluation: description of the agency process for periodic review of program's progress to identify areas of high risk, high and low performance, and any plans for longer term impact evaluation.
  • Transparency: description of agency program plans to organize program cost and performance information available at applicable recipient levels.
  • Accountability: description of agency program plans for holding managers accountable for achieving Recovery Act program goals and improvement actions identified.
  • Barriers to Effective Implementation: a list and description of statutory and regulatory requirements, or other known matters, which may impede effective implementation of Recovery Act activities and proposed solutions to resolve by a certain date.
  • Federal Infrastructure Investments: a description of agency plans to spend funds effectively to comply with energy efficiency and green building requirements and to demonstrate Federal leadership in sustainability, energy efficiency and reducing the agency's environmental impact.

Consistent with the OMB review process identified above, any components of these plans that are substantially complete prior to May 1st should be posted on agency web pages as soon as available.