Reporting Deadline for Stimulus Funds Gets Confusing

In ensuring accountable and transparent use of the billions of stimulus dollars, the federal government requires recipients to submit reports on how the money was spent.  Institutions receiving funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) must register at www.federalreporting.gov, and must submit quarterly reports, with an October 10 deadline for the third quarter (and they should have registered by October 1). 

However, it's a different situation for Federal Work Study funds going to institutions under the ARRA - which don't have to be part of the report due October 10. 

It was just September 24 when the Department of Education notified the 1,800 institutions receiving over $25,000 in 2009-10 Federal Work Study (FWS) funds through the ARRA funding that they had to submit a report on the funding.  (A message went to the president and student aid office at each institution.)  Some colleges were surprised by the requirement, since they had not even requested the additional ARRA funds. 

In addition, the reporting requirements are still under development.  Because of the nature of the Federal Work Study program, these ARRA-FWS reports will use a different format than that used for other stimulus funds.  The department expects to have the ARRA-FWS reporting requirements out to the affected colleges by Friday, October 9.

Given the short notice and lack of reporting specifics, the 1,800 affected institutions will now have until October 10 to register, and will have until October 21 to report.

The department also has announced that, through an arrangement worked out with Office of Management and Budget, someone other than the person reporting on overall ARRA funding may register to provide the ARRA-FWS report.  Those reporting on the ARRA-FWS funding must register by October 10, while the site to report on FWS (the same site as for the broader report, due by October 10) will remain open until October 21.

In summary, the notified recipient institutions should register by October 10, and should report on their ARRA-FWS funds by October 21, while the deadline for reporting on any other (non-FWS) funds received under ARRA remains October 10.

Note that the $25,000 threshold applies only to ARRA funds and not to the total amount of FWS funds received by an institution for the 2009-10.  Within the department's announcement are links to other federal resources and guidance about registering and reporting on ARRA funds.

For more information, please contact:
Maureen Budetti