U.s. Environmental Protection Agency (Epa) & Major Partners' Lessons Learned from Implementing Epa's Portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Funds Management

Enacted in 2009, ARRA bolstered the economy, in part, by funding six EPA programs. These programs included drinking water and clean water infrastructure projects through the State Revolving Funds (SRFs) and environmental initiatives through Superfund, Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA), Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) and Brownfields programs. The EPA contracted with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and their subcontractor Toeroek Associates, Inc., to review the activities and process for funds distribution, management, and reporting for each of the six programs that received ARRA funding. The objective of the review was to capture, verify and analyze the critical lessons learned and successful strategies related to ARRA funds management. To achieve this objective, the SAIC Team gathered information on three specific aspects: timely obligation and expenditure of funds; additional mandates of ARRA (Section 1512 reporting requirements, Section 1605 Buy American mandate, Section 1606 Davis-Bacon Prevailing Wage mandate and Green Project Reserve mandate); and grants management processes for the previously mentioned programs.