AmeriCorps Seniors Regulation Updates

<RULE> CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE <CFR>45 CFR Parts 2551, 2552, and 2553</CFR> <RIN>RIN 3045-AA81</RIN> <SUBJECT>AmeriCorps Seniors Regulation Updates</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Corporation for National and Community Service. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Corporation for National and Community Service (operating as AmeriCorps) is revising its regulations governing AmeriCorps Seniors programs. This rule removes barriers to service for individuals and increases flexibility for grantees to accomplish project goals and recruit volunteers. Specifically, this rule removes barriers for individuals to serve as AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers in three ways: first, by modernizing what is considered income in the calculation that determines eligibility to receive a stipend; second, by allowing volunteers to continue to receive a stipend when their sponsor places them on administrative leave due to extenuating circumstances that prevent service; and third, by allowing grantees to supplement stipends. This rule reduces burden for AmeriCorps Seniors grantees in two ways: first, it establishes a single 10 percent match value regardless of grant year. Second, this rule allows grantees to choose to pay more than (but not less than) the AmeriCorps-established stipend rates, using non-AmeriCorps funds for the amount that exceeds the AmeriCorps-established rate. These changes will improve grantees' ability to recruit volunteers and allow grantees to devote to program operations resources that would otherwise be devoted to meet increasingly high match requirements. The rule also updates nomenclature to reflect that the Corporation for National and Community Service operates as AmeriCorps and that “Senior Corps” is now known as “AmeriCorps Seniors.” </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective October 1, 2024. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Robin Corindo, Deputy Director, AmeriCorps Seniors, at <E T="03">rcorindo@americorps.gov,</E> (202) 489-5578. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Executive Summary of Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background on the AmeriCorps Seniors Programs Affected by This Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Comments on the Proposed Rule, AmeriCorps' Responses, and an Overview of the Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Income Calculation—SCP (§§ 2551.12, 2551.43, and 2551.44); FGP (§§ 2552.12, 2552.43, and 2552.44)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Administrative Leave—SCP (§§ 2551.23(i) and 2551.46(a)); FGP (§§ 2552.23(i) and 2552.46(a))</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Allowing Grantees To Pay Higher Stipends—SCP (§ 2551.92(e)); FGP (§ 2552.92(e))</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Removing the Requirement for a Full-Time Project Director—SCP (§ 2551.25(c)); FGP (§ 2552.25(c)); RSVP (§ 2553.25(c))</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Establishing a Single, 10 Percent Match, Regardless of Year—RSVP (§ 2553.72)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Other Comments on the Proposed Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Regulatory Analyses</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Executive Orders 12866 and 13563</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Federalism (E.O. 13132)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Takings (E.O. 12630)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Civil Justice Reform (E.O. 12988)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Consultation With Indian Tribes (E.O. 13175)</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD2">I. Executive Summary of Final Rule</HD> This rule updates AmeriCorps Seniors regulations implementing the Senior Companion Program (SCP), Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), and RSVP. The updates to the SCP and FGP regulations, at Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) parts 2551 and 2552, respectively, parallel each other and include changes to simplify provisions on calculation of an AmeriCorps Seniors volunteer's income to determine whether they are eligible for a stipend and removal of certain items from being considered as income. The updates to the SCP and FGP regulations also specify that volunteers who receive a stipend may be paid the stipend when the sponsor places them on administrative leave due to extenuating circumstances that prevent service. The updates also allow grantees to pay stipends at a higher rate than that established by AmeriCorps Seniors, if they choose to do so, as long as they do not use AmeriCorps grant funds to pay for the amount that is above the established stipend rate. The updates to the RSVP regulations at part 2553 change the level of non-AmeriCorps support (“match”) that an RSVP sponsor must provide. Currently, the regulations allow AmeriCorps to grant up to 90 percent of the total RSVP budgeted project cost in the first year of a grant, but only 80 percent in the second year and 70 percent in the third and successive years. As a result, grantees currently must provide matching funds that are 10 percent of the total project cost in the first year of a grant, 20 percent in the second year, and 30 percent in successive years. The rule being finalized today instead establishes a single required match rate at 10 percent, regardless of the grant year. Lastly, this rule makes nomenclature changes to add a definition for “AmeriCorps” and change references to the “Corporation” and “CNCS” to “AmeriCorps” throughout these regulations, to reflect that the Corporation for National and Community Service now operates as AmeriCorps. This rule also changes “National Senior Service Corps (NSSC)” to “AmeriCorps Seniors” to reflect current terminology and branding. One change was proposed but is not being finalized today, in response to the comments opposing the change, as discussed below: the update that would have removed the requirement for grantees to employ a full-time project director. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Background on the AmeriCorps Seniors Programs Affected by This Rule</HD> AmeriCorps Seniors operates four programs: the Senior Companion Program (SCP), Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), RSVP (formerly the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program), and a Senior Demonstration Program. This rule affects regulations implementing the first three programs. These programs are authorized by the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 4950 <E T="03">et seq.,</E> and this rulemaking is authorized by the National and Community Service Act of 1990, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 12501 <E T="03">et seq.</E> AmeriCorps Seniors SCP and FGP each provide grants to qualified agencies and organizations (known as grantees) for the dual purpose of engaging persons 55 and older, particularly those with limited incomes, in volunteer service to meet critical community needs and to provide a high-quality experience that will enrich the lives of older adult volunteers. In SCP, program funds are used to support Senior Companions in providing supportive, individualized services to help older adults and those with special needs maintain their dignity and independence. They also serve caregivers with respite support. In FGP, program funds are used to support Foster Grandparents in providing supportive, person-to-person service to children with special and/or exceptional needs, or in circumstances that limit their academic, social, or emotional development. In SCP and FGP (but not RSVP), volunteers who are “low income” (meaning their income is at or below 200 percent of the poverty line) may receive stipends to allow them to serve without cost to themselves. <E T="03">See</E> 42 U.S.C. 5011(d)-(e), 5013(b). In SCP, FGP, and RSVP, the sponsor receiving the grant has several responsibilities. Among them is the responsibility to provide staff sufficient to support the project. Another is the responsibility to raise “match,” meaning non-AmeriCorps cash and in-kind contributions in support of the grant. The match amount is stated as a percentage of the total project cost. For both SCP and FGP grantees, the required match is 10 percent, meaning the AmeriCorps grant funds 90 percent of the total budgeted project cost. <E T="03">See</E> 42 U.S.C. 5011(a), 5013(a). For RSVP, the statute limits match to no more than 10 percent in the first year, 20 percent in the second year, and 30 percent in subsequent years. <E T="03">See</E> 42 U.S.C. 5001(b). In other words, the statute provides upper limits (tiered by year) on what RSVP grantees may be required to provide as match. The current RSVP regulations, however, instead frame match as a limit on AmeriCorps' contributions to 90 percent in the first year, 80 percent in the second year, and 70 percent thereafter—in effect placing a requirement, rather than an upper limit, for grantee match at 10 percent in year one, 20 percent in year two, and 30 percent thereafter. <E T="03">See</E> 45 CFR 2553.72. Additionally, in SCP and FGP, AmeriCorps Seniors volunteers are offered a stipend for their service. The statute sets a minimum hourly rate for the stipend. <E T="03">See</E> 42 U.S.C. 5011(d), 5013(b). AmeriCorps Seniors establishes the stipend rate annually through the Notice of Funding Opportunity; currently, the stipend rate is $4.00 per service hour. The current SCP and FGP regulations provide that a grantee must pay no more than and no less than the stipend rate that AmeriCorps establishes and offers no flexibility to grantees who may wish to use available additional funding to supplement the stipend. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Comments on the Proposed Rule, AmeriCorps' Responses, and an Overview of the Final Rule</HD> AmeriCorps published a proposed rule on February 14, 2024 (89 FR 11233) and received 63 public comments in response by the April 15, 2024, comment deadlin ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 71k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━