UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
OVERVIEW TO FISCAL YEAR 2023-2024 NATIONAL PROGRAM GUIDANCES

Publication Number: 190B22001

This Overview provides general context for the EPA's FY 2023-2024 National Program Guidances (NPGs)
and considerations for grants management, including flexibilities for agency Tribal, state, and territorial
partners and civil rights obligations of grant applicants and recipients.

The FY 2023-2024 NPGs are the first issued under the FY2022-2026 EPA Strategic Plan and support
implementation of the EPA's FY 2023 President's Budget priorities. The NPGs build on work underway to
support President Biden's Executive Orders1 and chart a course where tackling climate change and
advancing environmental justice (EJ) and civil rights are integral to achieving EPA's mission. Where
applicable, NPGs also provide initial steps for implementing the American Rescue Plan and the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

NPGs are issued by the EPA's five major national program offices—Air and Radiation; Water; Land and
Emergency Management; Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention; and Enforcement and Compliance
Assurance—along with the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations (OCIR) and the
Office of International and Tribal Affairs (OITA). These NPGs communicate operational planning
priorities, strategies, and key activities for advancing EPA's Strategic Plan and guide grant work planning
with states, tribes, and territories.

For the first time, an NPG is being issued by the Office of Policy's Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ)
and the Office of General Counsel's External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO) on EJ and civil rights.
This NPG supports the agency-wide implementation of the EPA Strategic Plan's Goal 2 on advancing EJ
and civil rights and provides EPA programs and regions with a framework to develop their own EJ and
Civil Rights implementation plans. To this end, EJ and civil rights considerations are reflected throughout
the FY 2023-2024 NPGs and programs' work.

The FY 2023-2024 NPGs also include important changes regarding Tribal work. Each program's NPG
reaffirms EPA's commitment to carrying out the federal trust responsibility to Tribes, actively engaging
with Tribes, and respecting Tribal treaty rights. The NPGs also include a section focused on program-
specific priorities for Tribes. In addition, OITA's FY 2023-2024 NPG references Tribal work identified in
each of the other NPGs. In this way, the OITA NPG serves as a primary resource for Tribes.

1 13985: Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,
available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/2Q/executive-order-
advancing-racial-equitv-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/ and 14008:
Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-
room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/

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CONSIDERATION FOR GRANTS MANGEMENT

Pursuing Flexibilities through the National Environmental Partnership Performance System

The National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) provides programmatic and
administrative flexibilities to Tribes, states, and territories to help address environmental and health
priorities. The NEPPS approach includes Performance Partnership Agreements (PPAs), Performance
Partnership Grants (PPGs), and EPA-Tribal Environmental Plans (ETEPs) as the primary tools with which
EPA, Tribes, and states collaborate and apply flexibilities to identify and meet agreed-upon
environmental commitments. These allow grant recipients to direct resources to where they are needed
most, shift work across programs, and use a single grant application, including a blended budget, that
reduces reporting requirements and administrative burden.

NPGs include, as appropriate, a section that identifies the flexibilities made available to recipients for
program funds in their respective PPG-eligible grants.2 These sections also provide links to program
grant guidances or pertinent information on EPA's website to ensure compliance with the PPG
regulations. Additional information about NEPPS and ETEPs can be found respectively in OCIR's and
OITA's FY 2023-2024 NPGs.

Civil Rights Obligations of Grant Applicants and Recipients

EPA is charged with ensuring that the programs or activities of applicants for and recipients of EPA
financial assistance comply with applicable laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color,
national origin, sex, age, and disability. As implemented by EPA's regulation, these prohibitions include
intentional discrimination as well as practices, including permitting practices, that have a discriminatory
effect on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability.

In addition, EPA's General Terms and Conditions3 pertinent to applicants for and recipients of EPA
financial assistance include detailed procedural requirements for complying with applicable Title VI and
other federal civil rights laws and EPA's nondiscrimination regulation. These include requirements to
provide meaningful access to persons with limited English proficiency (LEP) and persons with disabilities,
collect and maintain demographic and other data about the populations they serve, an agreement for
permitting programs to use EPA's Title VI Public Involvement Guidance as a guide, and a provision
requiring that recipients acknowledge their obligation to implement procedural safeguards required by
regulation for implementing effective civil rights compliance programs.

2	Available at: https://www.epa.gov/ocir/nepps-implementing-performance-partnerships

3	Available at: https://www.epa.gov/svstem/files/documents/2021-

09/fv 2022 epa general terms and conditions effective October 1 2021.pdf

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