Date: July 14, 2023 U.S. EPA Publication # 190B23001 OCFO TECHNICAL GUIDANCE FY 2025-2026 NATIONAL PROGRAM GUIDANCE I. INTRODUCTION The Office of the Chief Financial Officer's (OCFO) Technical Guidance for the FY 2025- 2026 National Program Guidances (NPGs) provides instructions and milestones for the development of the NPGs that are issued by eight of EPA's National Program Offices- Air and Radiation; Water; Land and Emergency Management; Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention; Enforcement and Compliance Assurance; Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations; International and Tribal Affairs; and Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. The NPGs are issued on a two-year cycle with an optional addendum in the second year to address significant changes. The NPGs communicate program priorities, strategies, key activities, and measures, consistent with the goals and strategies in the FY 2022-2026 Strategic Plan and the FY 2025 EPA President's Budget. EPA 's draft FY 2025-2026 NPGs will consider the results of early engagement with Tribes, states, and territories, as appropriate, and will be issued in April 2024 (after the release of the FY 2025 President's Budget). The final NPGs will be issued in July 2024. II. MAJOR ELEMENTS OF THE FY 2025-2026 NATIONAL PROGRAM GUIDANCE PROCESS A. Early Engagement with States, Tribes, and Territories (July - October 2023) NPMs will engage with state, Tribes, territories, relevant media-specific associations, and other organizations to inform development of the NPGs. Early Engagement Summary: By November 10, 2023, each NPM will submit to OCFO (Beth Burchard and Kathryn (Blair) Budd) their Summary of Early Engagement for posting on the National Program Guidance website. NPMs will use the Summary of Early Engagement Template. B. Consultation and Coordination with Federally Recognized Tribes 1 ------- OCFO plans to notify federally recognized Tribes in early 2024 that the Agency is available for consultation on the FY 2025-2026 NPGs through the end of the external comment period (scheduled to end June 4, 2024. See Section V: Key Milestones). Additional information about consultation and coordination with Tribes can be found on EPA's Tribal Consultation Opportunities website. C. Inclusion of Supplemental or Other Funding Streams Programs have discretion on whether and how to include guidance on the use of supplemental or other funding streams in their FY 2025-2026 NPGs. For example, programs may integrate discussion of supplemental funding in existing sections and/or create a separate section in their NPG. Programs that discuss supplemental funding must ensure consistency with other EPA guidance on supplemental funding and clearly identify the relevant supplemental appropriation. If programs are using other agency channels to provide guidance on the use of supplemental or other funding streams, consider providing links to those guidances in the NPG. D. Alignment of National Program Guidances and Grant Work Planning In developing the NPGs and grant guidances, program offices should highlight the use of Performance Partnership Agreements (PPAs) and Performance Partnership Grants (PPGs) as vehicles for increasing financial and programmatic flexibilities for states, Tribes, and territories to achieve our mission of protecting human health and the environment. NPMs will clearly identify their PPG-eligible grants to inform work planning by states, Tribes, and territories. National programs also should highlight the use of EPA Tribal Environmental Plans (ETEPs) to better understand and address shared environmental priorities of EPA and Tribes and use that understanding to guide EPA actions and decision- making. Additionally, it is important for national programs, headquarters, and regional offices to incorporate the Administration's priorities of ensuring environmental justice and tackling climate change into the development of grant guidances and work plans. Work plans and guidance also should incorporate relevant feedback from the early engagement process. The Summaries of Early Engagement (available on the NPG website) provide an easy reference for this purpose. Compliance with Grants Policies: NPGs and grant guidances should comply with the Office of Grants and Debarment's (OGD) policies and guidance (found in the OGD Policy Library). All competitive grant solicitations and all grant workplans 2 ------- (competitive and noncompetitive) must address current EPA priorities and comply with EPA Order 5700.7A1 EPA's Policy for Environmental Results under EPA Assistance Agreements, which requires a description of how the work under the assistance agreement links to the EPA Strategic Plan. In addition, programs and regions should include appropriate metric requirements in the grant criteria and workplan. E. FY 2025 National Program Guidance Measures NPG measures are operational measures that support EPA's annual and long- term performance goals. They help us assess progress toward planned results to protect human health and the environment, consistent with the FY 2025 President's Budget. These measures also are considered in developing activities and measures in grant work plans. III. FORMAT AND CONTENT OF DRAFT AND FINAL GUIDANCES The Section 508-compliant Format and Content Template is available on the NPG SharePoint Site and provides instructions for developing FY 2025-2026 NPGs. IV. REVIEWS A. Internal Agency Review Prior to the external comment period, NPMs will submit to OCFO their draft FY 2025-2026 NPG that has been approved by their NPM policy officials. OCFO will post draft NPGs for internal review on the NPG SharePoint Site. Comments should be submitted using the Comments Template posted on the SharePoint site. B. External Review The draft FY 2025-2026 NPGs will be available on the NPG website for a 6-week external comment period. Comments should be submitted using the Comments Template that will be posted on the NPG website. During the comment period: • Programs will hold national teleconferences with states and territories. • OCFO and OITA will hold a national teleconference with Tribes to discuss the draft FY 2025-2026 NPGs and provide an overview of the process for commenting. 3 ------- C. Response to Comments Programs will use the Section 508-compliant Response to Comments Template to respond to comments by providing a brief explanation of how comments were addressed in the final FY 2025-2026 NPGs. The Response to Comment documents will be posted on EPA's NPG website with the final NPGs. V. KEY MILESTONES The following table contains the timeline for developing the FY 2025-2026 National Program Guidances. Target Date National Program Guidance Development July - October 2023 Programs solicit input from states, Tribes, territories, relevant media- specific associations, and other organizations to inform development of the NPGs November 2023 Summaries of early engagement posted on NPG Website Early 2024 OCFO notifies Tribes of: (1) the opportunity to request consultation with the programs on their draft NPGs, concurrent with the 6-week external comment period; and (2) the details of an informational teleconference for Tribes during the consultation and comment period February 5 Planned Issuance of FY 2025 Congressional Justification February 9 Programs submit draft FY 2025-2026 NPGs to OCFO for posting to NPG SharePoint site for internal Agency review. Drafts should be approved by NPM policy officials prior to submission to OCFO February 12 - 26 Internal Agency review (2 weeks) March 12 - 26 Deputy Administrator Office review (2 weeks) April 16 Programs submit revised drafts to OCFO for external review (3 weeks) April 22 OCFO posts draft guidances to NPG Website April 23 - June 4 External Comment and Concurrent Tribal Consultation Periods (6 weeks): • Comments sent to appropriate Program and OCFO contacts • State/ECOS/Program conference calls • National informational teleconference with Tribes July 2 Programs submit Response to Comments and final NPGs to OCFO (4 weeks) July 8 OCFO posts final guidances to NPG Website 4 ------- VI. KEY CONTACTS Key contacts for the NPGs are located on the National Program Guidance website. 5 ------- |