Review of Drawdown Levels and Publicly Available Information on the Office of Native American Programs’ CARES Act and ARP Act Block Grants

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Native American Programs’ (ONAP) Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act to identify drawdown levels for its block grant programs and assessed information ONAP made publicly available. As of October 4, 2022, grantees had drawn $231.6 million of the $300 million in CARES Act block grant funds and $135.8 million of the $735 million in ARP Act block grant funds. A total of $19.1 million of the appropriated funds was not authorized for access to grantees because grantees opted not to apply for funding, declined to accept funding after it was awarded, or were still in the approval process. The remaining undrawn funds could be the result of unique challenges faced by each grantee or the remaining time left to expend the funds. However, most grantees had an approved plan in place to spend the funds, and the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG)-ARP funds without a plan will be reallocated by ONAP to other grantees with specific needs under the Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG)-ARP program. HUD stated that it would continue to monitor congressional legislation and will reallocate the remaining IHBG-CARES funding if a statutory fix to allow reallocation to the ICDBG-ARP gets enacted into law. In addition, ONAP updated grantees and the public concerning its CARES Act and ARP Act block grant funds through PIH notices, guidance, training, and frequently asked questions. As a result, the grantees and other stakeholders were generally informed of the program requirements and which grantees received funding. In addition, we noted a less significant matter regarding the publishing of award information which we communicated to ONAP in a separate memorandum. There are no recommendations in this report.