Establish Federal-State Flexibility Grants

2. Support proposals for Federal-State Flexibility Grants.

While NPR advocates a broadly based bottom-up grant consolidation
option, it will not be suitable or desirable for many jurisdictions
where current accounting standards, contradictory rules, etc. are not
major problems. Even in these cases, however, improvement in the overall
system of grants administration can reduce cost and improve
administrative effectiveness. Complementary to the bottom-up approach,
NPR also recommends support for consolidation proposals that provide
increased flexibility to states and localities that complement federal
programs.

One such proposal, developed by the National Governors' Association
(NGA) and National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), would
consolidate ". .  . approximately 55 existing programs, with a funding
level of approximately $12.9 billion in fiscal 1993, into flexibility
grants in six broad areas: education reform, workforce quality, air and
land environmental management, water quality, defense conversion, and
housing." The proposal is designed to respect the jurisdictional
authority of congressional committees (see Appendix B).[Endnote 4]

The NGA/NCSL proposal was intended to affect only funds going to state
recipients, although local government advocates are concerned that some
pass- through monies may be affected. NPR's support for flexibility
grants is conditioned upon the fact that there be no increase in grant
funds going to overhead costs, or a related diminution in program
allocations at the point of service delivery--concerns held by local
governments that now receive some of these funds directly from the
federal government.

Endnote

4. Correspondence dated March 11, 1993 to the President from the
NGA/NCSL.