Initial Guidance for the Agreement Community GSA-Lease Costs April 2015 Presenter: Michael Peranio

Issue: The funding for GSA-leased space changed this year and may require that APHIS recover a portion of these costs in our reimbursable agreements. Following is background on the issue and the potential impact on the agreements community. The Agreements Services Center (ASC) will provide additional guidance in the coming months.

Background: In Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, APHIS was appropriated $42.6 million in funding for GSA leased space. This funding was previously appropriated to and managed by the Department directly and called the Central Rent Account (CRA). The allocated amount for APHIS’ GSA leased space within the CRA has not fully covered the APHIS portion of the costs. For the past few years, APHIS has paid any cost overruns with the APHIS Departmental Services assessment, which is created from multiple funding sources. Now that APHIS has received the funding through our appropriation, the Program Leaders Group (PLG), which is composed of representatives from all APHIS programs, developed an operational plan to address various aspects of this transfer of funding. Three of the operational plan goals are to 1) develop a strategy for managing CRA funds in future years, 2) to accurately allocate lease costs to the proper funding sources, and 3) identify potential space for reduction or elimination. All programs will have representatives working on and providing input to this project.

Background Cont’d: One of the initial phases of the operational plan is to identify space as it relates to program funding sources (i.e., user fees, reimbursable, or appropriated funding) as well as identify if occupied space can be reduced, thus providing a lease cost savings to APHIS. Federal regulations mandate that agencies recover the full costs of providing services that are funded by user fees or reimbursements; full costs would include costs for space and leases on a relative basis. Once this allocation of space is known, the project team will develop a plan for recovering a proportionate share of lease costs from the suitable funding sources, including user fees and/or reimbursements.

Impact on APHIS Agreements Beginning in FY 2016, many Cooperative Service Agreements, Trust Funds, and Interagency Agreements where APHIS is performing will need to include rent in the work and financial plan to recover a share of lease costs. This cost will likely be in addition to current overhead expenses that are assessed. The details of this are still being developed. Once the plan is developed for recovering a share of lease costs, the agreements community will need to work closely with budget staff to determine the amount of lease space that needs to be captured and recovered at the individual agreement level. Authorized Departmental Officers’ Designated Representatives (ADODRs) will need to be aware of this requirement and include lease costs in the work and financial plan at the time they are negotiating with cooperators. In addition, the Agreements Services Center (ASC) is looking at making enhancements to the ACMS Agreements Inventory to have the ability to capture and report on agreements that include recovery of leased space. As more information is received, guidance will be developed and disseminated from ASC. ed on April 8, 2015