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Special District Fairness and Accessibility Act
To require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance to agencies requiring special districts to be recognized as local government for the purpose of Federal financial assistance determinations.
Summary
This bill requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance within 180 days clarifying how federal agencies should recognize special districts as units of local government eligible to receive federal financial assistance. Special districts are defined as political subdivisions of states with specified boundaries and budgetary autonomy created to perform limited governmental or proprietary functions. Federal agencies must implement the OMB guidance within one year and adjust their policies and procedures for administering federal financial assistance programs accordingly. The OMB Director must submit a report to Congress within two years evaluating agency implementation of and compliance with the guidance.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX] (R-TX)
4 cosponsors
- Sen. Curtis, John R. [R-UT] (R-UT)
- Sen. Gallego, Ruben [D-AZ] (D-AZ)
- Sen. Merkley, Jeff [D-OR] (D-OR)
- Sen. Moreno, Bernie [R-OH] (R-OH)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to John Cornyn’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- CAPITAL GROUP $22,500
- ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ $16,500
- PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES $13,686
- WINKLEVOSS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT $13,200
- BLACKSTONE $12,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for John Cornyn → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jun 10, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. · senate
- Jun 10, 2025 Introduced in Senate
More bills on these subjects (8)
Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 10, 2025
Mr. Cornyn (for himself, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Moreno, and Mr. Gallego) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to issue guidance to agencies requiring special districts to be recognized as local government for the purpose of Federal financial assistance determinations.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Special District Fairness and Accessibility Act”.
SEC. 2. AGENCY FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE GUIDANCE ON SPECIAL DISTRICTS.
(a) Requirements for Agency Acknowledgment of Special Districts as Grant Recipients.—
(1) OMB guidance.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall issue guidance that clarifies how an agency recognizes a special district as a unit of local government for the purpose of being eligible to receive Federal financial assistance.
(2) Agency requirements.—Not later than 1 year after the date on which the guidance is issued pursuant to paragraph (1), the head of each agency shall implement the requirements of such guidance and conform any policy, principle, practice, procedure, or guideline relating to the administration of the Federal financial assistance programs of the agency.
(3) Reporting requirement.—Not later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director shall submit to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report that evaluates agency implementation of and conformity to the guidance issued pursuant to paragraph (1).
(b) Definitions.—In this section:
(1) Agency.—The term “agency” has the meaning given the term in section 552 of title 5, United States Code.
(2) Director.—The term “Director” means the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
(3) Federal financial assistance.—The term “Federal financial assistance”—
(A) means assistance that a non-Federal entity receives or administers in the form of a grant, loan, loan guarantee, property, cooperative agreement, interest subsidy, insurance, food commodity, direct appropriation, or other assistance; and
(B) does not include an amount received as reimbursement for services rendered to an individual in accordance with guidance issued by the Director.
(4) Special district.—The term “special district” means a political subdivision of a State, with specified boundaries and significant budgetary autonomy or control, created by or pursuant to the laws of the State, for the purpose of performing limited and specific governmental or proprietary functions that distinguish it as a significantly separate entity from the administrative governance structure of any other form of local government unit within a State.
(5) State.—The term “State” means each of the several States, the District of Columbia, each commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States, and each federally recognized Indian Tribe. <all>
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