This Act provides for the efficient and regular distribution of information of federal domestic assistance programs and directs the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to collect and distribute current information on federal domestic assistance programs.

In 1984, the OMB issued Circular A-89: Federal Domestic Assistance Program Information to provide instructions to the federal awarding agencies and grant recipients for uniform, systematic and periodic collection of information for all federally financed domestic assistance programs. Circular A-89 established a process for federal awarding agencies to provide annual information to GSA and OMB on all domestic assistance programs and activities that are federally funded. Using this information as a source, the GSA issues an annual Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), and periodic updates as the need arises, which contains a comprehensive list of all domestic assistance programs.

Each program is assigned a five-digit program number (referred to as the CFDA number) categorized by the federal administering agency. These CFDA numbers are used extensively by the Federal and New York State Governments in all grant award notices and state accounting records to account for, and report the status of, federally funded programs. The CFDA numbers represent, in most instances, the primary source for retrieving information from state accounting records to prepare financial statements required under the Single Audit Act and to review compliance with the cash management of federal funds.

The importance of obtaining and maintaining CFDA numbers in the State’s grant records cannot be overemphasized. See Section 7 – State Accounting and Reporting of this Chapter.

Guide to Financial Operations

REV. 07/28/2015