[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 119 (Wednesday, June 20, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 37248-37250]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-15073]
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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. FR-5557-D-06]
Delegations of Authority for the Office of Housing--Federal
Housing Administration (FHA); Delegation of Authority for the Office of
Healthcare Programs
AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Housing--Federal Housing
Commissioner, HUD.
ACTION: Notice of Delegation of Authority.
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SUMMARY: This document supersedes all previous delegations of authority
and specifies the delegations and redelegations of authority for the
Office of Healthcare Programs within the Office of Housing. The Office
of Healthcare Programs is headed by the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Healthcare Programs and Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Healthcare Programs, who report directly to the Assistant Secretary for
Housing--Federal Housing Commissioner and the General Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Housing--Deputy Federal Housing Commissioner.
DATES: Effective Date: June 5, 2012.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ivy Jackson or John Whitehead, Office
of Healthcare Programs, Office of Housing, Department of Housing and
Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW., Room 6264, Washington, DC
20410-8000, telephone number 202-708-0599. (This is not a toll-free
number.) Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access this
number through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at
800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice supersedes all previous
delegations including the delegations and redelegations published in
the Federal Register on October 12, 2006 (71 FR 60179), and those
contained in memoranda signed by the FHA Commissioner and titled
``Redelegations for Sections 232 and 242 Programs,'' dated November 6,
2008, February 1, 2010, and April 20, 2010.
The Office of Healthcare Programs (OHP) is centrally organized and
administered out of HUD Headquarters and headed by a Deputy Assistant
Secretary. It includes managers and staff members outstationed to field
locations. OHP reviews and approves mortgage insurance proposals for
hospitals (Section 242 of the National Housing Act) and residential
care facilities (Section 232 of the National Housing Act) and handles
asset management and property disposition matters related to HUD's
Section 232- and Section 242-insured portfolios. OHP also administers
all matters under Title XI of the National Housing Act (mortgage
insurance for group practice facilities), but this program is currently
inactive. Prior to the creation of OHP, the Section 242 hospital
program was administered by the Office of Insured Health Care
Facilities (OIHCF), and the Section 232 residential care facilities
program was administered by the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs
(MHP). A 2008 realignment consolidated administration of HUD's health-
care facilities programs under the Office of Insured Health Care
Facilities (OIHCF), with some responsibilities remaining with MHP.
Following approval of a reorganization in May 2010, the Office of
Healthcare Programs came into existence and OIHCF ceased to exist. HUD
determined that the reorganization was necessary because underwriting
and oversight issues unique to health-care facilities were best handled
by a specialized office with particular expertise in the health-care
area.
There are three major program offices within OHP, each of which is
headed by a Director who reports to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Healthcare Programs and the Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Healthcare Programs. A general description of each program office
appears below:
A. Office of Hospital Facilities. This office develops and
implements policies and guidelines for the loan origination, asset
management, and post-insurance activities related to Section 242
mortgage insurance for hospitals.
B. Office of Residential Care Facilities. This office develops and
implements policies and guidelines for the loan origination,
construction, asset management, and post-insurance activities related
to Section 232 mortgage insurance for residential-care facilities.
These facilities include nursing facilities, assisted living
facilities, and board and care facilities.
C. Office of Architecture and Engineering. This office provides
architectural and engineering support for the hospital program and as-
needed consultation for the residential care facilities program. It
develops and implements policies and guidelines for plans and
specifications, construction contracts, construction monitoring,
construction draws, and closeout of the facility construction. This
office also provides professional consultation for hospital facilities,
including site visits for those projects that are in financial
distress.
The Office of Healthcare Programs is charged with carrying out
duties of the Assistant Secretary and General Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Housing, as they relate to healthcare facility programs
set forth in HUD's governing legislation. These programs enable HUD, in
concert with participants from the private and public sectors, to
provide affordable capital financing for the construction,
rehabilitation, refinancing, and purchase of health-care facilities.
Under this delegation, the Assistant Secretary for Housing--Federal
Housing Commissioner, General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing--
Deputy Federal Housing Commissioner, and Associate General Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Housing redelegate broad program authority to
the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs and the
Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs.
Characterizing the authority that is being redelegated in broad or
general terms will enable the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare
Programs and the Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare
Programs to perform all functions necessary to accomplish health-care
facility program tasks and objectives. The basic health-care program
functions and a brief description of each are as follows:
1. General Authority. This authority allows Office of Healthcare
Programs officials to sign any and all documents necessary to carry out
business within their program jurisdictions. In addition, this
authority allows such officials, when considering a proposal, to waive,
for good cause and with written
[[Page 37249]]
justification any directives that are not mandated by statute or
regulation.
2. Production. This function allows a manager with delegated
authority to make all necessary determinations that relate to the FHA
insurance application processing and underwriting process. The function
begins with a pre-application or application for mortgage insurance and
ends with the Department's endorsement of an insured mortgage and
related documentation.
3. Construction. This function involves: the review and approval of
plans and specifications and construction contracts, environmental
review, the monitoring of construction progress and quality, the review
and approval of requests for drawdown of mortgage proceeds as
construction progresses, and project closeout at the conclusion of
construction.
4. Asset Management. Functions carried out under this category
involve HUD's continuing relationship with a mortgagee and a health-
care facility after the facility has been added to the HUD portfolio
through FHA mortgage insurance. Ongoing decision-making relates to an
insured facility's financial strength, occupancy, utilization,
operations (including changes in ownership, operator, or management
entity), and compliance with its regulatory agreement from the time of
occupancy through termination of insurance, with the goal being to
identify problems that could lead to mortgage default and payment of an
insurance claim, and to take actions to help the facility avoid
mortgage default.
5. Post-Insurance Functions. Functions under this category involve
the ongoing monitoring and ultimate disposition of Secretary-held
mortgage notes. The purpose of these functions is to optimize recovery
of losses from claims. Ongoing decision-making relates to a facility's
financial strength, occupancy, utilization, operations (including
changes in ownership, operator, or management entity, and changes in
debt service via a note modification) and compliance with its
regulatory agreement. Post-insurance functions include: deciding to
offer a Secretary-held mortgage note for sale, coordinating details of
the sale process with the Office of Finance and Budget, deciding
whether or not to accept an offer from a prospective purchaser and
deciding whether to foreclose on a Secretary-held mortgage,
coordinating details of the property sale with the Multifamily Property
Disposition Center, and deciding whether to accept an offer from a
prospective purchaser.
Section A. Authority Delegated
The Assistant Secretary, the General Deputy Assistant Secretary,
and the Associate General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing hereby
delegate the following authorities: (1) to the Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Healthcare Programs and the Associate Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Healthcare Programs; and (2) through the above Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs and the Associate Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs, to the managers listed,
subject to the limitations in Section B below.
Authority is delegated, on a nationwide basis, to take all actions
necessary to conduct all health-care facility mortgage insurance
programs, including, but not limited to, the exercise of the following
functions:
1. General authority.
2. All production functions.
3. All construction functions.
4. All asset management functions.
5. All post-insurance functions.
Authority is found in Section 7(d) of the Department of Housing and
Urban Development Act (42 U.S.C. 3535(d), which states: ``The Secretary
may delegate any of his functions, powers, and duties to such officers
and employees of the Department as he may designate, may authorize such
successive redelegations of such functions, powers, and duties as he
may deem desirable, and may make such rules and regulations as may be
necessary to carry out his functions, powers, and duties.''
The authority delegated in Section A and redelegated in Section B
below does not include authority to issue or waive regulations.
Section B. Authority to Redelegate
The Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs and the
Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs hereby
redelegate the following authorities to the following managers:
A. Director, Office of Hospital Facilities
Authority is redelegated, on a nationwide basis, to take all
actions necessary to conduct the hospital mortgage insurance program,
in relation to the following functions:
1. General authority;
2. All production functions;
3. All asset management functions; and
4. All post-insurance functions.
Prior authorization required. Exercise of the following authorities
is subject to prior authorization by the Deputy Assistant Secretary or
the Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs:
1. Issue waivers of directives (except those that restate
regulatory or statutory authority);
2. Issue mortgage insurance commitments;
3. Issue a notice of violation under the terms of a regulatory
agreement;
4. Authorize the acceleration of the principal debt of a mortgage;
5. Authorize a partial payment of claim;
6. Authorize the sale of a mortgage note;
7. Modify a Secretary-held note;
8. Authorize the sale of a HUD-owned hospital;
9. Authorize a change of ownership or merger of a portfolio
hospital;
10. Approve loan covenants other than the standard covenants;
11. Authorize a portfolio hospital to pledge accounts receivable as
collateral for non-FHA indebtedness;
12. Require a change of a hospital's governing board or management;
and
13. Communicate a significant new policy or a significant change to
established program policy.
Further redelegations. The Director, Office of Hospital Facilities,
may redelegate to, or withdraw from, any subordinate Division Director,
any of the authority delegated to the Director by this notice. Division
Directors may further redelegate to, or withdraw from, any designated
officials within their Divisions, any of the authority delegated to
them.
B. Director, Office of Residential Care Facilities
Authority is redelegated, on a nationwide basis, to take all
actions necessary to conduct the residential-care facilities mortgage
insurance program, in relation to the following functions:
1. General authority;
2. All production functions;
3. All construction functions;
4. All asset management functions; and
5. All post-insurance functions.
Prior authorization required. Exercise of the following authorities
is subject to prior authorization by the Deputy Assistant Secretary or
the Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs:
1. Authorize the acceleration of the principal debt of a mortgage;
2. Authorize a partial payment of claim;
3. Authorize the sale of a mortgage note;
4. Modify a Secretary-held note;
[[Page 37250]]
5. Authorize the sale of a HUD-owned residential care facility;
6. Approve a portfolio consisting of 10 or more facilities;
7. Approve change of ownership or operator for a portfolio of 10 or
more facilities;
8. Approve a mortgage insurance commitment in excess of $50
million; and
9. Communicate a significant new policy or a significant change to
established program policy.
Further redelegations. The Director, Office of Residential Care
Facilities, may redelegate to, or withdraw from, any subordinate
Division Director any of the authority delegated to the Director under
this notice. Division Directors may further redelegate to, or withdraw
from, any designated officials within their Divisions, any of the
authority delegated to them.
C. Director and Deputy Director, Office of Architecture and Engineering
Authority is redelegated to take all actions necessary to conduct
the construction functions for the hospital mortgage insurance program,
and, when directed by the Deputy Assistant Secretary or the Associate
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Healthcare Programs, on a case-by-case
basis, for the residential care facility mortgage insurance program.
The Director, Office of Architecture and Engineering, may
redelegate to, or withdraw from, any designated official within that
Office, any of the authority delegated to the Director.
Section C. Authority Excepted
The authority delegated in Section A and redelegated in Section B,
above, does not include authority to issue or waive regulations.
Section D. Authority Superseded
These redelegations supersede all prior delegations and
redelegations with respect to health-care facilities, including,
without limitation, those published in the Federal Register on October
12, 2006 (71 FR 60179) and memoranda signed by the FHA Commissioner and
titled ``Redelegations for Sections 232 and 242 Programs,'' dated
November 6, 2008, February 1, 2010, and April 20, 2010.
The Assistant Secretary for Housing--Federal Housing Commissioner,
or the General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Housing--Federal Housing
Commissioner, or the Associate General Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Housing may revoke the authority authorized herein, in whole or part,
at any time. Notice of any revocation will be published in the Federal
Register.
Dated: June 5, 2012.
Carol J. Galante,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner.
[FR Doc. 2012-15073 Filed 6-19-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P