§ 1234h — Use Of Recovered Funds

(a) Whenever the Secretary recovers funds paid to a recipient under a grant or cooperative agreement made under an applicable program because the recipient made an expenditure of funds that was not allowable, or otherwise failed to discharge its responsibility to account properly for funds, the Secretary may consider those funds to be additional funds available for that program and may arrange to repay to the recipient affected by that action an amount not to exceed 75 percent of the recovered funds if the Secretary determines that— (1) the practices or procedures of the recipient that resulted in the violation of law have been corrected, and that the recipient is in all other respects in compliance with the requirements of that program, provided that the recipient was notified of any noncompliance with such requirements and given a reasonable period of time to remedy such noncompliance; (2) the recipient has submitted to the Secretary a plan for the use of those funds pursuant to the requirements of that program and, to the extent possible, for the benefit of the population that was affected by the failure to comply or by the misuse of funds that resulted in the recovery; and (3) the use of those funds in accordance with that plan would serve to achieve the purposes of the program under which the funds were originally paid. (b) Any payments by the Secretary under this section shall be subject to such other terms and conditions as the Secretary considers necessary to accomplish the purposes of the affected programs, including— (1) the submission of periodic reports on the use of funds provided under this section; and (2) consultation by the recipient with students, parents, or representatives of the population that will benefit from the payments. (c) Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, the funds made available under this section shall remain available for expenditure for a period of time deemed reasonable by the Secretary, but in no case to exceed more than three fiscal years following the later of— (1) the fiscal year in which final agency action under section 1234a(e) of this title is taken; or (2) if such recipient files a petition for judicial review, the fiscal year in which final judicial action under section 1234g of this title is taken. (d) At least 30 days prior to entering into an arrangement under this section, the Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register a notice of intent to enter into such an arrangement and the terms and conditions under which payments will be made. Interested persons shall have an opportunity for at least 30 days to submit comments to the Secretary regarding the proposed arrangement.