7316 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 32 / Thursday, February 18, 2010 / Proposed Rules 

OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND 

BUDGET 

2 CFR Subtitle A, Chapter I, Parts 25, 

27, 35, 77, and 180 

Guidance for Reporting and Use of 

Information Concerning Recipient 

Integrity and Performance 

AGENCY: Office of Management and 

Budget, Office of Federal Financial 

Management. 

ACTION: Proposed guidance. 

SUMMARY: The Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) is proposing 

guidance to Federal agencies to 

implement Section 872 of the Duncan 

Hunter National Defense Authorization 

Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. L. 110– 

417) (hereafter referred to as ‘‘section 

872’’), as it relates to grants. Section 872 

requires: establishment of a 

Governmentwide data system to contain 

specified information related to the 

integrity and performance of certain 

entities awarded Federal grants and 

contracts; and use of the information by 

Federal officials making awards. The 

proposed implementing guidance for 

grants also would apply to cooperative 

agreements, as a matter of 

Governmentwide policy. 

DATES: Comments are due on or before 

April 19, 2010. 

ADDRESSES: Due to potential delays in 

OMB’s receipt and processing of mail 

sent through the U.S. Postal Service, we 

encourage respondents to submit 

comments electronically to ensure 

timely receipt. We cannot guarantee that 

comments mailed will be received 

before the comment closing date. 

Comments may be sent via http:// 

www.regulations.gov, a Federal EGovernment Web site that allows the 

public to find, review, and submit 

comments on documents that agencies 

have published in the Federal Register 

and that are open for comment. Simply 

type ‘‘guidance on recipient integrity 

and performance matters’’ (in quotes) in 

the Comment or Submission search box, 

click Go, and follow the instructions for 

submitting comments. Comments 

received by the date specified above 

will be included as part of the official 

record. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Marguerite Pridgen, Office of Federal 

Financial Management, Office of 

Management and Budget, telephone 

(202) 395–7844. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Executive Summary 

Under the proposed guidance, the 

information that section 872 requires 

the data system to contain about each 

entity either would be reported by 

Federal officials or self-reported by the 

entity. The guidance would require 

appropriate Federal officials to report 

on: Terminations of awards due to 

material failure to comply with award 

terms and conditions; administrative 

agreements with entities to resolve 

suspension or debarment proceedings; 

and findings that entities were not 

qualified to receive awards. Through a 

new award term, the guidance would 

require each recipient that has Federal 

awards with a cumulative total value 

greater than $10,000,000 to provide 

information about certain civil, 

criminal, and administrative 

proceedings that reached final 

disposition within the most recent 5- 

year period and were connected with 

the award or performance of a Federal 

or State award. The award term also 

requires those recipients to report at 

least semiannually to maintain the 

currency of the information. As section 

872 requires, an entity also would be 

able to submit comments to the data 

system about any information that the 

system contains about the entity. 

Prior to making a decision to award a 

grant or cooperative agreement to an 

entity, the Federal agency official 

authorized to make the award would be 

required to determine whether the 

entity is qualified to receive an award, 

taking into consideration any 

information about the entity that is in 

the data system. 

In support of the data system, the 

proposed guidance also would establish 

requirements for program 

announcements and award terms to 

require that applicants, recipients, and 

first-tier subrecipients obtain Dun and 

Bradstreet (D&B) Data Universal 

Numbering System (DUNS) numbers 

and register in the Central Contractor 

Registration (CCR). This is a 

modification of a previous OMB 

proposal. 

The proposed guidance is in 

amendments to 2 CFR, chapter I, that 

would add four new parts, amend one 

existing part, and create subchapters to 

provide organizational structure for the 

chapter. The amendments relocate some 

existing OMB guidance into 2 CFR, 

chapter I, to provide needed context for 

the proposed new guidance. 

Requirements in Section 872 that are 

related to Federal procurement contracts 

are being implemented separately from 

the proposed guidance in this action, 

through proposed amendments to the 

Federal Acquisition Regulation [74 FR 

45579]. Data elements and Paperwork 

Reduction Act clearance for non-Federal 

entities’ reporting to the 

Governmentwide data system will be 

proposed for comment separately. 

In the future, OMB may broaden the 

scope of the data system to include 

recipient information from authoritative 

data sources not described in this 

guidance and information on each entity 

receiving an award below the $500,000 

threshold. In response to this notice, we 

are seeking input on the possible impact 

such scope changes could have on the 

affected recipients. 

I. Purposes of 2 CFR Amendments 

Proposed in This Document 

Following this Federal Register 

preamble are 12 proposed amendments 

to chapter I of title 2 of the Code of 

Federal Regulations (CFR). Chapter I is 

the location of OMB policy and 

procedural guidance to Federal agencies 

for the award and administration of 

grants and agreements. 

The twelve proposed amendments 

would make various kinds of changes to 

2 CFR. Some of the changes would 

create new OMB guidance needed to 

implement section 872. Other changes 

would update guidance that currently 

exists elsewhere and must be relocated 

into 2 CFR to provide a context in that 

title for the new guidance needed to 

implement section 872. The new and 

updated guidance would be in four new 

parts of Chapter I that the amendments 

would add—2 CFR parts 25, 27, 35, and 

77—and in amendments to the existing 

2 CFR part 180. Each part states its 

applicability to types of financial 

assistance awards and types of entities 

because the applicability varies 

depending upon the requirements that 

the part implements. 

The remaining changes are 

administrative in nature. We are 

proposing these changes primarily to 

create seven subchapters in 2 CFR, 

Chapter I. The intent is to provide a 

better organizational framework for 

parts that already are located in the 

chapter, parts that the twelve proposed 

amendments would add, and other parts 

to be added in the future. The first of the 

proposed administrative changes, which 

is amendment 1 following this 

preamble, would transfer parts 2–99 

into Chapter I, so that the chapter would 

be comprised of parts 2–199. Changes 

made by amendments 2, 4, and 6 

through 8, as well as portions of 

amendments 3 and 5, would create the 

new subchapters. The subchapters 

would be: 

• Subchapter A, ‘‘General Matters.’’ 

• Subchapter B, ‘‘Pre-Award 

Responsibilities.’’ 

• Subchapter C, ‘‘Award Content and 

Format.’’ 

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Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 32 / Thursday, February 18, 2010 / Proposed Rules 7317 

• Subchapter D, ‘‘Post-Award 

Responsibilities.’’ 

• Subchapter E, ‘‘Cost Principles.’’ 

• Subchapter F, ‘‘Audit 

Requirements.’’ 

• Subchapter G, ‘‘National Policy 

Requirements.’’ 

The remainder of this SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section is organized into 6 

sections. Section II describes the 

statutory requirements of section 872. 

Section III describes proposed 

amendments that would add new OMB 

guidance needed to implement section 

872 for grants and cooperative 

agreements. Section IV describes 

proposed amendments that would 

update and relocate into 2 CFR existing 

guidance, in order to provide needed 

context for the new guidance described 

in Section III. Section V explains the 

relationship of one of the proposed 

amendments to a proposal that OMB 

made in June 2008. Section VI is an 

invitation to comment and Section VII 

describes next steps. 

II. Statutory Requirements of Section 

872 

A. What Information Must Be Reported 

and Compiled 

Section 872 requires the 

Administrator of General Services to 

establish by October 14, 2009 (one year 

after enactment of Pub. L. 110–417) ‘‘a 

database of information regarding the 

integrity and performance of certain 

persons awarded Federal agency 

contracts and grants for use by Federal 

agency officials having authority over 

contracts and grants.’’ The 

implementation of the ‘‘database’’ 

required by section 872 is expected to 

be a data system comprised of multiple 

Federal databases. In accordance with 

paragraph (b) of section 872, the data 

system must cover at least each entity 

awarded a Federal contract or grant in 

excess of $500,000, to the extent that 

there exists information regarding the 

entity in any of the categories that the 

law delineates (note that ‘‘person,’’ the 

term used in the statute, as well as the 

term ‘‘entity’’ used in the proposed 

guidance to implement the statute, are 

properly understood to include both 

organizations and individuals that apply 

for and receive Federal awards). Those 

categories include information, in the 

form of a brief description, for the most 

recent 5-year period regarding the 

following: 

1. Each civil or criminal proceeding, 

or any administrative proceeding, in 

connection with the award or 

performance of a contract or grant with 

the Federal Government with respect to 

the entity during the period to the 

extent that such proceeding results in 

the following: 

a. In a criminal proceeding, a 

conviction. 

b. In a civil proceeding, a finding of 

fault and liability that results in the 

payment of a monetary fine, penalty, 

reimbursement, restitution, or damages 

of $5,000 or more. 

c. In an administrative proceeding, a 

finding of fault and liability that results 

in either: (i) The payment of a monetary 

fine or penalty of $5,000 or more; or (ii) 

the payment of a reimbursement, 

restitution, or damages in excess of 

$100,000. 

d. To the maximum extent practicable 

and consistent with applicable laws and 

regulations, in a criminal, civil, or 

administrative proceeding, a disposition 

of the matter by consent or compromise 

with an acknowledgment of fault by the 

entity if the proceeding could have led 

to any of the outcomes specified in the 

preceding paragraphs a, b, or c. 

2. Each Federal contract and grant 

awarded to the entity that was 

terminated in such period due to 

default. 

3. Each Federal suspension and 

debarment of the entity in that period. 

4. Each Federal administrative 

agreement entered into by the entity and 

the Federal Government in that period 

to resolve a suspension or debarment 

proceeding. 

5. Each final finding by a Federal 

official in that period that the entity has 

been determined not to be a responsible 

source under subparagraph (C) or (D) of 

section 4(7) of the Office of Federal 

Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 

403(7)). 

6. Such other information as shall be 

provided for purposes of this section in 

the Federal Acquisition Regulation. 

7. To the maximum extent practical, 

information similar to the information 

covered by paragraphs 1 through 4 in 

connection with the award or 

performance of a contract or grant with 

a State government. 

B. Who Reports the Information 

Section 872 requires that the data 

system permit appropriate Federal 

officials to directly enter and update 

information about actions they have 

taken with respect to recipients or 

contractors. It also requires issuance of 

regulations to require recipients and 

contractors who receive more than 

$10,000,000 in Federal grants and 

contracts to provide current information 

about themselves and update the 

information on a semiannual basis. 

Section 872 also provides recipients 

and contractors an option for additional 

comment. An entity must receive timely 

notification when information relevant 

to it is entered into the data system and 

given an opportunity to submit 

comments about the information, for 

inclusion in the data system. 

C. How the Data System Is Being 

Designed 

Even though the specific data 

elements to be reported will be 

addressed separately from the policy 

guidance proposed in this Federal 

Register notice, it is important to note 

that one objective of OMB and the 

Federal agencies working to implement 

section 872 is to integrate the policies 

and procedures for financial assistance 

and acquisition with the information 

technology aspects of the 

implementation in a way that minimizes 

the burdens on entities that receive 

Federal grants, cooperative agreements, 

and procurement contracts, as well as 

burdens on Federal agencies. Therefore, 

we are striving to implement the statute 

in a manner that, to the extent 

possible— 

• Reduces reporting of information by 

non-Federal entities by relying on 

Federal officials for as much of the 

information as possible; 

• Provides for use of the same data 

system for both contracts and grants; 

and 

• Uses existing databases and 

information systems, such as the 

Excluded Parties List System, both as a 

source of information and a place to 

store new information for Federal 

officials’ reporting of required 

information. 

We currently anticipate that the data 

system, which will be known as the 

Federal Awardee Performance and 

Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), 

will involve several business rules to 

increase the usefulness, accuracy, and 

confidentiality of information in the 

system. We expect that: 

• Only Federal Government officials 

will be able to view the information in 

FAPIIS, with the exception that an 

entity will be able to view its own 

information. 

• FAPIIS will be designed to 

automatically notify an entity when new 

information about itself is posted, in 

addition to the notification provided by 

the Federal official who entered the 

information. 

• There will be a point of contact for 

system errors and a point of contact for 

each Federal information entry, so that 

any errors in information in FAPIIS can 

be brought to the attention of the 

appropriate Government official. 

• Data accessible for a period of 5 

years, as section 872 requires, will be 

archived for an additional period of 1 

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year to allow for resolution of issues 

related to the information. 

• There will be only a modest amount 

of space for an entity’s comments about 

each past event reported to FAPIIS, as 

the purpose is for the entity to provide 

any additional information it may have 

about its present qualification to receive 

awards and not to dispute the past 

event. The comments will be retained in 

FAPIIS as long as the associated 

information is retained (i.e., accessible 

for a period of 5 years and archived for 

an additional year). An entity may 

revise its comments in FAPIIS, but 

version control will be maintained. 

D. How the Information Is To Be Used 

Section 872 specifies that before 

awarding a contract or grant in excess of 

the simplified acquisition threshold 

(currently $100,000), the Federal agency 

official responsible for making the 

award must consider the information in 

the data system with respect to the 

entity to which the award would be 

made. 

III. Amendments Establishing New 

Guidance To Implement Section 872 

The implementation of section 872 

requires OMB guidance to establish 

some new policies and procedures. The 

new requirements resulting from this 

guidance for non-Federal and Federal 

entities are described in the following 

sections III.A and III.B. 

Section 872 applies to grants and 

procurement contracts. As a matter of 

Federal Government policy, the 

proposed new guidance in 2 CFR would 

apply the requirements of section 872 to 

cooperative agreements, as well as 

grants. Implementation of the statute as 

it applies to procurement contracts is 

being addressed through a separate 

Federal Register document proposing 

changes to the Federal Acquisition 

Regulation (74 FR 45579, September 3, 

2009). 

The proposed new 2 CFR guidance 

does not address data elements or, other 

than the broad outlines described in 

Section II.C of this notice, other 

specifics of the data system that section 

872 requires the General Services 

Administration to establish. It does 

establish the underlying policy 

framework, including requirements for 

recipients and their direct (i.e., first-tier) 

subrecipients, Federal agency officials 

who award and administer grants and 

cooperative agreements, and Federal 

agency suspending and debarring 

officials. 

A. Proposed New Requirements for 

Recipients and Subrecipients 

Agencies would communicate 

requirements applicable to non-Federal 

entities through two new award terms 

included in the proposed guidance. 

The first award term is included in 

the proposed new part 25, which would 

be added by amendment 3 following 

this preamble. It would require 

recipients and first-tier subrecipients to 

obtain and provide DUNS numbers to 

Federal awarding agencies and to 

maintain current registrations in the 

CCR. These requirements support the 

implementation of section 872. They are 

needed to help correctly identify a 

recipient or contractor entity, so that 

information about the entity that resides 

in multiple Federal Government 

databases can be properly linked 

together and provided through an 

integrating data system to Federal 

agency awarding officials, as section 872 

requires. 

The second award term is included in 

the proposed part 35, which also would 

be added by amendment 3 following 

this preamble. It implements for grants 

and cooperative agreements the 

requirement in paragraph (f) of section 

872. It does so by requiring a recipient 

to provide information about itself for 

inclusion in the data system if it has 

currently active Federal grants, 

cooperative agreements, and contracts 

with a cumulative total value (including 

any options not yet exercised) greater 

than $10 million. Specifically, it 

requires each recipient to: (1) Provide 

information about any criminal 

convictions, civil judgments, and 

outcomes of administrative proceedings 

that are listed in section II.A.1 of this 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section; 

and (2) maintain the currency of that 

information by reviewing it at least 

semiannually and making any needed 

updates. The award term requires the 

recipient to report convictions and 

outcomes of proceedings associated 

with both Federal and State awards 

because section 872 requires inclusion 

of information about those associated 

with State awards, to the maximum 

extent practicable (see paragraph II.A.7 

of this SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

section). 

The award term in the proposed part 

35 would not require non-Federal 

entities to provide information about 

Federal suspensions or debarments, 

terminations of awards, or other actions 

for which section 872 requires the data 

system to have information. The reason 

is that the needed information about 

those Federal actions can readily be 

obtained from the Federal awarding, 

administering, and suspending and 

debarring officials who take the actions. 

B. Proposed New Requirements for 

Federal Officials 

Most of the proposed guidance 

addresses responsibilities of Federal 

officials, including those who award 

and administer grants and cooperative 

agreements and Federal agency 

suspending and debarring officials. 

The new responsibilities proposed for 

suspending and debarring officials are 

in amendments 10 through 12 following 

this preamble, which revise 2 CFR part 

180. The new responsibilities are to: 

• Report information to the data 

system established under section 872 

about each administrative agreement 

entered into with an entity to resolve a 

suspension or debarment action and, if 

needed, subsequently correct or update 

the information. A suspending or 

debarring official sometimes negotiates 

an administrative agreement because he 

or she determines that it is a better way 

for the Government to resolve the matter 

than suspending or debarring the entity. 

• Include additional wording in each 

administrative agreement, as well as in 

each notice a suspending or debarring 

official sends to notify an entity that it 

has been suspended or debarred. The 

purpose of the additional wording is to 

inform the entity that information about 

the action will be available through the 

new data system established under 

section 872, how Federal awarding 

officials will use the information, that 

the entity may comment about the 

information in the system, and other 

related matters. 

There are a number of proposed new 

responsibilities for officials who make 

awards. Those new pre-award 

responsibilities would be to: 

• Include wording in each program 

announcement, program regulation, or 

other issuance containing instructions 

for applicants, to require each applicant 

to register in the CCR and provide its 

DUNS number in each application it 

submits, unless the applicant is an 

individual or is otherwise excepted 

from those requirements (see subpart B 

of the proposed part 25 and Appendix 

A of the proposed part 27, subdivision 

II, paragraph II.C.3). 

• Include wording in the section of 

each program announcement describing 

the review and selection process, to 

inform potential applicants that, prior to 

making an award to an entity, the 

Federal agency awarding official must 

consider information about the entity 

that is contained in FAPIIS. The 

wording also would inform a potential 

applicant about its right to review 

information about itself in FAPIIS and 

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provide comments that the awarding 

official also would consider in making 

a determination about the entity’s 

qualification to receive an award. (See 

Appendix A of the proposed part 27, 

subdivision II, paragraph II.E.2.b.) 

• Determine before making an award 

to an entity whether the entity is 

qualified. If the official determined that 

an entity was not qualified, he or she 

still would be able to make the award 

in some cases. However, if the official 

did not make an award expected to 

exceed the simplified acquisition 

threshold (currently $100,000) because 

he or she disqualified the entity based 

on its integrity and business ethics and 

prior performance under Federal 

awards, the official would be required 

under the proposed guidance to report 

information about the disqualification to 

FAPIIS. The official would be required 

to notify the disqualified entity about 

the reporting of the information to the 

data system, how Federal awarding 

officials will use the information, that 

the entity may comment about the 

information in the system, and related 

matters. The official also would be 

required to make timely corrections to 

any information submitted about the 

disqualification that he or she later 

learned to be erroneous. (See subpart A 

of the proposed part 35.) 

• Include in the award the two 

proposed new award terms—one for 

DUNS number and CCR registration 

requirements (see Subpart B of the 

proposed part 25 and Appendix A to 

that part) and one for recipient reporting 

requirements to the FAPIIS data system 

(see subpart B of the proposed part 35 

and Appendix A to that part). 

The proposed guidance also would 

establish new post-award 

responsibilities for officials who 

administer awards. Subpart B of the 

proposed part 77 contains requirements 

for those officials to report terminations 

of awards to FAPIIS; notify the affected 

non-Federal entities about the reporting 

of the information, its use, and 

opportunities for the entities to 

comment; and correct any submitted 

information later learned to be 

erroneous. 

IV. Amendments That Update and 

Relocate Existing OMB Guidance 

As discussed in Section I of this 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section, 

some of the proposed amendments 

following this preamble would update 

existing OMB guidance and relocate it 

into 2 CFR to provide needed context 

for the new guidance that was described 

in the preceding Section III. The 

following sections IV.A, IV.B, and IV.C, 

respectively, describe aspects of the 

proposed 2 CFR parts 25, 27, and 35 that 

relate to existing OMB guidance. 

A. Aspects of the Proposed Part 25 That 

Relate to Policies and Procedures 

Currently in Effect 

1. DUNS Numbers 

The proposed part 25 implements and 

relocates into 2 CFR existing OMB 

guidance on the use of the DUNS 

number as a universal identifier. That 

guidance is in two OMB policy 

memoranda that require Federal 

agencies to obtain DUNS numbers from 

applicants and use them in the award 

and administration of Federal financial 

assistance awards. The details are that: 

• The policy initially was established 

by the July 15, 2003, OMB 

memorandum M–03–16, ‘‘OMB Issues 

Grants Management Policies,’’ which 

applied to grants and cooperative 

agreements. That memorandum is 

available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ 

omb/memoranda/m03-16.pdf and the 

full text of the policy is available in the 

Federal Register [68 FR 38402, June 27, 

2003]. 

• On May 30, 2008, OMB broadened 

that policy to include other forms of 

Federal financial assistance when it 

issued memorandum M–08–19, 

‘‘Authority to Collect DUNS Number to 

Meet Requirements of the Federal 

Funding Accountability and 

Transparency Act of 2006.’’ Specifically, 

the memorandum broadened the 2003 

policy to include loans and other forms 

of financial assistance that are subject to 

the Federal Funding Accountability and 

Transparency Act (Pub. L. 109–282, 

hereafter referred to as ‘‘the 

Transparency Act’’). The memorandum 

is available at http:// 

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/omb/ 

memoranda/fy2008/m08-19.pdf. 

As proposed, part 25 would 

implement the existing policy on DUNS 

numbers as it applies to prime 

recipients (i.e., those that receive 

awards directly from Federal agencies) 

and their direct or ‘‘first-tier’’ 

subrecipients. Implementing the policy 

for recipients and first-tier subrecipients 

parallels the approach used in OMB 

guidance implementing requirements to 

track use of funds under the American 

Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 

(Pub. L. 111–5, hereafter referred to as 

‘‘the Recovery Act’’). That guidance is 

available at http://www.recovery.gov 

and http://www.omb.gov. 

2. CCR Registration 

With respect to requirements for CCR 

registration, the proposed part 25 would 

establish as policy in 2 CFR what 

already is a requirement for any 

applicant who uses Grants.gov to 

electronically submit its application to a 

Federal agency. The proposed policy 

would apply to first-tier subrecipients, 

in addition to applicants and prime 

recipients, which is a broadening of the 

current Grants.gov requirement. Again, 

this inclusion of first-tier subrecipients 

parallels the recent OMB 

implementation of the Recovery Act. 

B. Aspects of the Proposed Part 27 That 

Relate to Policies and Procedures 

Currently in Effect 

Given that the proposed part 27 

would require program announcements 

to include specific content related to 

section 872, as described in section III.B 

of this SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

section, we also are proposing that the 

part include the more general OMB 

policies related to program 

announcements. These include the 

OMB directives to use the standard 

format and to electronically post 

announcements and synopses of them, 

as described in the following sections 

IV.B.1 and IV.B.2. 

1. Governmentwide Standard Format for 

Program Announcements 

Subpart B of the proposed part 27 

specifies that agencies must use the 

standard format for program 

announcements, thereby incorporating 

into 2 CFR the policy originally 

established by OMB memorandum 

M–03–16, ‘‘OMB Issues Grants 

Management Policies.’’ The 

memorandum is available at http:// 

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/omb/ 

memoranda/m03-16.pdf. The full text of 

the policy was in a directive that OMB 

published in the Federal Register [68 

FR 37370, June 23, 2003]. 

We are proposing that the format 

itself, which OMB published with the 

policy directive in that 2003 Federal 

Register document, be incorporated as 

Appendix A to the proposed part 27. 

Incorporating it into the CFR will enable 

it to be more easily updated in the 

future. In incorporating it, we made the 

following changes: 

• We assigned letters and numbers to 

every paragraph in the format, many of 

which had none in the 2003 issuance. 

Doing so required changes to 

designations that many paragraphs had 

in that earlier format. While we regret 

any near-term inconvenience that this 

transition in paragraph designations 

may cause for users of the format, it is 

needed to enable us to efficiently amend 

individual paragraphs of the text in the 

future. In making this change, we did 

incorporate suggestions we heard from 

users, based on their experiences with 

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7320 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 32 / Thursday, February 18, 2010 / Proposed Rules 

the 2003 format, by using a standard 

outlining schema. 

• We merged the content of the leadin material from the portion of the 2003 

format entitled ‘‘Full text of 

Announcement,’’ into a new 

Subdivision 1, ‘‘How to Use this 

Appendix.’’ The editing of the material 

to accommodate the change is not 

intended to be substantive. 

• The only two substantive changes 

are in Subdivision 2 of the appendix, 

‘‘The Announcement Format,’’ and are 

part of the implementation of section 

872. First, we added a new paragraph 

II.C.3, which agencies are required to 

include in their announcements, to 

address the DUNS number and CCR 

requirements stated in the proposed 2 

CFR part 25. Second, we added a 

required paragraph II.E.3, ‘‘Recipient 

Qualification,’’ to subsection II.E on 

application review, to require agencies 

to inform potential applicants about the 

standards used to determine that a 

recipient is qualified and the related 

uses of the new FAPIIS data system to 

be established under section 872. 

2. Electronic Posting of Program 

Announcements and Synopses 

Subpart C of the proposed part 27, 

‘‘Issuance,’’ incorporates into 2 CFR, 

without substantive change, existing 

policies on electronic issuance of 

program announcements and synopses 

of them. The details are that: 

• Section 27.305 includes the 

requirement for an agency to 

electronically post each program 

announcement. That requirement was 

originally established by OMB 

memorandum M–03–16, ‘‘OMB Issues 

Grants Management Policies.’’ The full 

text of the policy was in a directive that 

OMB published in the Federal Register 

with the announcement format [68 FR 

37370, June 23, 2003]. 

• Section 27.310 includes the 

requirement for an agency to 

electronically post each synopsis of an 

announcement of a funding opportunity 

that OMB originally established on 

October 15, 2003, in memorandum 

M–04–01, ‘‘OMB Issues Grants.gov FIND 

Policy.’’ The memorandum is available 

at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ 

memoranda_fy04_m04-01/. OMB 

published the full text of the policy in 

the Federal Register [68 FR 58146, 

October 8, 2003]. 

C. Aspects of the Proposed Part 35 That 

Relate to Policies and Procedures 

Currently in Effect 

Most of the requirements in the 

proposed part 35 are new, as described 

in section III of this SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section. One aspect that is 

not new is the requirement for an 

awarding official to check the Excluded 

Parties List System before making an 

award to an entity, to ensure that the 

entity is not debarred, suspended, or 

otherwise disqualified from receiving 

the award. That requirement is in 2 CFR 

part 180, subpart D. Paragraph 35.120(a) 

in the proposed part 35 refers to that 

existing requirement because checking 

the EPLS is a critical step in an 

awarding official’s determination that 

an entity is qualified (we anticipate that 

the awarding official ultimately will be 

able to check the EPLS database through 

FAPIIS). 

Although it has not been explicitly 

stated in OMB guidance previously, the 

requirement in paragraph (a) of the 

proposed section 35.205 for a Federal 

agency awarding official to ensure that 

each award includes the appropriate 

terms and conditions is a practice, if not 

an explicit formal policy, of all Federal 

agencies. It serves in the proposed 

guidance as a basis for identifying 

Governmentwide award terms that an 

awarding official must include, pending 

more comprehensive guidance on the 

format and content of grants and 

cooperative agreements that is under 

development. One of those award terms, 

which implements a statute on 

Trafficking in Persons, is in previously 

established guidance at 2 CFR 175.15. 

V. Relationship of Proposed DUNS 

Number and CCR Requirements to a 

Proposal Made in June 2008 

On June 6, 2008 [73 FR 32417], OMB 

published in the Federal Register a 

proposed new 2 CFR part 33 with 

policies and procedures for 

implementing Transparency Act 

requirements for Federal financial 

assistance awards. As it was proposed 

in June 2008, the new part 33 would 

have required direct recipients of 

Federal agency awards and, with some 

exceptions, subrecipients at all lower 

tiers (if their subawards were subject to 

Transparency Act reporting 

requirements) to have DUNS numbers 

and register in the CCR. 

The proposed part 25 in amendment 

3 following this preamble is intended to 

supersede the DUNS number and CCR 

elements of the June 2008 proposal. As 

stated earlier, part 25 includes the 

requirements for prime recipients and 

subrecipients at the first tier below the 

prime award. If future implementation 

of the Transparency Act or other statute 

requires extending the requirement for 

DUNS numbers, CCR registration, or 

both to subrecipients at lower tiers, as 

we proposed in June 2008, we would 

amend part 25 through a Federal 

Register process that afforded an 

opportunity for public comment. 

We appreciate the many thoughtful 

comments we received from the affected 

public and Federal agencies on the 

DUNS number and CCR aspects of the 

June 2008 proposal. We considered 

those comments in developing the 

proposed part 25 following this 

preamble. The following paragraphs 

summarize the comments we received 

in 2008 that are most pertinent to the 

newly proposed part 25. They also 

provide responses to those comments as 

additional background related to the 

basis for the current proposal. 

Comment: Sixteen commenters 

suggested not using the DUNS number 

as the means to uniquely identify 

recipient and subrecipient entities. The 

Employer Identification Number (EIN) 

was offered as one alternative. Among 

reasons the commenters gave for not 

using DUNS numbers were that: (1) The 

requirement to have a DUNS number 

could preclude subawards to small 

entities that do not have the 

organizational infrastructure to support 

DUNS numbers; and (2) the time 

required to obtain a DUNS number 

could delay applications from, or 

awards to, first-time subrecipients, 

especially as the large number of 

entities needing to obtain DUNS 

numbers could strain the system’s 

ability to process their requests; and (3) 

an entity can have multiple DUNS 

numbers, even at the same operating 

location, which is a source of potential 

confusion. Commenters that offered the 

EIN as an alternative noted that many 

States already use EINs as identifiers for 

subrecipients in their electronic data 

systems. 

Response: The DUNS number still is 

the only identifier with the advantages 

that led us to establish it in 2003 as the 

universal identifier for recipients of 

grants and cooperative agreements (see 

the preamble to 68 FR 38403, June 27, 

2003). Although other numbering 

systems currently are in use—and will 

continue because they are used for 

different purposes—none is adequate to 

identify family tree relationships or to 

provide the access and validation 

capabilities that the DUNS numbers 

provide. 

We agree with the commenters that 

some entities have multiple DUNS 

numbers that are not justified but 

believe the proper solution is for Dun 

and Bradstreet (D&B) to continue to 

advise organizations on ways to 

properly control their DUNS 

hierarchies, something for which each 

organization necessarily is responsible. 

We do not agree that the one-time 

activity to obtain a DUNS number, 

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which can be almost immediate and 

should take no more than 48 hours, will 

create significant delays in applications 

or awards. While we appreciate that 

first-tier subrecipients who are not also 

prime recipients of other Federal awards 

may need to adjust their procedures and 

systems initially to accommodate the 

DUNS number requirement, we judge 

that the long-term benefits justify those 

changes. 

Comment: Twenty-nine commenters 

questioned whether the administrative 

burden associated with CCR registration 

of subrecipients was justified by the 

benefits. Six questioned the value for 

prime recipients. 

Response: We believe the benefits do 

justify the requirement. For entities 

applying for Federal assistance awards, 

CCR registration already is a valuable 

adjunct to Grants.gov, the central site 

through which applications may be 

submitted electronically in a more 

uniform way to all Federal agencies. For 

prime recipients, we anticipate that 

information in CCR will be used in 

conjunction with all payments under 

Federal awards (they already are used 

for payments under some Federal 

financial assistance awards, as well as 

procurement contracts). For first-tier 

subrecipients, CCR registration will help 

ensure that Federal Government 

databases correctly identify entities 

receiving subaward funding that must 

be reported in compliance with the 

Transparency or Recovery Act. 

Comment: Two commenters suggested 

that the Federal Government create 

crosswalks between DUNS numbers and 

other identifiers. One commenter 

suggested providing a crosswalk 

between DUNS numbers and EINs, since 

some recipients already have EINs for 

subrecipients in their data bases. 

Another commenter suggested cross 

linking organizational data in the D&B 

files for DUNS numbers with 

organizational information in files 

associated with other identifiers that 

Federal agencies require, such as the 

Inventory of Substance Abuse 

Treatment Services (I–SATS) number, 

and the National Provider Identifier 

(NPI) that one obtains through the 

National Provider System. The 

commenter noted that linking the files 

could reduce burdens for reporting the 

same information multiple times and 

help prevent there being duplicative or 

even inconsistent information about an 

organization in files associated with 

different identifiers. 

Response: We appreciate the 

suggestion but are not aware of any 

current plans to link data bases of 

organizational information associated 

with the identifiers cited, which are 

used for different purposes. 

Comment: One commenter suggested 

that DUNS numbers apparently were 

designed for grant recipients and 

contractors, and not for loan recipients. 

Response: The DUNS number is 

pertinent to loan recipients due to its 

use as the universal identifier for 

reporting under the Transparency Act. 

Comment: One commenter expressed 

concern about entities with multiple 

locations, each doing a limited amount 

of business, being required to have a 

DUNS number assigned for each 

location. The commenter urged OMB to 

work to minimize burdens on small 

entities. 

Response: An entity with multiple 

locations would need a DUNS number 

for each location only if each received 

awards or subawards of Federal funds. 

Moreover, D&B maintains DUNS 

numbers for over one hundred million 

entities for much broader purposes, so 

individual locations of many recipient 

and subrecipient entities likely already 

have DUNS numbers for business 

reasons unrelated to Federal awards. We 

share the commenter’s concern about 

minimizing burdens but note that 

obtaining a DUNS number is not a very 

great burden because it is a one-time 

activity. 

Comment: One commenter asked how 

and when Federal agencies collect and 

report DUNS information. Three other 

commenters suggested not requiring an 

entity to provide its DUNS number or be 

registered in the CCR until the time at 

which the Federal agency makes its 

award, rather than requiring the entity 

to provide its DUNS number at the time 

of its application. 

Response: Federal agencies collect 

DUNS information from each applicant 

at the time of application and use it 

during the pre-award processing leading 

to the issuance of the award, as well as 

in post-award administration. At time of 

award, an agency reports the DUNS 

number as a required field in 

submissions of Transparency Act data 

for prime award obligations to 

recipients. An entity that applies 

electronically through Grants.gov must 

have a DUNS number prior to applying 

because Grants.gov requires applicants 

to be registered in the CCR, which in 

turn requires a DUNS number. 

Comment: One commenter asked 

whether an applicant for a Federal 

agency award was required to provide a 

DUNS number for each entity to which 

it proposed in its application that it 

would make a subaward. 

Response: An applicant is not 

required to submit a proposed 

subrecipient’s DUNS number to a 

Federal agency as part of the application 

process. However, after receiving a 

Federal award, a recipient will need to 

include the subrecipient’s DUNS 

number with the data it submits for each 

subaward obligation that must be 

reported under the Transparency or 

Recovery Act. 

Comment: A commenter questioned 

whether a recipient would have to 

receive Federal agency permission to 

change a subrecipient if it: (1) Proposed 

an entity as a subrecipient in its 

application to the agency; (2) received 

an award; and then (3) learned that the 

entity it had proposed as a subrecipient 

would not provide a DUNS number. 

Response: Both OMB Circular A–110 

and the common rule implementing 

OMB Circular A–102 permit an agency 

to require a recipient to obtain its prior 

approval for any subawards of work 

under the award. If the agency did not 

waive that requirement, its approval of 

the application would serve as the prior 

approval if the recipient made the 

subaward to the same entity it identified 

in its application. All of that is 

unchanged by the new guidance that is 

proposed following this preamble. 

However, due to the new guidance 

prohibiting first-tier subawards to 

entities that have not provided a DUNS 

number to the recipient, an applicant 

who plans to propose in its application 

that it will make subawards to specific 

entities may want to consider the 

benefits of having DUNS numbers for 

those entities before submitting its 

application to a Federal agency. 

Comment: Two commenters asked if 

there would be additional guidance to 

clarify how an agency would exercise 

the discretion provided (which now is 

in section 25.205 of the proposed 

guidance following this preamble) when 

considering an award to an entity that 

had not yet complied with the 

requirement to provide a valid DUNS 

number or register in the CCR. The 

proposed section would permit, but not 

require, an agency to give the entity a 

period of time to come into compliance 

before it determined, based on the 

entity’s noncompliance, that the entity 

was not qualified to receive the award. 

The section did not specify how long 

the period of time might be. 

Response: The guidance deliberately 

leaves that matter to agency discretion. 

A wide variety of Federal programs use 

grants, cooperative agreements, and 

other Federal financial assistance 

awards subject to the DUNS and CCR 

requirements. Flexibility in the 

guidance is essential because the 

programs have differing constraints in 

their program statutes, the periods of 

availability of their appropriated funds, 

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and the criticality of their program 

schedules. The different constraints 

necessarily affect how each awarding 

office will be able to use the discretion 

provided. 

VI. Invitation To Comment 

We are requesting comment on all of 

the proposed new guidance, as well as 

changes to previously existing guidance, 

that would be made by in the 

amendments following this preamble. 

With respect to portions of the guidance 

that the amendments are relocating into 

2 CFR without substantive change, we 

are not seeking to revisit substantive 

issues raised by comments that were 

resolved when those portions of the 

guidance originally were issued. 

However, we invite comments on any 

unintended changes we have made in 

those portions of the guidance. 

In the future, OMB may expand the 

scope of the data system to include 

recipient information from authoritative 

data sources not described in this 

guidance and information on recipients 

receiving awards below the $500,000 

threshold. In response to this notice, we 

are also seeking input on the possible 

impact that expanding the system scope 

could have on the affected recipients. 

VII. Next Steps 

We will finalize the guidance to 

Federal agencies after resolving any 

comments we receive on what is 

proposed following this preamble. 

When the guidance is final, each 

Federal agency will implement it, 

thereby giving it effect for applicants, 

recipients, and Federal agency officials 

with responsibilities for carrying out 

required actions. 

List of Subjects 

2 CFR Part 25 

Administrative practice and 

procedures, Grants administration, 

Grant programs, Loan programs. 

2 CFR Part 27 

Administrative practice and 

procedures, Grant programs, 

Information. 

2 CFR Part 35 

Administrative practice and 

procedures, Archives and records, 

Cooperative agreements, Ethical 

conduct, Grant programs, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements. 

2 CFR Part 77 

Administrative practice and 

procedures, Archives and records, 

Cooperative agreements, Grants 

administration, Grant programs. 

2 CFR Part 180 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Debarment and suspension, 

Grant programs, Loan programs, 

Reporting and recordkeeping 

requirements. 

Danny Werfel, 

Controller. 

Authority and Issuance 

For the reasons set forth above, the 

Office of Management and Budget 

amends 2 CFR, subtitle A, as follows: 

1. In subtitle A to title 2, parts 2 

through 99, which are currently 

reserved, are transferred to chapter I. 

2. Subchapter A to chapter I, 

consisting of parts 2 through 19, is 

established and reserved to read as 

follows: 

Subchapter A—General Matters— 

[Reserved] 

PARTS 2–19—[RESERVED] 

3. Subchapter B to chapter I, 

consisting of parts 20 through 39, is 

established and added to read as 

follows: 

Subchapter B—Pre-Award Responsibilities 

PARTS 20–24—[RESERVED] 

PART 25—UNIVERSAL IDENTIFIER 

AND CENTRAL CONTRACTOR 

REGISTRATION 

Sec. 

Subpart A—General 

25.100 Purposes of this part. 

25.105 Types of awards to which this part 

applies. 

25.110 Types of recipient and subrecipient 

entities to which this part applies. 

25.115 Deviations. 

Subpart B—Policy 

25.200 Requirements for program 

announcements, regulations, and 

application instructions. 

25.205 Effect of noncompliance with a 

requirement to obtain a DUNS number or 

register in the CCR. 

25.210 Authority to modify agency 

application forms or formats. 

25.215 Requirements for agency 

information systems. 

25.220 Use of award term. 

Subpart C—Definitions 

25.300 Agency. 

25.305 Award. 

25.310 Central Contractor Registration 

(CCR). 

25.315 Data Universal Numbering System 

(DUNS) Number. 

25.320 Entity. 

25.325 For-profit organization. 

25.330 Foreign public entity. 

25.335 Indian tribe (or ‘‘Federally 

recognized Indian tribe’’). 

25.340 Local government. 

25.345 Nonprofit organization. 

25.350 State. 

25.355 Subaward. 

25.360 Subrecipient. 

Appendix A to Part 25—Award Term 

Authority: Pub. L. 109–282; 31 U.S.C. 

6102. 

Subpart A—General 

§ 25.100 Purposes of this part. 

This part provides guidance to 

agencies to establish: 

(a) The Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) 

Data Universal Numbering System 

(DUNS) number as a universal identifier 

for Federal financial assistance 

applicants, as well as recipients and 

their direct subrecipients. 

(b) The Central Contractor 

Registration (CCR) as the repository for 

standard information about those 

applicants, recipients, and 

subrecipients. 

§ 25.105 Types of awards to which this 

part applies. 

This part applies to an agency’s 

grants, cooperative agreements, loans, 

and other types of Federal financial 

assistance included in the definition of 

‘‘award’’ in § 25.305. 

§ 25.110 Types of recipient and 

subrecipient entities to which this part 

applies. 

(a) General. Through an agency’s 

implementation of the guidance in this 

part, this part applies to all entities, 

other than those excepted in paragraphs 

(b), (c), and (d) of this section, that— 

(1) Apply for or receive agency 

awards; or 

(2) Receive subawards directly from 

recipients of those agency awards. 

(b) Exceptions for individuals. None 

of the requirements in this part apply to 

an individual who applies for or 

receives Federal financial assistance as 

a natural person (i.e., unrelated to any 

business or non-profit organization he 

or she may own or operate in his or her 

name). 

(c) Exceptions for Federal agencies. 

The requirement in this part to maintain 

a current registration in the CCR does 

not apply to an agency of the Federal 

Government that receives an award from 

another agency. 

(d) Other exceptions. (1) Under a 

condition identified in paragraph (d)(2) 

of this section, an agency may except an 

entity from an applicable requirement to 

obtain a DUNS number, register in the 

CCR, or both. 

(i) In that case, the agency must use 

a generic DUNS number in any data that 

it reports for a prime award to the 

entity, as required by the Federal 

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Funding Accountability and 

Transparency Act (Pub. L. 109–282, 

hereafter cited as ‘‘Transparency Act’’). 

The agency must use the generic DUNS 

number in accordance with the current 

guidance at the CCR Web site. 

(ii) The agency also may provide a 

generic DUNS number for an entity 

receiving a subaward to the non-Federal 

entity that is making the subaward, for 

use in reporting information about the 

subaward under the Transparency Act. 

(2) The conditions under which an 

agency may exempt an entity are— 

(i) For any entity, if the agency 

determines that it must protect 

information about the entity from 

disclosure, to avoid compromising 

classified information or national 

security or jeopardizing the personal 

safety of the entity’s clients. 

(ii) For a foreign entity applying for or 

receiving an award or subaward for a 

project or program performed outside 

the United States, if the agency deems 

it to be impractical for the entity to 

comply with the requirement(s). 

§ 25.115 Deviations. 

Deviations from this part require the 

prior approval of the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB). 

Subpart B—Policy 

§ 25.200 Requirements for program 

announcements, regulations, and 

application instructions. 

(a) Each agency that awards types of 

Federal financial assistance included in 

the definition of ‘‘award’’ in § 25.305 

must include the requirements 

described in paragraph (b) of this 

section in each program announcement, 

regulation, or other issuance containing 

instructions for applicants that either: 

(1) Is issued on or after the effective 

date of this part; or 

(2) Has application or plan due dates 

or anticipated award dates after October 

1, 2010. 

(b) The program announcement, 

regulation, or other issuance must 

require each entity that applies and does 

not have an exception under § 25.110 to: 

(1) Be registered in the CCR prior to 

submitting an application or plan; 

(2) Maintain an active CCR 

registration with current information at 

all times during which it has an active 

Federal award or an application or plan 

under consideration by an agency; and 

(3) Provide its DUNS number in each 

application or plan it submits to the 

agency. 

(c) For purposes of this policy: 

(1) The applicant is the entity that 

meets the agency’s or program’s 

eligibility criteria and has the legal 

authority to apply and to receive the 

award. For example, if a consortium 

applies for an award to be made to the 

consortium as the recipient, the 

consortium must have a DUNS number. 

If a consortium is eligible to receive 

funding under an agency program but 

the agency’s policy is to make the award 

to a lead entity for the consortium, the 

DUNS number of the lead entity will be 

used. 

(2) A ‘‘program announcement’’ is any 

paper or electronic issuance that an 

agency uses to announce a funding 

opportunity, whether it is called a 

‘‘program announcement,’’ ‘‘notice of 

funding availability,’’ ‘‘broad agency 

announcement,’’ ‘‘research 

announcement,’’ ‘‘solicitation,’’ or 

something else. 

§ 25.205 Effect of noncompliance with a 

requirement to obtain a DUNS number or 

register in the CCR. 

(a) An agency may not make an award 

to an entity until the entity has 

complied with the requirements 

described in § 25.200 to provide a valid 

DUNS number and maintain an active 

CCR registration with current 

information (other than any requirement 

that is not applicable because the entity 

is excepted under § 25.110). 

(b) At the time an agency is ready to 

make an award, if the intended recipient 

has not complied with an applicable 

requirement to provide a DUNS number 

or maintain an active CCR registration 

with current information, as specified in 

the program announcement or other 

instructions, the agency: 

(1) May determine that the applicant 

is not qualified to receive an award; and 

(2) May use that determination as a 

basis for making an award to another 

applicant. 

§ 25.210 Authority to modify agency 

application forms or formats. 

To implement the policies in 

§§ 25.200 and 25.205, an agency may 

add a DUNS number field to application 

forms or formats previously approved 

by OMB, without having to obtain 

further approval to add the field. 

§ 25.215 Requirements for agency 

information systems. 

Each agency that makes awards (as 

defined in § 25.325) must ensure that 

systems processing information related 

to the awards, and other systems as 

appropriate, are able to accept and use 

the DUNS number as the universal 

identifier for financial assistance 

applicants and recipients. 

§ 25.220 Use of award term. 

(a) To accomplish the purposes 

described in § 25.100, an agency must 

include in each award (as defined in 

§ 25.305) the award term in Appendix A 

to this part. 

(b) An agency may use different 

letters and numbers than those in 

Appendix A to this part to designate the 

paragraphs of the award term, if 

necessary, to conform the system of 

paragraph designations with the one 

used in other terms and conditions in 

the agency’s awards. 

Subpart C—Definitions 

§ 25.300 Agency. 

Agency means a Federal agency as 

defined at 5 U.S.C. 551(1) and further 

clarified by 5 U.S.C. 552(f). 

§ 25.305 Award. 

(a) Award means an award of Federal 

financial assistance that a non-Federal 

entity described in § 25.110(a) receives 

or administers in the form of— 

(1) A grant; 

(2) A cooperative agreement (which 

does not include a cooperative research 

and development agreement pursuant to 

the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 

1986, as amended (15 U.S.C. (3710(a)); 

(3) A loan; 

(4) A loan guarantee; 

(5) A subsidy; 

(6) Insurance; 

(7) Food commodities; 

(8) A direct appropriation; 

(9) Assessed or voluntary 

contributions; or 

(10) Any other financial assistance 

transaction that authorizes the nonFederal entity’s expenditure of Federal 

funds. 

(b) An Award does not include: 

(1) Technical assistance, which 

provides services in lieu of money; and 

(2) A transfer of title to Federally 

owned property provided in lieu of 

money, even if the award is called a 

grant. 

§ 25.310 Central Contractor Registration 

(CCR). 

Central Contractor Registration (CCR) 

has the meaning given in paragraph C.1 

of the award term in Appendix A to this 

part. 

§ 25.315 Data Universal Numbering 

System (DUNS) Number. 

Data Universal Numbering System 

(DUNS) Number has the meaning given 

in paragraph C.2 of the award term in 

Appendix A to this part. 

§ 25.320 Entity. 

Entity, as it is used in this part, has 

the meaning given in paragraph C.3 of 

the award term in Appendix A to this 

part. 

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§ 25.325 For-profit organization. 

For-profit organization means a nonFederal party organized for profit. It 

includes, but is not limited to: 

(a) An ‘‘S corporation’’ incorporated 

under Subchapter S of the Internal 

Revenue Code; 

(b) A corporation incorporated under 

another authority; 

(c) A partnership; 

(d) A limited liability corporation or 

partnership; and 

(e) A sole proprietorship. 

§ 25.330 Foreign public entity. 

Foreign public entity means: 

(a) A foreign government or foreign 

governmental entity; 

(b) A public international 

organization, which is an organization 

entitled to enjoy privileges, exemptions, 

and immunities as an international 

organization under the International 

Organizations Immunities Act (22 

U.S.C. 288–288(f)); 

(c) An entity owned (in whole or in 

part) or controlled by a foreign 

government; and 

(d) Any other entity consisting wholly 

or partially of one or more foreign 

governments or foreign governmental 

entities. 

§ 25.335 Indian tribe (or ‘‘Federally 

recognized Indian tribe’’). 

Indian tribe (or ‘‘Federally recognized 

Indian tribe’’) means any Indian tribe, 

band, nation, or other organized group 

or community, including any Alaskan 

Native village or regional or village 

corporation (as defined in, or 

established under, the Alaskan Native 

Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601, 

et seq.)) that is recognized by the United 

States as eligible for the special 

programs and services provided by the 

United States to Indians because of their 

status as Indians. 

§ 25.340 Local government. 

Local government means a: 

(a) County; 

(b) Borough; 

(c) Municipality; 

(d) City; 

(e) Town; 

(f) Township; 

(g) Parish; 

(h) Local public authority, including 

any public housing agency under the 

United States Housing Act of 1937; 

(i) Special district; 

(j) School district; 

(k) Intrastate district; 

(l) Council of governments, whether 

or not incorporated as a nonprofit 

corporation under State law; and 

(m) Any other instrumentality of a 

local government. 

§ 25.345 Nonprofit organization. 

Nonprofit organization— 

(a) Means any corporation, trust, 

association, cooperative, or other 

organization that— 

(1) Is operated primarily for scientific, 

educational, service, charitable, or 

similar purposes in the public interest; 

(2) Is not organized primarily for 

profit; and 

(3) Uses net proceeds to maintain, 

improve, or expand the operations of 

the organization. 

(b) Includes nonprofit— 

(1) Institutions of higher education; 

(2) Hospitals; and 

(3) Tribal organizations other than 

those included in the definition of 

‘‘Indian tribe.’’ 

§ 25.350 State. 

State means— 

(a) Any State of the United States; 

(b) The District of Columbia; 

(c) Any agency or instrumentality of 

a State other than a local government or 

State-controlled institution of higher 

education; 

(d) The Commonwealths of Puerto 

Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands; 

and 

(e) The United States Virgin Islands, 

Guam, American Samoa, and a territory 

or possession of the United States. 

§ 25.355 Subaward. 

Subaward has the meaning given in 

paragraph C.4 of the award term in 

Appendix A to this part. 

§ 25.360 Subrecipient. 

Subrecipient has the meaning given in 

paragraph C.5 of the award term in 

Appendix A to this part. 

Appendix A to Part 25—Award Term 

I. Central Contractor Registration and 

Universal Identifier Requirements. 

A. Requirement for recipients. Unless you 

are excepted from this requirement under 2 

CFR 25.110, you as the recipient must 

maintain the currency of your information in 

the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) 

until you submit the final financial report 

required under this award or receive the final 

payment, whichever is later. 

B. Requirement for subrecipients. If you are 

authorized to make subawards under this 

award, you: 

1. Must notify potential subrecipients that 

no entity (see definition in paragraph C of 

this award term) may receive a subaward 

from you unless the entity has provided its 

Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) 

number to you and is registered in the CCR. 

2. May not make a subaward to an entity 

unless the entity has provided its DUNS 

number to you and is registered in the 

Central Contractor Registration. 

C. Definitions. For purposes of this award 

term: 

1. Central Contractor Registration (CCR) 

means the Federal repository into which an 

entity must provide information required for 

the conduct of business as a recipient. 

Additional information about registration 

procedures may be found at the CCR Internet 

site (currently at http://www.ccr.gov). 

2. Data Universal Numbering System 

(DUNS) number means the nine-digit number 

established and assigned by Dun and 

Bradstreet, Inc. (D&B) to uniquely identify 

business entities. A DUNS number may be 

obtained from D&B by telephone (currently 

866–705–5711) or the Internet (currently at 

http://fedgov.dnb.com/webform). 

3. Entity, as it is used in this award term, 

means all of the following, as defined at 2 

CFR part 25, subpart C: 

a. A Governmental organization, which is 

a State, local government, or Indian tribe; 

b. A foreign public entity; 

c. A domestic or foreign nonprofit 

organization; 

d. A domestic or foreign for-profit 

organization; and 

e. A Federal agency, but only as a 

subrecipient under an award or subaward to 

a non-Federal entity. 

4. Subaward: 

a. This term means a legal instrument to 

provide support for the performance of any 

portion of the substantive project or program 

for which you received this award and that 

you as the recipient award to an eligible 

subrecipient. 

b. The term does not include your 

procurement of property and services needed 

to carry out the project or program (for 

further explanation, see Sec. __.210 of the 

attachment to OMB Circular A–133, ‘‘Audits 

of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit 

Organizations’’). 

c. A subaward may be provided through 

any legal agreement, including an agreement 

that you consider a contract. 

5. Subrecipient means an entity that: 

a. Receives a subaward from you under this 

award; and 

b. Is accountable to you for the use of the 

Federal funds provided by the subaward. 

PART 26—[RESERVED] 

PART 27—ANNOUNCEMENTS OF 

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES 

Sec. 

27.5 Purpose of this part. 

27.10 Applicability. 

27.15 Federal agency implementation. 

Subpart A—Competition—[Reserved] 

Subpart B—Form and Content of 

Announcements 

27.200 Purpose of subpart B. 

27.205 Definition of ‘‘program 

announcement’’. 

27.210 Use of the Governmentwide 

standard format for program 

announcements. 

Subpart C—Issuance 

27.300 Purpose of subpart C. 

27.305 Electronic posting of program 

announcements. 

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27.310 Grants.gov posting of synopses of 

program announcements. 

Appendix A to Part 27—Governmentwide 

Standard Announcement Format 

Authority: 31 U.S.C. 503; Reorganization 

Plan No. 2 of 1970; E.O. 11541, 35 FR 10737, 

3 CFR, 1966–1970, p. 939; Sec. 872, Pub. L. 

110–417, 122 Stat. 4555. 

§ 27.5 Purpose of this part. 

This part provides the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) 

guidance for a Federal agency’s 

responsibilities at the time of the 

announcement of a funding opportunity 

for a program under which the agency 

may make discretionary grant or 

cooperative agreement awards. 

§ 27.10 Applicability. 

(a) Types of entities. This part 

provides OMB guidance only to Federal 

agencies. Federal agencies’ 

implementation of this part governs the 

rights and responsibilities of other 

entities affected by the guidance, which 

may include both— 

(1) Organizations other than Federal 

agencies; and 

(2) Individuals. 

(b) Programs. This part applies to any 

Federal agency program under which 

the agency may make discretionary 

awards of grants and cooperative 

agreements. 

§ 27.15 Federal agency implementation. 

Each Federal agency with offices that 

make discretionary grant or cooperative 

agreement awards must issue any 

needed direction to those offices to 

require conformance with the policies 

and procedures in this part. It must: 

(a) Issue any implementation other 

than a regulation within six months of 

the issuance of the part or any change 

to it. 

(b) Submit any regulatory 

implementation to the OMB for review 

within nine months of the issuance of 

this part or update to it, prior to 

publication for comment, and issue final 

regulations within eighteen months of 

the issuance. 

Subpart A—Competition—[Reserved] 

Subpart B—Form and Content of 

Announcements 

§ 27.200 Purpose of subpart B. 

The purpose of this subpart is to 

provide guidance on the substantive 

content and format of Federal agencies’ 

program announcements. 

§ 27.205 Definition of ‘‘program 

announcement’’. 

For the purposes of this part, a 

‘‘program announcement’’ is any paper 

or electronic issuance that an agency 

uses to announce a funding opportunity 

under which it may make discretionary 

grant or cooperative agreement awards, 

whether that issuance is called a 

‘‘program announcement,’’ ‘‘notice of 

funding availability,’’ ‘‘broad agency 

announcement,’’ ‘‘research 

announcement,’’ ‘‘solicitation,’’ or 

something else. 

§ 27.210 Use of the Governmentwide 

standard format for program 

announcements. 

(a) The format in the Appendix to this 

part is the Governmentwide standard 

format for program announcements 

under which agencies make 

discretionary awards of grants or 

cooperative agreements. An agency 

must use this format for: 

(1) All program announcements 

except those under which domestic 

entities are not eligible recipients; and 

(2) All programs except those that do 

not issue separate announcements apart 

from their program descriptions in the 

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

(CFDA). For those excepted programs, 

the format will continue to conform to 

the guidance in OMB Circular A–89 for 

program information in the CFDA. 

(b) To comply with the policy in 

paragraph (a) of this section, each 

agency program announcement: 

(1) Must include the information 

elements that are marked ‘‘required’’ in 

the standard format in Appendix A to 

this part. It must include the 

information elements in the sequence 

provided and the content of each 

element must conform with guidance 

that the standard format provides for 

that element. 

(2) May also include any or all of the 

elements that are marked ‘‘optional’’ in 

the standard format, as appropriate for 

the particular program. Whether or not 

the announcement includes any 

‘‘optional’’ elements, the information 

that the announcement does include 

must be organized to conform with the 

standard format. 

(c) An agency must request exceptions 

from OMB for any program 

announcement with information 

organized in a way that deviates from 

the policy in this section. 

(d) An agency, at its discretion, may 

extend the use of the format in the 

Appendix to this part to programs that 

use forms of financial assistance other 

than grants and cooperative agreements. 

Subpart C—Issuance 

§ 27.300 Purpose of subpart C. 

The purpose of this subpart is to 

provide guidance related to the release 

of the program announcement to the 

public. 

§ 27.305 Electronic posting of program 

announcements. 

(a) Each agency must post on the Web 

or Internet each program announcement 

under which domestic entities are 

eligible recipients. Ways to comply with 

this requirement include, but are not 

limited to: 

(1) Publication of an announcement in 

the Federal Register, since it is available 

on the Internet. 

(2) Posting an announcement at 

Grants.gov (see § 27.310(b)(2)(iii)). 

(b) If an agency has a statutory or 

policy requirement to publish an 

announcement at a location that is not 

on the Web or Internet, it must comply 

with that requirement also (i.e., not in 

lieu of posting the announcement as 

described in paragraph (a) of this 

section). 

§ 27.310 Grants.gov posting of synopses 

of program announcements. 

(a) Policy. It is a policy of the Federal 

Government to make available to the 

public at Grants.gov (or an alternative 

Web site or Internet location, if 

specified by OMB) a synopsis of each 

program announcement that may lead to 

discretionary awards of grants or 

cooperative agreements, in order to 

provide potential applicants: 

(1) Enough information about the 

funding opportunity to decide whether 

they are interested in viewing the full 

program announcement; 

(2) One or more ways (e.g., an Internet 

site, e-mail address or telephone 

number) to get the full announcement 

with the detailed information about the 

funding opportunity; and 

(3) A single Web site to search for all 

Federal grant opportunities by key 

word, date, CFDA number, or specific 

agency or agencies. 

(b) General requirement. (1) Each 

agency: 

(i) Must post a synopsis of each 

program announcement under which it 

will make discretionary awards of grants 

and cooperative agreements at 

Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov) or an 

alternative Web site or Internet address 

designated by OMB. 

(ii) Is encouraged to post any other 

funding opportunities at the designated 

site. 

(2) Each synopsis must: 

(i) Follow the format provided at the 

designated site. 

(ii) Use the standard data elements at 

that site and provide information for all 

required data elements. The synopsis 

must include the CFDA number unless 

the program has an exception from that 

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requirement, in which case the agency 

must obtain an alternate identifier from 

the Grants.gov Program Management 

Office for use in the synopsis. 

(iii) Either— 

(A) State that the full announcement 

also may be found at Grants.gov FIND, 

if the agency elects to post it at that site; 

or 

(B) Provide a link to the Uniform 

Resource Locator (URL) for the full 

program announcement if the agency 

elects to post it at another site. 

(iv) Be posted no later than 3 business 

days after release of the full program 

announcement. 

(c) Exceptions. The requirements in 

paragraph (b) of this section do not 

apply to: 

(1) An agency program that does not 

issue a separate announcement apart 

from its program descriptions in the 

CFDA. 

(2) A program announcement under 

which no award will have a total value 

of $25,000 or more and for which 100 

percent of eligible applicants are foreign 

entities that reside or are located outside 

the United States. 

(3) A single source program 

announcement under which all awards 

are directed to known recipients. 

Appendix A to Part 27— 

Governmentwide Standard 

Announcement Format 

Subdivision 1. How To Use This Appendix 

I. Content and Organization of This 

Appendix 

Sections I and II of Subdivision 2 of this 

appendix provide guidance for the two 

segments of a program announcement. 

Section I, ‘‘Overview Information,’’ describes 

both required and optional information 

elements to precede the full text of an 

announcement. Section II, ‘‘Full Text of 

Announcement,’’ defines sections into which 

detailed information about a funding 

opportunity is to be organized and provides 

guidance on the required and optional 

content of each section of the program 

announcement. 

II. Standard Scheme for Designating 

Announcement Sections 

Note that letters and numbers that an 

agency uses to designate sections within the 

program announcement should adhere to the 

standard scheme shown in the table 

following this paragraph. Using the standard 

scheme will make it easier for potential 

applicants to locate specific types of 

information about the funding opportunity. If 

an agency elects not to include material in a 

section that is optional, the agency should 

reserve that section in order to preserve the 

designations of subsequent sections. The 

sections of the overview and full text 

segments of an announcement, shown in the 

form of a notional table of contents, are: 

Segment of announcement Notional table of contents, showing both required and optional sections 

A. Overview information preceding the full text I. OVERVIEW OF THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 

A. Required Overview Content 

1. Federal Agency Name(s)—Required. 

2. Funding Opportunity Title—Required. 

3. Announcement Type—Required. 

4. Funding Opportunity Number—Required, if Applicable. 

5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number(s)—Required. 

6. Dates—Required. 

B. Optional Overview Content 

B. Full text of announcement ............................. II. DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY 

A. Funding Opportunity Description—Required 

B. Award Information—Required 

C. Eligibility Information 

1. Eligible Applicants—Required. 

2. Cost Sharing or Matching—Required. 

3. Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number and Central 

Contractor Registration (CCR)—Required. 

4. Other—Required, if applicable. 

D. Application and Submission Information 

1. Address To Request Application Package—Required. 

2. Content and Form of Application Submission—Required. 

3. Submission Dates and Times—Required. 

4. Intergovernmental Review—Required, if applicable. 

5. Funding Restrictions—Required. 

6. Other Submission Requirements—Required. 

E. Application Review Information 

1. Criteria—Required. 

2. Review and Selection Process—Required. 

3. Recipient Qualification—Required. 

4. Anticipated Announcement and Award Dates—Optional. 

F. Award Administration Information 

1. Award Notices—Required. 

2. Administrative and National Policy Requirements—Required. 

3. Reporting—Required. 

G. Agency Contact(s)—Required 

H. Other Information—Optional 

III. How To Use the Guidance for the Full 

Text of a Program Announcement 

A. The guidance in section II of 

Subdivision 2 of this appendix is organized 

into sections corresponding to the sections of 

the full text of the announcement. 

Immediately following the title of each 

section is an indicator stating whether that 

section is required in every announcement or 

is an agency option. 

B. The format is designed so that similar 

types of information will appear in the same 

sections in announcements of different 

Federal funding opportunities. Toward that 

end, there is text in each section of guidance 

in Section II of Subdivision 2 of this 

appendix to describe the types of information 

that an agency would include in the 

corresponding section of an announcement. 

C. An agency that wishes to include 

information on a subject that the format does 

not specifically discuss may address that 

subject in whichever section(s) is most 

appropriate. For example, if an agency 

chooses to address performance goals in the 

announcement, it might do so in the funding 

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opportunity description, the application 

content, and/or the reporting requirements. 

D. Similarly, when the guidance in Section 

II of Subdivision 2 of this appendix calls for 

a type of information to be in one particular 

section of the announcement, an agency 

wishing to address that subject in other 

sections may elect to repeat the information 

in those sections or use cross references 

between the sections (there should be 

hyperlinks for cross-references in any 

electronic versions of the announcement). 

For example, an agency may want to include 

in subsection II.A information about the 

types of recipients who are eligible to apply. 

The format specifies a standard location for 

that information in subsection II.C.1 but that 

does not preclude repeating the information 

in subsection II.A or creating a cross 

reference between subsections II.A and II.C.1, 

as long as a potential applicant can find the 

information quickly and easily from the 

standard location. 

Sudivision 2. The Announcement Format 

I. Overview Segment of the Program 

Announcement 

A. Required overview content. The agency 

must display prominently the information 

described in paragraphs I.A.1 through I.A.6 

of this subdivision, in the sequential order 

shown, in a location preceding the full text 

of the announcement. 

1. Federal Agency Name(s)—Required. 

Include the name of your department or 

agency and the specific office(s) within the 

agency (e.g., bureau, directorate, division, or 

institute) that are involved in the funding 

opportunity. 

2. Funding Opportunity Title—Required. If 

your agency has a program name that is 

different from the Funding Opportunity Title, 

you also could include that name here. 

3. Announcement Type—Required. 

Indicate whether this is the initial 

announcement of this funding opportunity or 

a modification of a previously announced 

opportunity. If it modifies a previous 

announcement, provide the date of that 

announcement and identify the portions that 

are being modified. Note that a modification 

does not need to include all of the sections 

of the full announcement text. 

4. Funding Opportunity Number— 

Required, if applicable. Your agency may 

wish to assign identifying numbers to 

announcements. If you assign a number, you 

must include it. If it modifies a previous 

announcement, provide the number of that 

announcement. 

5. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

(CFDA) Number(s)—Required. You also may 

wish to include the program name listed in 

the CFDA for each CFDA number that you 

give. 

6. Dates—Required. Include key dates that 

potential applicants need to know. Key dates 

include due dates for applications or 

Executive Order 12372 submissions, as well 

as any letters of intent or pre-applications. 

For any announcement issued before a 

program’s application materials are available, 

key dates also include the date on which 

those materials will be released. 

B. Optional, additional overview content. 

Following the required overview information 

described above, the agency may present 

other information. Present any optional 

overview information in a sequential order 

that parallels the organization of the full text 

of the announcement. Examples of overview 

information that could help potential 

applicants decide whether to read the full 

announcement are: A concise description of 

the funding opportunity, the total amount to 

be awarded, the anticipated amounts and/or 

numbers of individual awards, the types of 

instruments that may be awarded, who is 

eligible to apply, whether cost sharing is 

required, and any limitations on the numbers 

of applications that each applicant may 

submit. You also may include other 

information that could later help applicants 

more quickly and easily find what they need 

(e.g., where one can get application 

materials). 

C. Method of presentation. The agency may 

include the summary information in any of 

the following ways: 

1. Executive summary. An agency may 

wish to include an executive summary of the 

announcement before the full text. Especially 

for announcements that are long (25 pages or 

more in length) or complex, agencies should 

consider including executive summaries with 

at least the required overview information 

described above in subsection I.A of this 

subdivision, as well as any additional 

information described in subsection I.B. An 

executive summary should be short, 

preferably one page, with information in 

concise bullets to give an overview of the 

funding opportunity. 

2. Cover and/or inside cover. If the agency 

does not wish to include an executive 

summary, an alternative is to provide at least 

the required overview information described 

above in subsection I.A of this subdivision on 

the cover and/or inside cover of the 

announcement (or the first screen a potential 

applicant would see, in the case of an 

electronic announcement). 

3. Federal Register format. For an 

announcement that appears as a notice in the 

Federal Register, some of the required 

overview information will appear with other 

information near the beginning of the notice, 

due to the Federal Register’s standard format 

for notices. Nonetheless, the agency must 

display the required overview information 

(described above in subsection I.A of this 

subdivision) in a single location preceding 

the full text of the announcement, which 

would be in the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

section of the Federal Register notice. The 

agency may elect to include additional 

information, as described above in subsection 

I.B of this subdivision. 

II. Full Text of Announcement 

A. Funding Opportunity Description— 

Required 

This subsection contains the full 

programmatic description of the funding 

opportunity. It may be as long as needed to 

adequately communicate to potential 

applicants the areas in which funding may be 

provided. It describes the agency’s funding 

priorities or the technical or focus areas in 

which the agency intends to provide 

assistance. As appropriate, it may include 

any program history (e.g., whether this is a 

new program or a new or changed area of 

program emphasis). This subsection may 

communicate indicators of successful 

projects (e.g., if the program encourages 

collaborative efforts) and may include 

examples of projects that have been funded 

previously. This subsection also may include 

other information the agency deems 

necessary, such as citations for authorizing 

statutes and regulations for the funding 

opportunity. 

B. Award Information—Required 

1. Provide sufficient information to help an 

applicant make an informed decision about 

whether to submit a proposal. Relevant 

information could include the total amount 

of funding that your agency expects to award 

through the announcement; the anticipated 

number of awards; the expected amounts of 

individual awards (which may be a range); 

the amount of funding per award, on average, 

experienced in previous years; and the 

anticipated start dates and periods of 

performance for new awards. This subsection 

also should address whether applications for 

renewal or supplementation of existing 

projects are eligible to compete with 

applications for new awards. 

2. This subsection also must indicate the 

type(s) of assistance instrument (i.e., grant, 

cooperative agreement, and/or other 

instrument) that may be awarded if 

applications are successful. If cooperative 

agreements may be awarded, this subsection 

either should describe the ‘‘substantial 

involvement’’ that the agency expects to have 

or should reference where the potential 

applicant can find that information (e.g., in 

the funding opportunity description in 

subsection II.A of this subdivision or award 

administration information in subsection 

II.F). If procurement contracts also may be 

awarded, you must say so. 

C. Eligibility Information 

This subsection addresses considerations 

or factors that make an applicant or 

application eligible or ineligible for 

consideration. This includes the eligibility of 

particular types of applicant organizations, 

any factors affecting the eligibility of the 

principal investigator or project director, and 

any criteria that make particular projects 

ineligible. You should make clear whether an 

applicant’s failure to meet an eligibility 

criterion by the time of an application 

deadline will result in your agency’s 

returning the application without review or, 

even though an application may be reviewed, 

will preclude the agency from making an 

award. Key elements to be addressed are: 

1. Eligible Applicants—Required 

You must clearly identify the types of 

entities that are eligible to apply. If there are 

no restrictions on eligibility, this paragraph 

may simply indicate that all potential 

applicants are eligible. If there are 

restrictions on eligibility, it is important to be 

clear about the specific types of entities that 

are eligible, not just the types that are 

ineligible. For example, if your program is 

limited to non-profit organizations subject to 

Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code, your 

announcement should say so. Similarly, it is 

better to state explicitly that Native American 

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1With respect to electronic methods for providing 

information about funding opportunities or 

accepting applicants’ submissions of information, 

each agency is responsible for compliance with 

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as 

amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. 

2See footnote 1 to subdivision II, paragraph II.D.1 

of this appendix. 

tribal organizations are eligible than to 

assume that they can unambiguously infer 

that from a statement that non-profit 

organizations may apply. Eligibility also can 

be expressed by exception, (e.g., open to all 

types of domestic applicants other than 

individuals). This paragraph should refer to 

any portion of subsection II.D specifying 

documentation that must be submitted to 

support an eligibility determination (e.g., 

proof of 501(c)(3) status as determined by the 

Internal Revenue Service or an authorizing 

tribal resolution). To the extent that any 

funding restriction in paragraph II.D.5 could 

affect the eligibility of an applicant or 

project, you must either restate that 

restriction in this section or provide a crossreference to its description in paragraph 

II.D.5. 

2. Cost Sharing or Matching—Required 

You must state whether there is required 

cost sharing, matching, or cost participation 

without which an application would be 

ineligible (if cost sharing is not required, you 

must explicitly say so). Required cost sharing 

may be a certain percentage or amount, or 

may be in the form of contributions of 

specified items or activities (e.g., provision of 

equipment). It is important that the 

announcement be clear about any restrictions 

on the types of cost (e.g., in-kind 

contributions) that are acceptable as cost 

sharing. Cost sharing as an eligibility 

criterion includes requirements based in 

statute or regulation, as well as those 

imposed by administrative decision of the 

agency. This paragraph should refer to the 

appropriate portion(s) of subsection II.D 

stating any pre-award requirements for 

submission of letters or other documentation 

to verify commitments to meet cost-sharing 

requirements if an award is made. 

3. Dun and Bradstreet Universal Numbering 

System (DUNS) Number and Central 

Contractor Registration (CCR)—Required 

This paragraph must state clearly that each 

applicant (unless the applicant is an 

individual or Federal agency that is excepted 

from those requirements under 2 CFR 

25.110(b) or (c), or has an exception 

approved by the agency under 2 CFR 

25.110(d)) is required to: (i) Be registered in 

the CCR prior to submitting its application; 

(ii) provide a valid DUNS number in its 

application; and (iii) continue to maintain an 

active CCR registration with current 

information at all times during which it has 

an active Federal award or an application or 

plan under consideration by an agency. It 

also must state that the agency may not make 

an award to an applicant until the applicant 

has complied with all applicable DUNS and 

CCR requirements and, if an applicant has 

not fully complied with the requirements by 

the time the agency is ready to make an 

award, the agency may determine that the 

applicant is not qualified to receive an award 

and use that determination as a basis for 

making an award to another applicant. 

4. Other—Required, if Applicable 

If there are other eligibility criteria (i.e., 

criteria that have the effect of making an 

application or project ineligible for award, 

whether you refer to them as 

‘‘responsiveness’’ criteria, ‘‘go-no go’’ criteria, 

‘‘threshold’’ criteria, or in other ways), you 

must clearly state them. For example, if 

entities that have been found to be in 

violation of a particular Federal statute are 

ineligible, it is important to say so. In this 

paragraph you also must state any limit on 

the number of applications an applicant may 

submit under the announcement and make 

clear whether the limitation is on the 

submitting organization, individual 

investigator/program director, or both. Also 

use this paragraph to address any eligibility 

criteria for beneficiaries or for program 

participants other than award recipients. 

D. Application and Submission Information 

1. Address To Request Application Package— 

Required 

You must tell potential applicants how to 

get application forms, kits, or other materials 

they need to apply (if this announcement 

contains everything they need, this paragraph 

need only say so). You may give an Internet 

address where they can access the materials.1

Since high-speed Internet access is not yet 

universally available for downloading 

documents, there also should be a way for 

potential applicants to request paper copies 

of materials, such as a U.S. Postal Service 

mailing address, telephone or FAX number, 

Telephone Device for the Deaf (TDD) or Text 

Telephone (TTY) number, and/or Federal 

Information Relay Service (FIRS) number. 

2. Content and Form of Application 

Submission—Required 

a. This paragraph must identify the 

required content of an application and the 

forms or formats that an applicant must use 

to submit it. If any requirements are stated 

elsewhere because they are general 

requirements that apply to multiple programs 

or funding opportunities, this paragraph may 

refer to where those requirements may be 

found. This paragraph also should address 

any preliminary submissions that the agency 

requires or encourages, either to facilitate its 

own planning or to provide potential 

applicants with feedback to help them decide 

whether to submit a full proposal. 

b. For a full application, this includes all 

content and forms or formats that constitute 

a complete application, including: General 

information (e.g., applicant name and 

address), budgetary information, narrative 

programmatic information, biographical 

sketches, and all other required information 

(e.g., documentation that an applicant meets 

stated eligibility criteria or certifications or 

assurances of compliance with applicable 

requirements, such as evidence of 

compliance with human subjects 

requirements). You must either include 

required forms or formats as part of this 

announcement or state where the applicant 

may obtain them. 

c. In paragraph II.D.2, you should 

specifically address content and form or 

format requirements for: 

i. Pre-applications, letters of intent, or 

white papers that your agency requires or 

encourages (see paragraph II.D.3), including 

any limitations on the number of pages or 

other formatting requirements similar to 

those for full applications. 

ii. The application as a whole. For hard 

copy submissions, that could include any 

limitations on the number of pages, font size 

and typeface, margins, paper size, number of 

copies, and sequence or assembly 

requirements. If electronic submission is 

permitted or required,2 that could include 

special requirements for formatting or 

signatures. 

iii. Component pieces of the application 

(e.g., if all copies of the application must bear 

original signatures on the face page or the 

program narrative may not exceed 10 pages). 

This includes any pieces that may be 

submitted separately by third parties (e.g., 

references or letters confirming commitments 

from third parties that will be contributing a 

portion of any required cost sharing). 

iv. Information that successful applicants 

must submit after your agency notifies them 

of its intent to make awards, but prior to 

award. This could include evidence of 

compliance with human subjects 

requirements or information your agency 

needs to comply with the National 

Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

3. Submission Dates and Times—Required 

a. Your announcement must identify due 

dates and times for all submissions. This 

includes not only the full applications but 

also any preliminary submissions (e.g., letters 

of intent, white papers, or pre-applications). 

It also includes any other submissions of 

information before award that are separate 

from the full application. If the funding 

opportunity is a general announcement that 

is open for a period of time with no specific 

due dates for applications, paragraph II.D.3 

should say so. Note that the information on 

dates that is included in this paragraph also 

must appear with other overview information 

in a location preceding the full text of the 

announcement (see ‘‘Overview Information’’ 

segment of this format, in section I of this 

subdivision). 

b. For each type of submission that you 

address, indicate whether the submission is 

encouraged or required and, if required, any 

deadline date for submission (or dates, if the 

agency plans more than one cycle of 

application submission, review, and award 

under the announcement). The 

announcement must state (or provide a 

reference to another document that states): 

i. Any deadline in terms of a date and local 

time. 

ii. What the deadline means (e.g., whether 

it is the date and time by which the agency 

must receive the application, the date by 

which the application must be postmarked, 

or something else) and how that depends, if 

at all, on the submission method (e.g., mail, 

electronic, or personal/courier delivery). 

iii. The effect of missing a deadline (e.g., 

whether late applications are neither 

reviewed nor considered or are reviewed and 

considered under some circumstances). 

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3See footnote 1 to subdivision II, paragraph II.D.1 

of this appendix. 

4See footnote 1 to subdivision II, paragraph II.D.1 

of this appendix. 

iv. How the receiving Federal office 

determines whether an application or preapplication has been submitted before the 

deadline. This includes the form of 

acceptable proof of mailing or systemgenerated documentation of receipt date and 

time. 

c. Paragraph II.D.3 also may indicate 

whether, when, and in what form the 

applicant will receive an acknowledgment of 

receipt. 

d. You should consider displaying the 

above information in ways that will be easy 

to understand and use. It can be difficult to 

extract all needed information from narrative 

paragraphs, even when they are well written. 

A tabular form for providing a summary of 

the information may help applicants for some 

programs and give them what effectively 

could be a checklist to verify the 

completeness of their application package 

before submission. For example, a summary 

table might look like: 

What to submit Required content Required form or format When to submit it 

i. Preapplication (optional, but encouraged).Described in paragraph II.D.2 of 

this announcement.

Format required by section ____ 

of grants policy manual (give 

URL or where to access it).3

By (give pre-application due 

date). 

ii. Application: 

(1) Cover sheet ....................... (per required form) ....................... Form SF–ll, available from 

(give source).

(2) Budget information ............ (per required form) ....................... Form SF–ll, available from 

(give source).

By (give pre-application due 

date). 

(3) Narrative ............................ Described in paragraph II.D.2 of 

this announcement.

Format described in paragraph 

II.D.2.

(4) Assurances ........................ (per required form) ....................... Form SF–ll, available from 

(give source).

(5) Letters from third parties 

contributing to cost sharing.

Third parties’ affirmations of 

amounts of their commitments.

No specific form or format ............

iii. Statement of intent to comply 

with human subjects requirements.

(per required form) ....................... Form SF–ll, available from 

(give source).

Prior to award, when requested 

by grants officer (if application 

is successful). 

4. Intergovernmental Review—Required, if 

Applicable 

If the funding opportunity is subject to 

Executive Order (EO) 12372, 

‘‘Intergovernmental Review of Federal 

Programs,’’ you must say so. In alerting 

applicants that they must contact their State’s 

Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to find out 

about and comply with the State’s process 

under EO 12372, you may wish to inform 

them that the names and addresses of the 

SPOCs are listed in the Office of Management 

and Budget’s home page at: http:// 

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/spoc.html. 

5. Funding Restrictions—Required 

You must include information on funding 

restrictions in order to allow an applicant to 

develop an application and budget consistent 

with program requirements. Examples are 

whether construction is an allowable activity, 

if there are any limitations on direct costs 

such as foreign travel or equipment 

purchases, and if there are any limits on 

indirect costs (or facilities and administrative 

costs). You also must tell applicants if 

awards will not allow reimbursement of preaward costs. 

6. Other Submission Requirements— 

Required 

a. Paragraph II.D.6 must address any other 

submission requirements not included in the 

other paragraphs of subsection II.D. This 

might include the format of submission, i.e., 

paper or electronic, for each type of required 

submission. Applicants should not be 

required to submit in more than one format 

and paragraph II.D.6 should indicate whether 

they may choose whether to submit 

applications in hard copy or electronically, 

may submit only in hard copy, or may submit 

only electronically. 

b. Paragraph II.D.6 also must indicate 

where applications (and any preapplications) must be submitted if sent by 

postal mail, electronic means, or handdelivery. For postal mail submission, this 

should include the name of an office, official, 

individual or function (e.g., application 

receipt center) and a complete mailing 

address. For electronic submission, this 

should include the URL or e-mail address; 

whether a password(s) is required; whether 

particular software or other electronic 

capabilities are required; what to do in the 

event of system problems and a point of 

contact that will be available in the event the 

applicant experiences technical difficulties.4

E. Application Review Information 

1. Criteria—Required 

a. Paragraph II.E.1 must address the criteria 

that your agency will use to evaluate 

applications. This includes the merit and 

other review criteria that evaluators will use 

to judge applications, including any 

statutory, regulatory, or other preferences 

(e.g., minority status or Native American 

tribal preferences) that will be applied in the 

review process. These criteria are distinct 

from eligibility criteria that are addressed 

before an application is accepted for review 

and any program policy or other factors that 

are applied during the selection process, after 

the review process is completed. The intent 

is to give applicants visibility into the 

evaluation process so that they can make 

informed decisions when preparing their 

applications and so that the process is as fair 

and equitable as possible. 

b. The announcement should clearly 

describe all criteria, including any subcriteria. If criteria vary in importance, the 

announcement should specify the relative 

percentages, weights, or other means used to 

distinguish among them. For statutory, 

regulatory, or other preferences, the 

announcement should provide a detailed 

explanation of those preferences with an 

explicit indication of their effect (e.g., 

whether they result in additional points 

being assigned). 

c. If an applicant’s proposed cost sharing 

will be considered in the review process (as 

opposed to being an eligibility criterion 

described in paragraph II.C.2 of this 

subdivision), the announcement must 

specifically address how it will be 

considered (e.g., to assign a certain number 

of additional points to applicants who offer 

cost sharing, or to break ties among 

applications with equivalent scores after 

evaluation against all other factors). If cost 

sharing will not be considered in the 

evaluation, the announcement should say so, 

so that there is no ambiguity for potential 

applicants. Vague statements that cost 

sharing is encouraged, without clarification 

as to what that means, are unhelpful to 

applicants. It also is important that the 

announcement be clear about any restrictions 

on the types of cost (e.g., in-kind 

contributions) that are acceptable as cost 

sharing. 

2. Review and Selection Process—Required 

a. Paragraph II.E.2 may vary in the level of 

detail provided. The announcement must list 

any program policy or other factors or 

elements, other than merit criteria, that the 

selecting official may use in selecting 

applications for award (e.g., geographical 

dispersion, program balance, or diversity). 

b. You also may include other details you 

deem appropriate. For example, paragraph 

II.E.2 may indicate who is responsible for 

evaluation against the merit criteria (e.g., 

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5See footnote 1 to subdivision II, paragraph II.D.1 

of this appendix. 

6See footnote 1 to subdivision II, paragraph II.D.1 

of this appendix. 

peers external to the agency or Federal 

agency personnel) and/or who makes the 

final selections for award. If you have a 

multi-phase review process (e.g., an external 

panel advising internal agency personnel 

who make final recommendations to the 

deciding official), you may describe the 

phases. You also may include: The number 

of people on an evaluation panel and how it 

operates, the way reviewers are selected, 

reviewer qualifications, and the way that 

conflicts of interest are avoided. In addition, 

if you permit applicants to nominate 

suggested reviewers of their applications or 

suggest those they feel may be inappropriate 

due to a conflict of interest, that information 

should be included in paragraph II.E.2. 

3. Recipient Qualification—Required 

This paragraph must inform potential 

applicants about the standards that will be 

used to determine that an entity is qualified 

to receive an award, in accordance with the 

agency’s implementation of the OMB 

guidance at 2 CFR 35.115. It must inform 

them: 

a. That every Federal agency awarding 

official, prior to making an award to an 

entity, is required by section 872 of the 

Duncan Hunter National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. 

L. 110–417) to review and consider any 

information about the entity that is in the 

Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity 

Information System (FAPIIS); 

b. That an applicant, at its option, may go 

to FAPIIS (when it is available, the FAPIIS 

Web site should provide information on how 

and where to enter comments) to comment 

on any information about itself that a Federal 

Government official previously entered and 

is currently in FAPIIS; 

c. That the awarding official will consider 

that comment, in addition to the other 

information in FAPIIS, in making a judgment 

about the entity’s integrity, business ethics, 

and record of performance under Federal 

awards that may affect the official’s 

determination that the applicant is qualified 

to receive an award. 

d. About any agency-specific standards for 

recipient qualification that the agency uses, 

as permitted under 2 CFR 35.115(b). 

4. Anticipated Announcement and Award 

Dates—Optional 

This paragraph is intended to provide 

applicants with information they can use for 

planning purposes. If there is a single 

application deadline followed by the 

simultaneous review of all applications, the 

agency can include in this paragraph 

information about the anticipated dates for 

announcing or notifying successful and 

unsuccessful applicants and for having 

awards in place. If applications are received 

and evaluated on a ‘‘rolling’’ basis at different 

times during an extended period, it may be 

appropriate to give applicants an estimate of 

the time needed to process an application 

and notify the applicant of the agency’s 

decision. 

F. Award Administration Information 

1. Award Notices—Required 

This paragraph must address what a 

successful applicant can expect to receive 

following selection. If your practice is to 

provide a separate notice stating that an 

application has been selected before you 

actually make the award, this paragraph 

would be the place to indicate that the letter 

is not an authorization to begin performance 

(to the extent that you allow charging to 

awards of pre-award costs at the recipient’s 

own risk). This paragraph should indicate 

that the notice of award signed by the grants 

officer (or equivalent) is the authorizing 

document, and whether it is provided 

through postal mail or by electronic means 

and to whom. It also may address the timing, 

form, and content of notifications to 

unsuccessful applicants. 

2. Administrative and National Policy 

Requirements—Required 

a. Paragraph II.F.2 must identify the usual 

administrative and national policy 

requirements your agency’s awards may 

include. Providing this information lets a 

potential applicant identify any requirements 

with which it would have difficulty 

complying if its application is successful. In 

those cases, early notification about the 

requirements allows the potential applicant 

to decide not to apply or to take needed 

actions before award. The announcement 

need not include all of the award terms and 

conditions, but may refer to a document 

(with information about how to obtain it) or 

Internet site 5 where applicants can see the 

terms and conditions. 

b. If this funding opportunity will lead to 

awards with some special terms and 

conditions that differ from your agency’s 

usual (sometimes called ‘‘general’’) terms and 

conditions, paragraph II.F.2 should highlight 

those special terms and conditions. Doing so 

will alert applicants who have received 

awards from your agency previously and 

might not otherwise expect different terms 

and conditions. For the same reason, you 

should inform potential applicants about 

special requirements that could apply to 

particular awards after review of applications 

and other information, based on the 

particular circumstances of the effort to be 

supported (e.g., if human subjects were to be 

involved or if some situations may justify 

special terms on intellectual property, data 

sharing or security requirements). 

3. Reporting—Required 

This paragraph must include general 

information about the type (e.g., financial or 

performance), frequency, and means of 

submission (paper or electronic) of postaward reporting requirements. Highlight any 

special reporting requirements for awards 

under this funding opportunity that differ 

(e.g., by report type, frequency, form/format, 

or circumstances for use) from what your 

agency’s awards usually require. 

G. Agency Contact(s)—Required 

You must give potential applicants a 

point(s) of contact for answering questions or 

helping with problems while the funding 

opportunity is open. The intent of this 

requirement is to be as helpful as possible to 

potential applicants, so you should consider 

approaches such as giving: 

1. Points of contact who may be reached 

in multiple ways (e.g., by telephone, FAX, 

and/or e-mail, as well as regular mail). 

2. A fax or e-mail address that multiple 

people access, so that someone will respond 

even if others are unexpectedly absent during 

critical periods. 

3. Different contacts for distinct kinds of 

help (e.g., one for questions of programmatic 

content and a second for administrative 

questions). 

H. Other Information—Optional 

This subsection may include any 

additional information that will assist a 

potential applicant. For example, the 

subsection might: 

1. Indicate whether this is a new program 

or a one-time initiative. 

2. Mention related programs or other 

upcoming or ongoing agency funding 

opportunities for similar activities. 

3. Include Internet addresses for agency 

Web sites that may be useful to an applicant 

in understanding the program (Note: You 

should make certain that any Internet sites 

are current and accessible).6

4. Alert applicants to the need to identify 

proprietary information and inform them 

about the way the agency will handle it. 

5. Include certain routine notices to 

applicants (e.g., that the Government is not 

obligated to make any award as a result of the 

announcement or that only grants officers 

can bind the Government to the expenditure 

of funds). 

PARTS 28–34—[RESERVED] 

PART 35—TIME-OF-AWARD 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Sec. 

35.5 Purpose of this part. 

35.10 Applicability. 

35.15 Federal agency implementation. 

Subpart A—Recipient Qualification Matters 

35.100 Purpose of subpart A. 

35.105 Policy. 

35.110 Federal agency awarding officials’ 

responsibilities. 

35.115 Standards. 

35.120 Required procedures for 

determining recipient qualification. 

35.125 Additional procedures for 

determining recipient qualification. 

35.130 Reporting disqualification of a 

recipient. 

Subpart B—The Award 

35.200 Purpose of subpart A. 

35.205 Award content. 

35.275 Use of award term. 

Appendix A to Part 35—Award Term for 

Recipient Integrity and Performance 

Matters 

Authority: 31 U.S.C. 503; Reorganization 

Plan No. 2 of 1970; E.O. 11541, 35 FR 10737, 

3 CFR, 1966–1970, p. 939; Sec. 872, Pub. L. 

110–417, 122 Stat. 4555. 

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§ 35.5 Purpose of this part. 

This part provides the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) 

guidance for Federal agencies’ 

responsibilities at the time of the award 

of a grant or cooperative agreement. 

§ 35.10 Applicability. 

(a) Types of entities. This part 

provides OMB guidance only to Federal 

agencies. Federal agencies’ 

implementation of this part governs the 

rights and responsibilities of other 

entities affected by the guidance, which 

may include both— 

(1) Organizations other than Federal 

agencies; and 

(2) Individuals. 

(b) Types of awards. This part applies 

to Federal agencies’ grants and 

cooperative agreements. 

§ 35.15 Federal agency implementation. 

Each Federal agency with offices that 

award grants or cooperative agreements 

must issue any needed direction to 

those offices to require conformance 

with the policies and procedures in this 

part. It must: 

(a) Issue any implementation other 

than a regulation within six months of 

the issuance of the part or any change 

to it. 

(b) Submit any regulatory 

implementation to the OMB for review 

within nine months of the issuance of 

this part or update to it, prior to 

publication for comment, and issue final 

regulations within eighteen months of 

the issuance. 

Subpart A—Recipient Qualification 

Matters 

§ 35.100 Purpose of subpart A. 

The purpose of this subpart is to 

specify policies and procedures for a 

Federal agency awarding official’s 

determination of recipient qualifications 

prior to award. 

§ 35.105 Policy. 

(a) General. Federal agency awarding 

officials normally will award grants or 

cooperative agreements only to qualified 

recipients that meet the standards in 

§ 35.115. This practice conforms with 

the Governmentwide policy to do 

business only with responsible persons, 

as stated at 2 CFR 180.125(a). 

(b) Exceptions. 

(1) The general policy in paragraph (a) 

of this section does not apply to types 

of awards listed at 2 CFR 180.215. 

(2) A Federal agency awarding official 

may make an award to a recipient that 

does not fully meet the standards in 

§ 35.115, as described in paragraphs 

(b)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section, as 

applicable. 

(i) If an entity currently is listed in the 

Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) as 

being suspended, debarred, or otherwise 

ineligible for the award, the awarding 

official must comply with the agency’s 

implementation of the exception 

provision in 2 CFR 180.400. 

(ii) If there are special award 

conditions that can appropriately 

mitigate the effects of the entity’s failure 

to fully meet the standards, such as 

special administrative requirements an 

agency may include in accordance with 

the agency’s implementation of 2 CFR 

215.14 (OMB Circular A–110) or section 

__.12 of the Governmentwide common 

rule implementing OMB Circular 

A–102, then the awarding official may 

make the award with those conditions. 

§ 35.110 Federal agency awarding 

officials’ responsibilities. 

To comply with the policy in 

§ 35.105, the Federal agency awarding 

official is responsible for determining a 

recipient’s qualification prior to award. 

The official’s signature on the award 

document shall signify his or her 

determination that either: 

(a) The potential recipient meets the 

standards in § 35.115 and is qualified to 

receive the grant or cooperative 

agreement; or 

(b) An award is otherwise justified, 

pursuant to § 35.105(b). 

§ 35.115 Standards. 

(a) Governmentwide minimum 

standards. To be qualified, a potential 

recipient must at least— 

(1) Have a satisfactory record of 

executing programs or activities under 

Federal assistance or procurement 

awards, if it is a prior recipient of such 

awards; and 

(2) Have a satisfactory record of 

integrity and business ethics. 

(b) Agency-specific standards. An 

agency in its implementation of this part 

may establish additional standards for 

recipient qualification. 

§ 35.120 Required procedures for 

determining recipient qualification. 

(a) Use of Excluded Parties List 

System (EPLS). (1) In deciding that an 

entity is qualified in accordance with 

the standards in § 35.115, a Federal 

agency awarding official must 

determine whether the entity is 

identified in the EPLS as being 

debarred, suspended, or otherwise 

ineligible to receive the award, as 

required by his or her agency’s 

implementation of the Governmentwide 

guidance on nonprocurement 

debarment and suspension (2 CFR part 

180). 

(2) If the entity is listed in the EPLS, 

the awarding official must comply with 

other applicable provisions of his or her 

agency’s implementation of 2 CFR part 

180. 

(3) As stated at 2 CFR 180.425 and 

180.430, the Federal agency awarding 

official’s responsibilities include 

checking the EPLS for: 

(i) Potential recipients of prime 

awards; and 

(ii) A recipient’s principals (as 

defined at 2 CFR 180.995), potential 

recipients of subawards, and principals 

of those potential subaward recipients, 

if Federal agency approval of those 

principals or lower-tier recipients is 

required under the terms of the award. 

(b) Use of the Federal Awardee 

Performance and Integrity Information 

System (FAPIIS). (1) For each award 

with a total value expected to exceed 

the simplified acquisition threshold 

defined at 41 U.S.C. 403(11) (currently 

$100,000), a Federal agency awarding 

official must review any information 

about the recipient that is contained in 

FAPIIS (which will be at a Web site for 

which the Universal Resource Locator, 

or URL, is not yet available) and 

consider all such information in making 

the determination that the recipient 

meets the minimum qualification 

standards in § 35.115(a). 

(2) For grants, the requirement to 

consider all information in the data 

system is a statutory requirement under 

section 872 of the Duncan Hunter 

National Defense Authorization Act for 

Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. L. 110–417). This 

requirement also applies to cooperative 

agreements as a matter of Federal 

Government policy. 

(3) Awarding officials should note 

that: 

(i) The data system is required by law 

to include information about all 

suspensions and debarments that began 

during the most recent 5-year period, 

which may include suspensions or 

debarments that subsequently expired 

or were terminated. However, under the 

Governmentwide policy at 2 CFR part 

180, a suspension or debarment of an 

entity, or a proposal to debar the entity 

under the Federal Acquisition 

Regulation, restricts the entity’s 

eligibility to receive Federal awards 

only until the date on which the 

suspension is lifted, the proposed 

debarment is terminated, or the period 

of debarment expires. 

(ii) Therefore, even though 

information about an expired or 

terminated suspension or debarment 

action may be in the data system after 

that date, the relevance of the 

information to an awarding official’s 

determination of an entity’s current 

qualification for an award is limited by 

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1Electronic copies may be obtained at Internet 

site http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB. For paper 

copies, contact the Office of Management and 

Budget, EOP Publications, 725 17th St., NW., New 

Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503. 

the fact that it is a past action that no 

longer has an exclusionary effect. 

§ 35.125 Additional procedures for 

determining recipient qualification. 

(a) A Federal agency awarding official 

may use methods in addition to those 

required under § 35.120 to determine 

recipient qualification. In deciding on 

appropriate methods to use and levels of 

effort to expend, the Federal agency 

awarding official should consider 

factors such as: 

(1) Whether the recipient has no 

previous experience under Federal 

awards and therefore may be unfamiliar 

with Federal Government requirements 

or not have previously established 

systems for compliance with them; 

(2) Federal agencies’ past experience 

with the recipient; 

(3) The amount of the prospective 

award and complexity of the project or 

program to be carried out under the 

award. 

(b) There is no Governmentwide 

requirement to obtain a pre-award credit 

report, audit, or any other specific piece 

of information. If a Federal agency 

awarding official judges in a specific 

case that there is a need to obtain any 

such information to assist in deciding 

whether the recipient meets the 

standards in § 35.115, then the guidance 

in paragraphs (b)(1) and (2) of this 

section applies. 

(1) Before judging that a pre-award 

credit report, audit, or survey is needed, 

the Federal agency awarding official 

should consider whether any preexisting surveys or audits of the 

recipient, such as the single audit of the 

recipient’s internal control systems 

under OMB Circular A–133,1 will 

satisfy the need. 

(2) If the Federal agency awarding 

official decides to obtain a credit report, 

audit, or other information, and the 

report or other information discloses 

that a potential recipient is delinquent 

on a debt to an agency of the United 

States Government, then— 

(i) The Federal agency awarding 

official must take such information into 

account when determining whether the 

potential recipient is qualified with 

respect to the grant or cooperative 

agreement; and 

(ii) If the awarding official decides to 

make the award to the recipient, unless 

there are compelling reasons to do 

otherwise, he or she must delay the 

award of the grant or cooperative 

agreement until payment is made or 

satisfactory arrangements are made to 

repay the debt; and 

(iii) The awarding official should refer 

to the agency’s suspending and 

debarring official any evidence of 

substantial debt delinquency, as 

described at 2 CFR 180.800(c)(3) as a 

cause for debarment. 

§ 35.130 Reporting the disqualification of a 

recipient. 

(a) Requirement to report a 

disqualification. (1) Determinations that 

must be reported. If a Federal agency 

awarding official does not make an 

award to an entity because the official 

determines that the entity does not meet 

either or both of the minimum 

qualification standards in § 35.115(a), 

the official must report that 

determination, as described in 

paragraph (a)(3) of this section, only if 

all of the following apply: 

(i) The only basis for disqualification 

is the entity’s prior record of executing 

programs or activities under Federal 

awards or its record of integrity and 

business ethics (i.e., the entity was 

determined to be qualified based on all 

factors other than those two standards); 

and 

(ii) The total value of the award that 

otherwise would be made to the entity 

is expected to exceed the simplified 

acquisition threshold at 41 U.S.C. 

403(11) (currently $100,000). 

(2) Determinations that need not be 

reported. The official is not required to 

report a determination that an entity is 

not qualified if he or she makes the 

award to the entity and includes special 

award conditions, as described in 

§ 35.105(b)(2); 

(3) Reporting procedures. The Federal 

agency awarding official must report 

each determination described in 

paragraph (a)(1) of this section to 

FAPIIS (which will be at a Web site for 

which the Universal Resource Locator, 

or URL, is not yet available). The official 

must provide a copy of the notice sent 

to the disqualified entity and the 

information about the determination 

that is required at that Internet site. 

(b) Requirement to notify the 

disqualified entity. If a Federal agency 

awarding official reports a 

determination that an entity is not 

qualified to FAPIIS, as described in 

paragraph (a) of this section, the official 

also must notify the entity that— 

(1) The determination was made and 

reported to FAPIIS; 

(2) The information will be kept in 

that data system for a period of 5 years 

from the date of the determination, as 

required by section 872 of Public Law 

110–417, archived for one additional 

year, and then discarded; 

(3) Each awarding official who 

considers making an award to the entity 

during that period must consider that 

information in judging whether the 

entity is qualified to receive the award; 

(4) The entity may go to FAPIIS (when 

it is available, the FAPIIS Web site 

should provide information on how and 

where to enter comments) and comment 

on any information the data system 

contains about itself, for future 

consideration by Federal awarding 

officials; and 

(5) An awarding official will consider 

that entity’s comment in determining 

whether the entity is qualified for a 

future award. 

(c) Correction or updating of 

information previously submitted. If a 

Federal agency awarding official, after 

entering information into the data 

system about a disqualification, 

subsequently: 

(1) Learns that any of that information 

is erroneous, he or she must correct the 

information in the data system within 3 

business days. 

(2) Obtains an update to that 

information that could be helpful to 

other Federal agency officials who must 

use the data system, he or she is 

strongly encouraged to amend the 

information in the data system to 

incorporate the update in a timely way. 

(d) Source of the requirements. The 

requirements in this section are matters 

of Federal Government policy that are 

parallel and analogous to the 

requirements for a Federal contracting 

officer to report a determination that a 

potential contractor is not presently 

responsible, under section 872 of the 

Duncan Hunter National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 

(Pub. L. 110–417). 

Subpart B—The Award 

§ 35.200 Purpose of subpart B. 

The purpose of this subpart is to 

specify policies and procedures related 

to the creation, execution, and 

dissemination of electronic or paper 

award documents and other actions at 

the time of award. 

§ 35.205 Award content. 

(a) Responsibility. Each Federal 

agency must issue any needed direction 

to offices that make awards, to specify 

that the agency official authorized to 

sign or otherwise approve an award, 

thereby obligating the Government, is 

responsible for ensuring that the award 

contains the appropriate terms and 

conditions. 

(b) Governmentwide award terms. 

Pending issuance of comprehensive 

Governmentwide guidance on award 

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format and content, Federal agencies’ 

awards must contain each of the 

following terms and conditions that is 

applicable in accordance with the 

associated guidance: 

(1) The award term ‘‘Central 

Contractor Registration and Universal 

Identifier Requirements,’’ in accordance 

with the guidance in 2 CFR 25.220. 

(2) The award term ‘‘Requirements 

Related to Recipient Integrity and 

Performance Matters,’’ in accordance 

with the guidance in § 35.275. 

(3) The award term ‘‘Trafficking in 

Persons,’’ in accordance with the 

guidance in 2 CFR 175.15. 

§ 35.275 Use of award term. 

(a) An agency must include the award 

term in Appendix A to this part in each 

grant or cooperative agreement award. 

(b) An agency may use different 

letters and numbers to designate the 

paragraphs of the award term, if 

necessary, to conform the system of 

paragraph designations with the one 

used in other terms and conditions in 

the agency’s awards. 

Appendix to Part 35—Award Term for 

Recipient Integrity and Performance 

Matters 

I. Reporting of matters related to 

recipient integrity and performance. 

A. General reporting requirement. If 

there is any period of time during which 

the total value of your currently active 

grants, cooperative agreements, and 

procurement contracts from all Federal 

agencies exceeds $10,000,000, then you 

as the recipient are required during that 

period of time to maintain the currency 

of information about all civil, criminal, 

or administrative proceedings described 

in paragraph B. of this award term that 

reached their final disposition during 

the most recent 5-year period. This is a 

statutory requirement under section 872 

of Public Law 110–417. 

B. Proceedings about which you must 

report. During any period of time when 

you are subject to the requirement in 

paragraph A. of this award term, submit 

information about each proceeding that 

is connected with the award or 

performance of a grant, cooperative 

agreement, or procurement contract 

from either the Federal Government or 

a State, and is: 

1. A criminal proceeding that resulted 

in a conviction; 

2. A civil proceeding that resulted in 

a finding of fault and liability and your 

paying a monetary fine, penalty, 

reimbursement, restitution, or damages 

of $5,000 or more; 

3. An administrative proceeding, as 

defined in paragraph e. of this award 

term, that resulted in a finding of fault 

and liability and your payment of either 

monetary fine or penalty of $5,000 or 

more or a reimbursement, restitution, or 

damages in excess of $100,000; or 

4. Any other criminal, civil, or 

administrative proceeding if: 

a. It is practical for you to judge that 

it could have led to an outcome 

described in paragraph B.1, 2, or 3 of 

this award term; 

b. It had a different disposition 

arrived at by consent or compromise 

with an acknowledgment of fault on 

your part; and 

c. The requirement in this award term 

to disclose information about the 

proceeding does not conflict with 

applicable laws and regulations. 

C. Reporting procedures. Submit the 

information specified at the Federal 

Awardee Performance and Integrity 

Information System, or FAPIIS (when it 

is available, the FAPIIS Web site should 

provide information on how and where 

to enter the information), about each 

proceeding described in paragraph B. of 

this award term, in accordance with the 

procedures specified at that Internet 

site. You do not need to submit the 

information a second time under 

assistance instruments that you received 

if you already submitted the information 

to FAPIIS because you were required to 

do so under Federal procurement 

contracts that you were awarded. 

D. Reporting frequency. During any 

period of time when you are subject to 

the requirement in paragraph A. of this 

award term, you must report to FAPIIS 

no less frequently than semiannually 

following your initial report of any 

proceedings for the most recent 5-year 

period, either to report new information 

about any proceeding(s) that you have 

not reported previously or affirm that 

there is no new information to report. 

E. Definitions. For purposes of this 

award term: 

1. Administrative proceeding means 

any Federal Government, State, or local 

or foreign government proceeding, other 

than a criminal or civil proceeding, to 

render a decision concerning an entity’s 

alleged violation of or failure to comply 

with a Federal, State, local, or foreign 

statute or regulation if the proceeding 

may result in both: 

i. A finding of fault or misconduct; 

and 

ii. Imposition of a fine or penalty, 

assessment of damages, or a requirement 

for restitution or repayment. 

2. Total value of currently active grants, 

cooperative agreements, and procurement 

contracts includes the value of all options, 

even if not yet exercised. 

PARTS 36–39—[RESERVED] 

4. Subchapter C to chapter I, 

consisting of parts 40 through 59, is 

established and reserved to read as 

follows: 

Subchapter C—Award Content and 

Format—[Reserved] 

PARTS 40–59—[RESERVED] 

5. Subchapter D to chapter I, 

consisting of parts 60 through 79, is 

established and added to read as 

follows: 

Subchapter D—Post-Award Responsibilities 

PARTS 60–76—[RESERVED] 

PART 77—REMEDIES AND 

TERMINATION 

Sec. 

77.5 Purpose of this part. 

77.10 Applicability. 

77.15 Federal agency implementation. 

Subpart A—[Reserved] 

Subpart B—Termination 

77.200 Purpose of subpart B. 

77.220 Reporting. 

Authority: 31 U.S.C. 503; Reorganization 

Plan No. 2 of 1970; E.O. 11541, 35 FR 10737, 

3 CFR, 1966–1970, p. 939; Sec. 872, Pub. L. 

110–417, 122 Stat. 4555. 

§ 77.5 Purpose of this part. 

This part provides Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) 

guidance concerning— 

(a) Remedies available to Federal 

agencies for recipient non-compliance 

matters; and 

(b) Termination of an award prior to 

the end of the project or program period. 

§ 77.10 Applicability. 

(a) Types of entities. This part 

provides OMB guidance only to Federal 

agencies. Federal agencies’ 

implementation of this part governs the 

rights and responsibilities of other 

entities affected by the guidance, which 

may include both— 

(1) Organizations other than Federal 

agencies; and 

(2) Individuals. 

(b) Types of awards. This part applies 

to Federal agencies’ grants and 

cooperative agreements. 

§ 77.15 Federal agency implementation. 

Each Federal agency with offices that 

award grants or cooperative agreements 

must issue any needed direction to 

those offices to require conformance 

with the policies and procedures in this 

part. It must: 

(a) Issue any implementation other 

than a regulation within six months of 

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the issuance of the part or any change 

to it. 

(b) Submit any regulatory 

implementation to the OMB for review 

within nine months of the issuance of 

this part or update to it, prior to 

publication for comment, and issue final 

regulations within eighteen months of 

the issuance. 

Subpart A—[Reserved] 

Subpart B—Termination 

§ 77.200 Purpose of subpart B. 

The purpose of this subpart is to 

specify policies and procedures 

concerning terminations of awards. 

§ 77.220 Reporting. 

(a) Reporting requirement. (1) If a 

Federal agency official terminates an 

award to a recipient prior to the end of 

the project or program period on the 

basis of the recipient’s material failure 

to comply with award terms and 

conditions, he or she must— 

(i) Report the termination to the 

Federal Awardee Performance and 

Integrity Information System, or FAPIIS 

(which will be at a Web site for which 

the Universal Resource Locator, or URL, 

is not yet available); and 

(ii) Provide a copy of the notice of 

termination and information about the 

termination that is specified at that 

Internet site. 

(2) If the agency has administrative 

procedures by which the recipient may 

appeal the agency official’s decision to 

terminate the award, the information 

required under paragraph (a) of this 

section is not to be reported to FAPIIS 

until the recipient either— 

(i) Has exhausted the appeal 

procedures available to it and the 

agency has sustained the termination; or 

(ii) Has not, within 30 days of being 

notified of the termination, informed the 

agency that it intends to appeal the 

agency official’s decision to terminate. 

(b) Notification requirement. The 

Federal agency’s notice of termination 

must notify the recipient that— 

(1) The termination will be reported 

to FAPIIS; 

(2) The information will be kept in 

FAPIIS for a period of 5 years from the 

date of the termination, as required by 

section 872 of Public Law 110–417, 

archived for one additional year, and 

then discarded; 

(3) Each awarding official who 

considers making an award to the entity 

during that period must consider that 

information in judging whether the 

entity is qualified to receive the award; 

(4) The entity may go to FAPIIS (when 

it is available, the FAPIIS Web site 

should provide information on how and 

where to enter comments) and comment 

on any information FAPIIS contains 

about the entity, for future consideration 

by Federal awarding officials; and 

(5) An awarding official will consider 

that entity’s comment in determining 

whether the entity is qualified for a 

future award. 

(c) Correction or updating of 

information previously submitted. If a 

Federal agency official, after entering 

information into FAPIIS about a 

termination, subsequently: 

(1) Learns that any of that information 

is erroneous, he or she must correct the 

information in FAPIIS within 3 business 

days. 

(2) Obtains an update to that 

information that could be helpful to 

Federal agency awarding officials who 

must use FAPIIS, he or she is strongly 

encouraged to amend the information in 

FAPIIS to incorporate the update in a 

timely way. 

(d) Sources of the requirements. Both 

reporting information about 

terminations and notifying recipients 

are statutory requirements for grants 

under section 872 of the Duncan Hunter 

National Defense Authorization Act for 

Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. L. 110–417). The 

requirements also apply to cooperative 

agreements, as a matter of Federal 

Government policy. 

PARTS 78–79—[RESERVED] 

6. Subchapter E to chapter I, 

consisting of parts 80 through 99, is 

established and reserved to read as 

follows: 

Subchapter E—Cost Principles—[Reserved] 

PARTS 80–99—[RESERVED] 

7. Subchapter F to chapter I, 

consisting of parts 100 through 119, is 

established and reserved to read as 

follows: 

Subchapter F—Audit Requirements— 

[Reserved] 

PARTS 100–119—[RESERVED] 

8. Subchapter G to chapter I, 

consisting of parts 120 through 199, is 

established, and a new subchapter 

heading is added to read as follows: 

Subchapter G—National Policy 

Requirements 

PART 180—OMB GUIDELINES TO 

AGENCIES ON GOVERNMENTWIDE 

DEBARMENT AND SUSPENSION 

(NONPROCUREMENT) 

9. The authority citation for part 180 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: Sec. 2455, Pub. L. 103–355, 108 

Stat. 3327; E.O. 12549, 3 CFR, 1986 Comp., 

p. 189; E.O. 12689, 3 CFR, 1989 Comp., 

p. 235. 

10. Add §§ 180.650, 180.655, 180.660, 

and 180.665 to subpart F to read as 

follows: 

§ 180.650 May an administrative 

agreement be the result of a settlement? 

Yes, a Federal agency may enter into 

an administrative agreement with you as 

part of the settlement of a debarment or 

suspension action. 

§ 180.655 How will other Federal agencies 

know about an administrative agreement 

that is the result of a settlement? 

The suspending or debarring official 

who enters into an administrative 

agreement with you must report 

information about the agreement to the 

Federal Awardee Performance and 

Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) 

(the specific information that must be 

reported is specified at the Internet site 

for that data system). This reporting is 

required by section 872 of the Duncan 

Hunter National Defense Authorization 

Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (Pub. L. 110– 

417). 

§ 180.660 Will I be told how Federal 

agencies use information about me in the 

Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity 

Information System and allowed to 

comment on it? 

Yes, the suspending or debarring 

official who enters into an 

administrative agreement with you must 

include wording in the agreement to 

inform you that: 

(a) Information about the 

administrative agreement will be 

reported to FAPIIS; 

(b) The information will be kept in 

FAPIIS for a period of 5 years from the 

date of the administrative agreement (or 

for the period of time during which the 

agreement is in effect, if that is more 

than 5 years), as required by section 872 

of Public Law 110–417, archived for one 

additional year, and then discarded; 

(c) Each Federal agency official who 

considers awarding a grant, cooperative 

agreement, or procurement contract to 

you during that period must consider 

the information about you that is in 

FAPIIS prior to making the award, to 

determine whether you are qualified to 

receive the award based on your 

business ethics and integrity and prior 

performance of programs under Federal 

awards; 

(d) You may go to FAPIIS (when it is 

available, the FAPIIS Web site should 

provide information on how and where 

to enter comments) and comment on 

any information the data system 

contains about you; and 

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(e) A Federal agency awarding official 

will consider your comment in 

determining whether you are qualified 

for a future award. 

§ 180.665 Will information about me in the 

Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity 

Information System be corrected or 

updated? 

Yes, the suspending or debarring 

official who entered information into 

FAPIIS about an administrative 

agreement with you: 

(a) Must correct the information 

within 3 business days if he or she 

subsequently learns that any of it is 

erroneous. 

(b) Must correct in FAPIIS, within 3 

business days, the ending date of the 

period during which the agreement is in 

effect, if the agreement is amended to 

extend that period. 

(c) Is strongly encouraged to amend 

the information in FAPIIS in a timely 

way to incorporate any update that he 

or she obtains that could be helpful to 

Federal agency officials who must use 

FAPIIS. 

11. In § 180.715, revise paragraphs (f) 

and (g), and add a new paragraph (h) to 

read as follows: 

§ 180.715 What notice does the 

suspending official give me if I am 

suspended? 

* * * * * 

(f) Of the applicable provisions of this 

subpart, Subpart F of this part, and any 

other agency procedures governing 

suspension decisionmaking; 

(g) Of the Governmentwide effect of 

your suspension from procurement and 

nonprocurement programs and 

activities; and 

(h) That the information about the 

suspension that is reported to the EPLS, 

in accordance with § 180.520, also will 

be available to Federal agency officials 

responsible for awarding contracts, 

grants, and cooperative agreements 

through another Governmentwide data 

system, FAPIIS, and that— 

(1) The information will be kept in 

FAPIIS for a period of 5 years from the 

date of the suspension (or for the period 

of time during which the suspension is 

in effect, if that is more than 5 years), 

as required by section 872 of Public Law 

110–417, archived for one additional 

year, and then discarded; 

(2) Each Federal agency official who 

considers awarding a grant, cooperative 

agreement, or procurement contract to 

you during that period must consider 

the information about you that is in 

FAPIIS prior to making the award, to 

determine whether you are qualified to 

receive the award based on your 

business ethics and integrity and prior 

performance of programs under Federal 

awards; 

(3) You may go to FAPIIS (when it is 

available, the FAPIIS Web site should 

provide information on how and where 

to enter comments) and comment on 

any information the data system 

contains about you; 

(4) The purpose of any comment you 

make in FAPIIS about the suspension is 

for future consideration by Federal 

awarding officials and is separate from 

the process described in this subpart for 

contesting the suspension; and 

(5) A Federal agency awarding official 

will consider your comment in 

determining whether you are qualified 

for a future award. 

12. In § 180.870, revise paragraphs 

(b)(2)(iii) and (iv), and add a new 

paragraph (b)(2)(v) to read as follows: 

§ 180.870 When do I know if the debarring 

official debars me? 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(2) * * * 

(iii) States the period of your 

debarment, including the effective 

dates; 

(iv) Advises you that your debarment 

is effective for covered transactions and 

contracts that are subject to the Federal 

Acquisition Regulation (48 CFR chapter 

1), throughout the executive branch of 

the Federal Government unless an 

agency head or an authorized designee 

grants an exception; and 

(v) Informs you that the information 

about the debarment that is reported to 

the EPLS, in accordance with § 180.520, 

also will be available to Federal agency 

officials responsible for awarding 

contracts, grants, and cooperative 

agreements through another 

Governmentwide data system, FAPIIS, 

and that— 

(A) The information will be kept in 

FAPIIS for a period of 5 years from the 

date of the debarment (or for the period 

of time during which the debarment is 

in effect, if that is more than 5 years), 

as required by section 872 of Public Law 

110–417, archived for one additional 

year, and then discarded; 

(B) Each Federal agency official who 

considers awarding a grant, cooperative 

agreement, or procurement contract to 

you during that period must consider 

the information about you that is in 

FAPIIS prior to making the award, to 

determine whether you are qualified to 

receive the award based on your 

business ethics and integrity and prior 

performance of programs under Federal 

awards; 

(C) You may go to FAPIIS (when it is 

available, the FAPIIS Web site should 

provide information on how and where 

to enter comments) and comment on 

any information the data system 

contains about you; 

(D) The purpose of any comment you 

make in FAPIIS about the debarment is 

for future consideration by Federal 

awarding officials, is separate from any 

request you make under § 180.875 for 

reconsideration of the debarment, and is 

not to appeal the debarring official’s 

decision; and 

(E) A Federal agency awarding official 

will consider your comment in 

determining whether you are qualified 

for a future award. 

[FR Doc. 2010–2869 Filed 2–17–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3110–01–P 

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