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[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 203 (Friday, October 21, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 61255-61256]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-21089]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

[Docket No. 030602141-5264-27]

Availability of Grant Funds for Fiscal Year 2006

AGENCY: National Ocean Service (NOS), National Oceanic and 
AtmosphericAdministration (NOAA), Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice; extension of solicitation period.

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SUMMARY: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National 
Ocean Service, publishes this notice to amend the competitive 
solicitation for the Ecological Forecasting (ECOFORE) program to 
provide an opportunity for commercial entities to submit proposals and 
to extend the solicitation period to provide the public more time to 
submit proposals.

DATES: The new deadline for the receipt of proposals is November 18, 
2005, for both electronic and paper applications.

ADDRESSES: The address for submitting Proposals electronically is: 
http://www.grants.gov/ (Electronic submission is strongly encouraged). 
Paper submissions should be sent to the attention of ECOFORE 2006, 
Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research (N/SCI2), National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration, 1305 East-West Highway, SSMC4, 8th 
Floor Station 8243, Silver Spring, MD 20910.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Elizabeth Turner, 603-862-4680, 
[email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This program was originally solicited in the 
Federal Register on June 30, 2005, as part of the June 2005 NOAA 
Omnibus solicitation (70 FR 37766). The ECOFORE component of that 
Omnibus solicitation did not include commercial organizations as 
eligible applicants. NOAA has determined that expanding the pool of 
potential applicants to include commercial organizations would enhance 
the program's ability to make financial assistance awards to recipients 
with the highest level of expertise in atmospheric forecasting. The 
original deadline for receipt of proposals was 3 p.m. EST, on October 
25, 2005. In order to allow the expanded pool of potential applicants 
to submit proposals, NOAA is extending the deadline for the receipt of 
applications to 3 p.m. EST on November 18, 2005, for both electronic 
and paper applications. All other requirements for this solicitation 
remain the same.

Limitation of Liability

    Funding for this program is contingent upon the availability of 
Fiscal Year 2006 appropriations. Applicants are hereby given notice 
that funds have not yet been appropriated for the programs listed in 
this notice. In no event will NOAA or the Department of Commerce be 
responsible for proposal preparation costs if these programs fail to 
receive funding or are cancelled because of other agency priorities. 
Publication of this announcement does not oblige NOAA to award any 
specific project or to obligate any available funds.

Universal Identifier

    Applicants should be aware that they are required to provide a Dun 
and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number during the 
application process. See 67 FR 66177 (October 30, 2002) for additional 
information. Organizations can receive a DUNS number at no cost by 
calling the dedicated toll-free DUNS Number request line at 1-866-705-
5711 or via the internet (http://www.dunandbradstreet.com).

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

    NOAA must analyze the potential environmental impacts, as required 
by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for applicant projects 
or proposals which are seeking NOAA Federal funding opportunities. 
Detailed information on NOAA compliance with NEPA can be found at the 
following NOAA NEPA website: http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/, including our 
NOAA Administrative Order 216-6 for NEPA, http://www.nepa.noaa.gov/NAO216_6_TOC.pdf, and the Council on Environmental Quality 
implementation regulations, http://ceq.eh.doe.gov/nepa/regs/ceq/toc_ceq.htm. Consequently, as part of an applicant's package, and under 
their description of their program activities, applicants are required 
to provide detailed information on the activities to be conducted, 
locations, sites, species and habitat to be affected, possible 
construction activities, and any environmental concerns that may exist 
(e.g., the use and disposal of hazardous or toxic chemicals, 
introduction of non-indigenous species, impacts to endangered and 
threatened species, aquaculture projects, and impacts to coral reef 
systems). In addition to providing specific information that will serve 
as the basis for any required impact analyses, applicants may also be 
requested to assist NOAA in drafting of

[[Page 61256]]

an environmental assessment, if NOAA determines an assessment is 
required. Applicants will also be required to cooperate with NOAA in 
identifying feasible measures to reduce or avoid any identified adverse 
environmental impacts of their proposal. The failure to do so shall be 
grounds for not selecting an application. In some cases if additional 
information is required after an application is selected, funds can be 
withheld by the Grants Officer under a special award condition 
requiring the recipient to submit additional environmental compliance 
information sufficient to enable NOAA to make an assessment on any 
impacts that a project may have on the environment.
    The Department of Commerce Pre-Award Notification Requirements for 
Grants and Cooperative Agreements contained in the Federal Register 
notice of December 30, 2004 (69 FR 78389), are applicable to this 
solicitation.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    This document contains collection-of-information requirements 
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). The use of Standard Forms 
424, 424A, 424B, SF-LLL, and CD-346 has been approved by the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) under the respective control numbers 0348-
0043, 0348-0044, 0348-0040, 0348-0046, and 0605-0001. Notwithstanding 
any other provision of law, no person is required to respond to, nor 
shall any person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with, a 
collection of information subject to the requirements of the PRA unless 
that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control 
number.

Executive Order 12866

    This notice has been determined to be not significant for purposes 
of Executive Order 12866.

Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)

    It has been determined that this notice does not contain policies 
with Federalism implications as that term is defined in Executive Order 
13132.

Administrative Procedure Act/ Regulatory Flexibility Act

    Prior notice and an opportunity for public comment are not required 
by the Administrative Procedure Act or any other law for rules 
concerning public property, loans, grants, benefits, and contracts (5 
U.S.C. 553(a)(2)). Because notice and opportunity for comment are not 
required pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 553 or any other law, the analytical 
requirements of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) 
are inapplicable. Therefore, a regulatory flexibility analysis has not 
been prepared.

    Dated: October 17, 2005.
Charles W. Challstrom,
Acting Assistant Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, National Ocean Service.
[FR Doc. 05-21089 Filed 10-20-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-JS-S
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