H. R. 5536 

One Hundred Eighteenth Congress 

of the 

United States of America 

AT THE SECOND SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and twenty-four 

An Act 

To require transparency in notices of funding opportunity, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Grant Transparency Act of 

2023’’. 

SEC. 2. NOTICES OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY TRANSPARENCY. 

(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

(1) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘agency’’— 

(A) has the meaning given the term ‘‘Executive agency’’ 

in section 105 of title 5, United States Code; and 

(B) does not include the Government Accountability 

Office. 

(2) COMPETITIVE GRANT.—The term ‘‘competitive grant’’ 

means a discretionary award (as defined in section 200.1 of 

title 2, Code of Federal Regulations) awarded by an agency— 

(A) through a grant agreement or cooperative agreement under which the agency makes payment in cash 

or in kind to a recipient to carry out a public purpose 

authorized by law; and 

(B) the recipient of which is selected from a pool of 

applicants through the use of merit-based selection procedures for the purpose of allocating funds authorized under 

a grant program of the agency. 

(3) EVALUATION OR SELECTION CRITERIA.—The term 

‘‘evaluation or selection criteria’’ means standards or principles 

for judging, evaluating, or selecting an application for a 

competitive grant. 

(4) NOTICE OF FUNDING OPPORTUNITY.—The term ‘‘notice 

of funding opportunity’’ has the meaning given the term in 

section 200.1 of title 2, Code of Federal Regulations. 

(5) RATING SYSTEM.—The term ‘‘rating system’’— 

(A) means a system of evaluation of competitive grant 

applications to determine how such applications advance 

through the selection process; and 

(B) includes— 

(i) a merit criteria rating rubric; 

(ii) an evaluation of merit criteria; 

(iii) a methodology to evaluate and rate based on 

a point scale; and 
H. R. 5536—2 

(iv) an evaluation to determine whether a competitive grant application meets evaluation or selection 

criteria. 

(b) TRANSPARENCY REQUIREMENTS.—Each notice of funding 

opportunity issued by an agency for a competitive grant shall 

include— 

(1) a description of any rating system and evaluation and 

selection criteria the agency uses to assess applications for 

the competitive grant; 

(2) a statement of whether the agency uses a weighted 

scoring method and a description of any weighted scoring 

method the agency uses for the competitive grant, including 

the amount by which the agency weights each criterion; and 

(3) any other qualitative or quantitative merit-based 

approach the agency uses to evaluate an application for the 

competitive grant. 

(c) APPLICATIONS; DATA ELEMENTS.— 

(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of Management 

and Budget, in coordination with the Executive department 

designated under section 6402(a)(1) of title 31, United States 

Code, shall develop data elements relating to grant applications 

to ensure common reporting by each agency with respect to 

applications received in response to each notice of funding 

opportunity of the agency. 

(2) CONTENTS.—The data elements developed under paragraph (1) shall include— 

(A) the number of applications received; and 

(B) the city and State of each organization that submitted an application. 

(d) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—With respect to a particular 

competitive grant, nothing in this Act shall be construed to supersede any requirement with respect to a notice of funding opportunity 

for the competitive grant in a law that authorizes the competitive 

grant. 

(e) NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS.—No additional funds are authorized 

to be appropriated for the purpose of carrying out this Act. 

(f) EFFECTIVE DATE.— 

(1) IN GENERAL.—This Act shall take effect on the date 

that is 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act. 
H. R. 5536—3 

(2) NO RETROACTIVE EFFECT.—This Act shall not apply 

to a notice of funding opportunity issued before the date of 

enactment of this Act. 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.