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 agree-
ment 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 proce-
dures 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
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(iv) an evaluation to determine whether a competi-
tive 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 para-
graph (1) shall include— 
(A) the number of applications received; and 
(B) the city and State of each organization that sub-
mitted an application. 
(d) RULE
OF CONSTRUCTION.—With respect to a particular 
competitive grant, nothing in this Act shall be construed to super-
sede 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.
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(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.