[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 155 (Monday, August 12, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52554-52558]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-20261]
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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Standard Data Elements for Electronically Posting Synopses of
Federal Agencies' Financial Assistance Program Announcements at
FedBizOpps
AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
ACTION: Notice of proposed standard data elements.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Federal Financial Management (OFFM) proposes to
establish a standard set of data elements for Federal agencies to use
to electronically post synopses of announcements of funding
opportunities under programs that award discretionary grants or
cooperative agreements. The purpose of the data elements would be to
give potential applicants: (1) Enough information about each funding
opportunity to decide whether they are interested enough to look at the
full announcement; and (2) one or more ways (e.g., an Internet site, e-
mail address or phone number) to get the full announcement with the
detailed information they need to decide whether they wish to apply.
The proposed data elements would be the government-wide standard set
for the hundreds of Federal programs that award discretionary grants or
cooperative agreements. The Federal awarding agencies jointly developed
these proposed data elements as one part of the implementation of the
Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999 (Pub.
L. 106-107).
DATES: All comments on the proposed data elements should be in writing,
and must be received by October 11, 2002.
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.
Electronic mail comments may be submitted to: [email protected].
Please include ``FedBizOpps Data Elements Comments'' in the subject
line and put the full body of your comments in the text of the
electronic message and as an attachment. Please include your name,
title, organization, postal address, telephone number, and e-mail
address in the text of the message. Comments may also be submitted via
facsimile to 202-395-3952. Comments may be mailed to Elizabeth
Phillips, Office of
[[Page 52555]]
Federal Financial Management, Office of Management and Budget, Room
6025, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Phillips, Office of Federal
Financial Management, Office of Management and Budget, telephone 202-
395-3053 (direct) or 202-395-3993 (main office) and e-mail:
[email protected]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: To widely disseminate information about
Federal funding opportunities more rapidly than was possible before the
advent of electronic business practices, the General Services
Administration has established the FedBizOpps Internet site
(www.FedBizOpps.gov). Federal agencies now use FedBizOpps as the single
site for giving the public access to relevant information about
procurement opportunities that exceed $25,000, including procurement
notices, solicitations, drawings, and amendments. In the future, the
Federal agencies also will use the FedBizOpps site to post electronic
synopses of funding opportunities leading to the award of grants,
cooperative agreements, and other financial assistance instruments.
This Federal Register announcement seeks public comment on the proposed
data elements that Federal agencies would include in their synopses of
those financial assistance funding opportunities.
These data elements and the posting of information at the
FedBizOpps site address a need that non-Federal entities identified
during the public consultation process mandated by Public Law 106-107.
Commenters suggested the need for a single searchable Internet site for
information about Federal agencies' funding opportunities, to reduce
potential applicants' frustration with having to search multiple sites
that individual Federal agencies configure in different ways. A
standard data set and single site for synopses of announcements should
help potential applicants easily and quickly find the key pieces of
information they need about each funding opportunity to decide whether
they wish to review the full announcement.
The Federal agencies selected the proposed data elements to enable
you to do that and to use search criteria that would let you identify
from the numerous funding opportunities posted at FedBizOpps at any
given time the ones most likely to be of interest to you. For example,
the proposed data elements will let you search using the name of a
particular agency or the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA)
number for a particular program. You also may search by choosing a
class or classes of activity, as defined in the CFDA, as well as
limiting the search to programs open to certain types of entities
(using categories of eligible applicants adapted from the Federal
Assistance Awards Data System maintained by the Bureau of the Census at
the Department of Commerce). You still would need to read the full
announcement for the funding opportunities identified by your search,
since the announcements provide much greater detail about each of the
program's aspects (e.g., you might isolate programs that show the
category of ``State controlled institutions of higher education'' as
being eligible, but find in the full announcement that only selected
types of those institutions, such as land-grant institutions, are
eligible).
While some of the proposed data elements for financial assistance
parallel those currently in FedBizOpps for synopses of procurement
opportunities, others differ in ways that reflect differences between
procurement and assistance. For example, the activity class codes for
financial assistance opportunities are categories from the CFDA. In
contrast, FedBizOpps synopses of procurement opportunities use supply
code classifications that are appropriate for buying goods and
services.
Many of the data elements proposed for FedBizOpps also are key
information elements in the proposed standard format for financial
assistance funding announcements (see related Notice in this section of
the Federal Register). Examples are the CFDA number, eligible
applicants, and cost-sharing requirements. Including these key elements
responds to comments received from non-Federal entities through the
public comment process under Public Law 106-107.
The proposed data elements also are designed to provide Federal
agencies the flexibility to give you the needed information for
programs that are designed to operate in different ways. For example,
some programs have a single due date for applications. A numeric
``application due date'' field accommodates those programs, giving
potential applicants concise information in a searchable field. Other
programs, however, have announcements that remain open for extended
periods; some have applications accepted and reviewed at multiple
discrete points in time, while others will accept and review
applications at any time during those periods. The proposed data
elements include an application due date text field to let agencies
give potential applicants clear and unambiguous information about those
programs, in a way that the numeric field by itself would not support.
We welcome your input on any aspect of the data elements. Questions
that you may wish to address include:
Are the proposed data elements the essential ones that you
need to help you quickly judge whether a funding opportunity is one for
which you likely will want to read the full announcement? The intent is
for the data elements to be the minimum set needed. That should allow
potential applicants to more quickly see essential information, because
they will not have to extract it from a larger data set that includes
information they do not need until they are preparing and submitting an
application. Those additional details are in the full announcement to
which FedBizOpps provides electronic links. If you recommend adding or
deleting any data elements, please explain why.
Are the names of data elements and any terms used in
describing them readily understandable? Are the terms generic enough to
cover all programs and agencies in which you might have an interest? Do
you have suggestions for alternate terms? Do you have suggestions for
additional codes, such as those listed as choices for the data elements
``category of funding activity'' and ``eligible applicants'?
Dated: July 31, 2002.
Mark W. Everson,
Controller.
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Data element Description Required?
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Federal agency user User ID of Federal One entry required.
identification. agency
representative who
is authorized to
post information to
the FedBizOpps site.
Federal agency password..... Password of Federal One entry required.
agency user
representative who
is authorized to
post information to
the FedBizOpps site.
[[Page 52556]]
Funding opportunity title... The Federal agency's One entry required.
title for the
funding opportunity
(including program
subcomponent names,
as the agency deems
appropriate).
Funding opportunity number.. The number, if any, Optional.
that the Federal
agency assigns to
its announcement.
Catalog of Federal Domestic Number(s) of the At least one entry
Assistance (CFDA) number(s). CFDA listing(s) for required (may list
program(s) included more than one) if
in the announcement the Federal agency
(e.g., 12.300). is subject to the
requirement in 31
U.S.C. chapter 61
to report to the
CFDA.
Federal agency mailing Regular (United Optional. If you
address. States Postal give no office name
Service) mailing and address,
address of the FedBizOpps will
Federal insert the office
organization name and address
responsible for the you gave when you
announcement, initially
including agency registered and got
name and specific your user ID and
subcomponent (e.g., password.
department, bureau,
directorate, or
division), street
address, city,
State, and zip code.
Federal agency contact for Should list name of At least one entry
electronic accesss problems. person (e.g., required. May list
webmaster) to whom more than one.
potential
applicants should
refer questions if
they cannot link
from FedBizOpps to
the full
announcement (this
person is distinct
from programmatic
and other agency
contacts who are
listed in the full
announcement).
Type of help available from The hypertext Required. May list
the Federal agency contact. description only one.
accompanying the
Federal agency
contact e-mail
address, to
describe types of
problems or
questions with
which the agency
contact may be able
to provide
assistance (e.g.,
``If you have
problems linking to
the full
announcement,
contact:'').
Federal agency contact e- E-mail address of Required. May list
mail address. Federal agency only one.
contact who can
help with
electronic access
problems..
Funding opportunity A concise Required.
description. description of the
funding
opportunity,
designed to contain
sufficient
information for
potential
applicants to
decide whether they
are interested
enough to read the
full announcement.
Funding instrument types.... List codes for types Required. Select all
of instruments that that apply (up to 4
may be awarded: codes).
G = Grant...........
CA = Cooperative
Agreement.
PC = Procurement
Contract.
O = Other...........
Note that if your
announcement states
that you may award
procurement
contracts, as well
as assistance
instruments, the
announcement must
be posted to both
the procurement and
assistance modules
of FedBizOpps.
Category of funding activity Designed to allow At least one
potential required and may
applicants to list as many as
narrow their needed. There is no
searches to default value.
programs in CFDA
categories of
interest to them.
Note that the terms
are defined in the
CFDA. List all
codes that apply:
AG = Agriculture
AR = Arts (see
``Cultural
Affairs'' in the
CFDA)
BC = Business and
Commerce
CD = Community
Development
CP = Consumer
Protection
DPR = Disaster
Prevention and
Relief
ED = Education
ELT = Employment,
Labor and Training
EN = Energy
ENV = Environment
FN = Food and
Nutrition
HL = Health
HO = Housing
HU = Humanities (see
``Cultural
Affairs'' in the
CFDA)
ISS = Income
Security and Social
Services
IS = Information and
Statistics
LJL = Law, Justice
and Legal Services
NR = Natural
Resources
RD = Regional
Development
ST = Science and
Technology and
other Research and
Development
T = Transportation
O = Other
[[Page 52557]]
Eligible applicants......... Designed to help Required to either
potential select ``99'' for
applicants narrow unrestricted or
their searches to select all others
programs where they that apply.
are most likely to
be eligible
(although they
still must read the
full announcement
for details because
eligibility may be
further limited to
certain subsets of
applicants within
the categories
below)..
99 = Unrestricted
(i.e., open to any
type of entity
below)
Government codes:
00 = State
governments
01 = County
governments
02 = City or
township
governments
04 = Special
district
governments
05 = Independent
school districts
06 = State
controlled
institutions of
higher education
07 = Native American
tribal governments
(Federally
recognized)
08 = Public housing
authorities/Indian
housing authorities
Non-Government
organizations:
How to get full announcement Hypertext stating Required.
where to get the
full announcement.
If it is available
on the Internet,
this field should
include the
descriptor that
precedes the URL
for the full
announcement (e.g.,
``Click on the
following link to
see the full text
of the announcement
for this funding
opportunity:'').
Electronic link to full The URL for the full Optional.
announcement. announcement, if it
is on the Internet.
11 = Native American
tribal
organizations
(other than
Federally
recognized tribal
governments)
12 = Nonprofits
other than
institutions of
higher education
[includes community
action agencies and
other organizations
having a 501(c)(3)
status with the
IRS]
20 = Private
institutions of
higher education
21 = Individuals
22 = For-profit
organizations other
than small
businesses
23 = Small
businesses
25 = All others
[e.g., U.S. Federal
or Foreign
Governmental
entities and
nonprofits that do
not have a
501(c)(3) status
with the IRS]
Cost sharing requirement.... Answer to question: Required.
is cost sharing
required: (Y or N).
Due date for applications... Date when Required if
applications are ``Explanation of
due (or latest date application due
when applications dates'' field is
accepted, if not completed.
announcement has Optional otherwise.
multiple due dates
or is a general
announcement that
is open for a
specified period
with applications
accepted at any
time during that
period).
Explanation of application Used by agencies Optional (note that
due dates. wishing to post ``Due date for
more information applications''
about due date(s) field is required
for potential if this
applicants. For ``Explanation of
example, the field application due
may be used to dates'' text field
describe programs is not completed).
with multiple due
dates or ones where
applications are
accepted, reviewed,
and funded at any
point within a
broad time window.
The field also may
be used to add
information about
the time when
applications are
due (e.g., 5:00
p.m. EDT on the
date given in the
``Due date for
applications''
field).
Date of FedBizOpps posting.. Month, day, and year Required.
when the agency
wants the synopsis
posted on
FEdBizOpps (e.g.,
some agencies may
build in delays to
allow announcements
to appear first in
the Federal
Register or at
agency Internet
sites). Format is
MMDDCCYY.
Date for FedBizOpps to Month, day, and year Optional. Default,
archive. when the agency if agency provides
wants the synpopsis no input, is 30
archived. Format is days after the date
MMDDCCYY. given in the ``Due
date for
applications''
field.
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[FR Doc. 02-20261 Filed 8-9-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3110-01-P