Code of Federal Regulations Title 7. Agriculture § 7.1739.16 Review of grant applications

(a) All applications for grants must be delivered to the Agency at the address and by the date specified in the FOA, the Community Connect Grant program application guide and the Community Connect Grant program website (see § 1739.2) to be eligible for funding. The Agency will review each application for conformance with the provisions of this part, and may contact the applicant for clarification of information in the application.

(b) Incomplete applications as of the deadline for submission will not be considered. If an application is determined to be incomplete, the applicant will be notified in writing and the application will be returned with no further action.

(c) If the Agency determines that the Project is technically or financially infeasible or unsustainable, the Agency will notify the applicant, in writing, and the application will be returned with no further action.

(d) Applications conforming with this part will be evaluated competitively by the Agency and will be ranked in accordance with § 1739.17. Applications will then be awarded generally in rank order until all grant funds are expended, subject to paragraphs (e) and (f) of this section.

(e) In addition to scoring, the Agency may take geographic distribution into consideration when making final award determinations.

(f) An award may be made out of rank order if a higher ranked application would require an award that exceeded available funding or would consume a disproportionate amount of funds available relative to its ranking.

(g) The Agency reserves the right to offer an applicant a lower amount than proposed in the application.