Finding Federal Grant Funding

I have had a lot of inquiries about how to find out what federal stimulus programs could provide grant funding for various projects. There is a government web site which provides a lot of information on the subject, though sometimes it requires a lot of work to find the specific information you are looking for. Here's the link:

http://www.ccr.gov/

Good hunting!

New Ethics Rules For Stimulus Grant Applicants

Do you think of yourself as a lobbyist? No? If you have applied for any sort of grant under any of the numerous economic stimulus programs enacted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, you have become a lobbyist. Under new rules announced yesterday by Norm Eisen, Obama administration special counsel for ethics and government reform, any person or business seeking a share of the $787 billion in stimulus funding is now bound by rules which used to apply only to registered lobbyists.

Under the new rules, all grant applicants are forbidden from having any telephone or in person communication with the officials to whom their grant application was submitted, and anything the applicant submits in writing regarding the application or the grant must be published on the agency web site within three business days. So, if you are writing to inquire about the status of your grant application, or its merits as opposed to competing applications, be aware that your customers, competitors, employees and the general public will see exactly what you have written. This will include E-mails.

Remember, when writing in about your grant application, everything you say will become public and will reflect on your company, perhaps for years to come. Never write anything in anger or in haste, and it is probably a good idea to have someone else look it over before you send it in.

Political Wrangling Ties Up Broadband Expansion Grant Funds

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher want most of the broadband funds to be divided among both unserved and underserved regions of the country, while Senate Commerce Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison and House Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton want to concentrate on areas with no broadband service at all. Until their differences are resolved, $7.2 billion sits in the vault unspent. No towers or fiber optic lines are being built to bring broadband service to customers who don't have internet connectivity.

Is $7.2 Billion For Broadband Construction Going Begging?

In remarks at a convention of the cable TV industry in Washington D.C. yesterday, House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher spoke out against open access requirements which could discourage major cable networks from applying for $7.2 billion in grants for construction of broadband towers and other facilities to make internet access available in presently unserved and underserved areas of our nation. The funds, appropriated in the economic stimulus legislation passed earlier this year, have so far been rejected by major cable operators because of the absence of a clear regulatory definition of what "open access" means in terms of availability of facilities to other networks at wholesale rates. Boucher urged the major industry players to apply for the grant money.

Another bottleneck in the way of funding these tower construction contracts is the dispute among Congressional leaders over where the money should be spent. Boucher and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman want the new facilities to be built in both unserved localities, and underserved localities where some service is available. Republicans Joe Barton and Cliff Sterns, ranking members on Waxman's committee and Boucher's subcommittee, want to restrict all the $7.2 billion to construction in completely unserved localities. Until these two regulatory bottlenecks are resolved, the construction contractors waiting for these projects to be released for bidding will continue to go hungry.

Vislack Announces Broadband Construction Grant Process

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vislack, accompanied by some junior officials from the Commerce Department, announced the process both agencies will follow in distributing a total of $7.2 billion for broadband network construction in rural and impoverished areas. The grants will be released in three rounds, beginning with round one April through June 2009. The second release will be October through December 2009, and the final round April through June 2010. Check here for listings of the grants when they become available:

http://grants.gov