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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 22 / Thursday, February 4, 2021 / Notices
created, increased or supported jobs in the area and the number of projected new and supported jobs within the next 3 years;
6 A description of the applicants demonstrated capability and experience in providing the proposed Project assistance or similar Economic Development activities, including experience of key staff members and persons who will be providing the proposed Project activities and managing the Project;
7 The method and rationale used to select the areas and businesses that will receive the service;
8 A brief description of how the work will be performed including whether organizational staff or consultants or contractors will be used;
9 Please note that no assistance or funding can be provided to hemp producers or processors unless they have a valid license issued from an approved State, Tribal or Federal plan as per Section 10113 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, Public Law 115334. Verification of valid hemp licenses will occur at the time of award;
and 10 Other information the Agency may request to assist in making a grant award determination;
e The latest 3 years of financial information to show the applicants financial capacity to carry out the proposed work. If the applicant is less than 3 years old, at a minimum, the information should include all balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. A current audited report is required if available;
f Intergovernmental review comments from the State Single Point of Contact, or evidence that the State has elected not to review the program under Executive Order 12372;
g Documentation regarding the availability and amount of other funds to be used in conjunction with the funds from the RBDG; Agency employees must make a determination that the other funds proposed are in place as part of their financial analysis toward the feasibility of the project. If there is not a firm commitment in writing of the other funding, it may not be considered for leveraging and scoring purposes and the project must be feasible without those funds;
h A budget which includes salaries, fringe benefits, consultant costs, indirect costs, and other appropriate direct costs for the Project; and i RBDG construction Project grants must conform with 7 CFR part 1924, subpart A and the 7 CFR 1970
environmental requirements.

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2. General Processing and Scoring Provisions.
The Agency will review each application for assistance in accordance with the priorities established in 4280.435. The Agency will assign each application a priority rating and will select applications for funding based on the priority ratings and the total funds available to the program for opportunity-type projects and enterprise-type projects.
a The Agency will score each application based on the information contained in the application and its supporting information. All applications submitted for funding must contain sufficient information to permit the Agency to complete a thorough priority rating. Agency employees may not consider any information that is not provided by the applicant in writing for scoring purposes. Applications will not be considered for funding if they do not provide sufficient information to determine eligibility or are missing required elements. Total possible points for the scoring criteria is 240 plus discretionary points that may be awarded by the Administrator or State Director with justification and only for those projects submitting an initial grant application. Points will be awarded to an eligible application as follows:
1 Leveraging. If the grant will fund a critical element of a larger program of Economic Development, without which the overall program either could not proceed or would be far less effective, or if the program to be assisted by the grant will also be partially funded from other sources, points will be awarded if Rural Developments funding is: i Less than 20 percent of the project costs30
points; ii between 20 percent and up to 50 percent of the project20 points;
iii between 50 percent and up to 75
percent of the project10 points.
2 Demographics. Points will be awarded for each of the following criteria met by the community or communities that will receive the benefit of the grant, up to a total of 40
points from all categories: i Communities experiencing trauma due to a major natural disaster that occurred not more than 3 years prior to the filing of the application for assistance will be awarded 15 points; ii Communities that have suffered a loss of 20 percent or more in their total jobs caused by the closure of a military facility or other employers within the last 3 years will be awarded 15 points; iii Communities that have experienced Long-Term poverty as demonstrated by being a former Rural empowerment zone, Rural economic area partnership zone, Rural enterprise community, champion
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community, or a persistent poverty county as determined by USDAs Economic Research Service will receive 10 points; and iv If the community has experienced Long-Term population decline as demonstrated by the latest three decennial censuses, 10 points will be awarded.
3 Population. Points will be awarded if the proposed projects will be located in a community of: i Under 5,000
population15 points; ii Between 5,000 and less than 15,000 population 10 points; or iii Between 15,000 and 25,000 population5 points.
4 Unemployment. If the proposed projects will be located in areas where the unemployment rate: i Exceeds the State rate by 25 percent or more20
points will be awarded; ii exceeds the State rate by less than 25 percent10
points will be awarded; or iii is equal to or less than the State rate0 points will be awarded.
5 Median household income. If the proposed projects will be located in areas where Median Household Income MHI as prescribed by section 6732 of the Community Services Block Grant Act for a family of 4 for the State is: i Less than the poverty line25 points will be awarded; ii More than the poverty line but less than 65 percent of State MHI15 points will be awarded;
iii Between 65 and 85 percent of the State MHI10 points will be awarded;
or iv If the area has greater than 85
percent of the State MHI0 points will be awarded.
6 Experience. If the applicant provides evidence of successful experience in the type of activity proposed based on its current employees resumes demonstrating: i 10 or more years of experience30
points will be awarded; ii At least 5
but less than 10 years of experience20
points will be awarded; iii At least 3
years but less than 5 years of experience10 points will be awarded;
or iv At least 1 but less than 3 years of experience5 points will be awarded.
7 Small business start-up or expansion. If the Applicant has evidence that small business development will be supported by startup or expansion as a result of the activities to be carried out under the grant by written evidence provided to the Agency from a small, or a Small and Emerging Business that includes the number of jobs that will be supported and created, 5 points will be awarded for each letter up to a total of 25 points.
Generic or duplicated letters are not acceptable, letters must address the specific business producing the letter, the connection to the project activities
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