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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 113 / Tuesday, June 15, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
than $500,000 and a maximum request of not more than $2,000,000.
Restrictions are also placed on indirect costs. Costs incurred by the applicant associated with administering the RISE
grant are statutorily restricted to ten percent of the RISE grant amount.
As the Agency wishes to encourage projects across a broad geographic area, applicants are limited to one application per funding cycle, unless otherwise notified in a Federal Register notice.
The contents of a complete application may be found at 4284.1115b. All items must be included or addressed for an application to be considered complete and to compete for funding.
The items requested allow the Agency to complete an applicant and project eligibility determination, as well as determine project alignment with Agency priorities.
Based upon comments received during the request for public comments period, the Agency added a review of concept proposal at 4284.1115a.
Applicants may submit, not less than 60
days prior to the application submittal deadline, the items in 4284.1115a1
through 4 for Agency review. The Agency will review the submitted items and provide feedback regarding any weaknesses and a letter of encouragement or discouragement. A
letter of encouragement does not guarantee eligibility or funding.
Similarly, a letter of discouragement does not preclude the applicant from submitting a complete application. If an applicant submits a review request and later submits a complete application, duplicative items do not have to be resubmitted; however, all information must be up-to-date and current.
To ensure that projects begin providing the proposed services as quickly as possible and that all members of the partnership are ready to contribute to the success of the proposed project, the Agency at 4284.1115b2x requires that all applications include a readiness demonstration. The items identified in 4284.1115b2xA through E not only provide the Agency evidence that the partnership is ready and able to begin the project but also allows the partnership to evaluate the ability of their members to provide the services necessary, create a marketing and reporting plan and finalize a timeline.
Each complete and eligible application for the RISE program will be scored based on the priority scoring criteria found at 4284.1117a through g. Applications will, unless otherwise publicly announced, be reviewed, and scored by Agency personnel. The scoring criteria are designed to prioritize
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sustainable projects that best meet the program criteria set forth in the 2018
Farm Bill and this regulation. Scored applications will be ranked from highest to lowest score for funding consideration. Due to the variability of proposals from year to year, no minimum score for funding is provided.
Regardless of a proposals priority score or relative ranking, all funding decisions are subject to the availability of funds.
Receipt of funds in one funding cycle does not guarantee priority or funding in future funding cycles.
Information specific to the awarding of a grant is provided at 4284.1119. As noted previously, the lead applicant is responsible for the administration of the grant and will, if the application is selected for funding, be issued a letter of conditions by the Agency. The letter establishes conditions that the applicant must agree to prior to the obligation of funds. Acceptance of the conditions by the applicant does not constitute commitment or obligation of funds by the Agency. The applicant must not make any binding commitments until a financial assistance agreement has been fully executed and the applicant has been notified by the Agency of grant approval. The grant performance period for all grants award under this part is four years beginning on the date the financial assistance agreement was signed by the Agency. At the end of the four-year period any unspent grant funds are required to be returned to the Agency. If circumstances beyond the grantees control occur, the Agency may, at its sole discretion, approve a one-time grant performance period extension.
Any extension will be for a period not to exceed two years and must be requested by the grantee prior to the expiration of the grant performance period, as specified in the financial assistance agreement. Requests must describe the circumstances that prohibited the grantee from completing the project and show that an active jobs accelerator and related programming is established. Further discussion of times extensions can be found at 4284.1110g1.
Discussion of Public Comments for Final Rule On July 22, 2020, the Agency published a request for comments in the Federal Register 85 FR 44273 to allow stakeholders a platform and sufficient time to provide formal comments on provisions of the Rural Innovation Stronger Economy RISE Grant Program. Eleven entities provided written comments during the formal comment period. The Agency also conducted listening sessions for
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interested stakeholders on July 28, and July 30, 2020, regarding implementation of the Final Rule for the RISE program.
A listening session was also held on July 21, 2020, to receive comments from Agency staff. The Agency reviewed and considered all comments that were received. The following discusses substantive comments and the Agencys response:
Comment: Two commenters indicated that RISE should have a framework for an applicant providing components of the application, similar to the Department of Commerces Economic Development Administrations EDA
process for their programs, including a concept proposal to highlight their eligibility and scope of work.
Response: The Agency considered this application framework and included the concept paper proposal suggestion in the application process.
Comment: Two commenters provided suggestions for quantitative scoring including evaluation of market connections made, new regional programs and networks established.
These scoring criteria indicate that there should be not only qualitative but quantitative factors when evaluating RISE applications.
Response: The Agency used the comments to develop benchmarks of success in scoring criteria to make awards that will generate the intended program outcomes. The Agency considered this information and therefore included a requirement that project performance reports be provided twice a year, from the grantee, in order to monitor progress on the key metrics found in the scope of work.
Comment: A commenter suggested scoring metrics ranging from innovation, scope and monetary impact of the project to private/public partnerships involved in the project was provided. The commenter discussed including scoring consideration for projects in federal Opportunity Zones.
Response: The Agency considered various metrics from innovation to scope and monetary impact of the project as well as partnership analysis and included this in the scoring criteria.
The Agency may include federal initiatives as a criterion under the Administrator section of scoring, which may be announced in the Federal Register in the Notice of Solicitation of Applications on an annual basis.
Comment: A commenter suggested that the program provide more significant scoring and weighting for partnerships that evidence commitments to target low-income workers for workforce development activity. The commenter further
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