Department of Housing and Urban Development March 19, 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice provides prospective applicants for HUD competitive funding with the opportunity to become familiar with the General Section of HUD's FY2008 NOFAs, in advance of publication of any FY2008 NOFAs. HUD plans to publish its annual SuperNOFA in spring 2008. Early publication of the General Section is one of several steps instituted to improve the funding process for the grantee community. Early publication of the General Section gives prospective applicants additional time to become familiar with and address provisions in the General Section, which constitute part of almost every individual program application. HUD will publish as a technical correction any changes to this General Section made after today's publication. HUD will continue to require that applicants submit their applications electronically via Grants.gov. In FY2008, HUD will be using Adobe Forms applications packages, available on Grants.gov. The Adobe Forms packages are compatible with the Windows Vista operating system, Apple Macintosh computers, and Microsoft Office 2007. Please carefully read the instructions in this notice regarding use of Adobe forms. To submit an application via Grants.gov, new users will be required to complete a five-step registration process, which can take 2 to 4 weeks to complete. The process includes ensuring that information provided by your organization to Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) matches information previously provided by your organization and contained in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records. If there is a discrepancy in the information, the registration cannot be completed until discrepancy issues are resolved. Applicants that have previously completed the registration process merely have to renew their registration in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). The renewal process confirms that the registration information is still accurate and allows organizations to make any appropriate changes. During the update process, the CCR will check the D&B information against the IRS records for your organization. If there are discrepancies, the update cannot be completed until the discrepancies are resolved. Please allow adequate time to resolve any registration issues. Failure to update the registration in the CCR before the CCR registration expires will result in an applicant having to complete the five steps of the renewal process. If an applicant changes the eBusiness Point of Contact in the CCR registration, it should make sure the new eBusiness Point of Contact has also granted permission to the person submitting the application to be the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR). To submit an application to HUD, the AOR must be able to make a legally binding agreement for the organizational entity. Please see detailed registration instructions in section IV.B. of this notice. HUD recommends that all prospective applicants take the time to carefully read the Notice entitled ``Notice of Opportunity to Register Early and other Important Information for Electronic Application Submission via Grants.gov,'' published on March 10, 2008 (73 FR 12751). This notice is also available on HUD's Web site at: https://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/ grants/fundsavail.cfm and on Grants.gov/Find. HUD's Early Registration Notice provides step-by-step instructions for applicants who must register with Grants.gov and also provides renewal instructions for those who have previously registered. Prospective applicants should register prior to the Federal Register publication of the Program Sections of the FY2008 SuperNOFA. Please note that HUD is transitioning the Continuum of Care application from a paper process to an electronic process in FY2008. Because the electronic application is not yet available, details of the registration process, application, application submission date, and timely receipt requirements will be articulated in two publications to be issued separate from the SuperNOFA. The first notice is expected to be issued in spring 2008. The expected publication date of the Notice of Funding Availability will be no earlier than July 1, 2008. Notification of the availability of registration instructions, the application, and other information will be released via the Grants.gov website. To be placed on the Grants.gov notification service for notices about the Continuum of Care electronic application process, go to: https://www.grants.gov/search/subscribeAdvanced.do. To join the HUD homeless assistance program listserv go to: https://www.hud.gov/ subscribe/ signup.cfm?listname=Homeless%20Assistance%20Program&list=HOME LESS-ASST- L.

In accordance with section 102(a)(4)(C) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989, this announcement notifies the public of funding decisions made by the Department in a competition for funding under the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Rural Housing and Economic Development Program. This announcement contains the names of the awardees and the amounts of the awards made available by HUD.