7 C.F.R. § 1775.12 – Grant processing.

(a) Single State applications.
1. (1) Grant applications submitted at the State level will receive a letter acknowledging receipt and confirmation that all information required for a full application was included in the packet. The State will notify the applicant of missing information. The applicant will have 14 business days to respond.
2. (2) The State Office will review applications for eligibility. Those applicants that are deemed ineligible will be notified. Applicants deemed eligible will be forwarded to the National Office for funding consideration.
3. (3) The National Office will review all applications received from State Offices. Applications will compete on a priority basis and will be scored and ranked. The applications receiving the highest scores and subject to the availability of funds will be selected for final processing. The National Office will send these applications back to the State Office for processing. The State Office will notify the applicant(s) that they have been selected for funding.
4. (4) Applicants not selected for funding due to low priority rating shall be notified by the State Office.
(b) National and multi-State applications.
1. (1) National and multi-State applications submitted to the National Office will receive a letter acknowledging receipt and confirmation that all information required for a full application was included in the packet. The National Office shall notify the applicant of missing information. The applicant will have 14 business days to respond.
2. (2) The National Office will review applications for eligibility. Those applications that are deemed ineligible will be notified. Applications deemed eligible will be reviewed and given a rating score. Applications receiving the highest scores will be grouped with those received from State Offices for funding consideration.
3. (3) The National Office will review all applications received. Applications will compete on a priority basis and will be scored and ranked. The applications receiving the highest scores and subject to the availability of funds will be notified by the National Office that they have been selected for funding. The National Office shall conduct final processing of multi-State and national applications.
4. (4) Multi-State and National applicants not selected for funding due to low priority rating will be notified by the National Office.
(c) Low priority applications. Applications that cannot be funded in the fiscal year received will not be retained for consideration in the following fiscal year and will be handled as outlined in paragraph (a)(4) or (b)(4) of this section.