fta-2012-002-tpm-fecm-synopsis-and-instructions.doc

FTA-2012-002-TPM-FECM

PROGRAM APPLICATION INSTRUCTION/OPPORTUNITY SYNOPSIS

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5307 – Urbanized Area Formula Program Request for Interest in the Fuel and Electric Propulsion as Capital Maintenance Provision Action: Solicitation of Interest for the Fuel and Electric Propulsion Costs as Capital Maintenance Provision

FTA will announce final allocations on the FTA website and to subscribers of Section 5307 program update emails at http://www.fta.dot.gov/grants/13093_3561.html. Applications must be submitted electronically through the GRANTS.GOV “APPLY” function.

Dates:

Statements of Interest for the Fuel and Electric Propulsion Costs as Capital Maintenance Provision must be submitted electronically through the Grants.Gov website by February 15, 2012.

FTA will announce how the program-wide $100,000,000 cap on this provision will be distributed to urbanized areas once the distribution has been determined. This information will be published on the FTA website and sent by email to those who have subscribed to updates on the Section 5307 program no later than March 31, 2012.

Award Information:

This announcement does not provide any additional funds to eligible recipients, however, this announcement will permit some recipients to use a portion of the funds already apportioned under Section 5307 to reimburse fuel and electrical propulsion costs at an 80% federal share. FTA grantees requesting use of this provision will be allocated a maximum amount for reimbursement of these activities, which will be permitted based on the amount requested, the grantee’s relative share of the FTA Section 5307 formula, and the total amount of requests received from all urbanized areas. It is anticipated that most designated recipients will only be permitted to use a smaller amount than requested, presuming that the total requests received by FTA exceeds $100,000,000. This authorization for reimbursement at an 80% federal share will apply to eligible costs incurred by recipients during the recipient’s current and next fiscal years as of November 18, 2011.

Funds distributed under this provision may have been apportioned during any available fiscal year, but may not have been obligated in an FTA grant prior to November 18, 2011. In addition, costs incurred prior to November 18, 2011 are not eligible for reimbursement under this provision. All funds distributed under this provision must be obligated in an FTA grant by September 30, 2012. Funds not obligated by this date will no longer be eligible for these activities, but will remain available for other eligible costs under recipient’s Section 5307 apportionment.

If all Section 5307 recipients respond to the announcement, each could expect to be authorized to use 2.2% of their annual formula apportionment amount for this purpose. Thus, each urbanized area is guaranteed to receive authorization to use at least 2.2% of their annual formula apportionment for this eligibility, so long as the designated recipient for the urbanized area submits an application requesting at least that amount. This amount may be higher if some urbanized areas do not apply, or if some urbanized areas request an amount less than 2.2% of the annual apportionment.

FTA will allocate amounts based on this provision to all eligible designated recipients that respond to this announcement. The total amount distributed will be $100,000,000. The distribution will be based on the same factors as apportionments under Section 5307.

Recipients will be permitted to sub-allocate the use of this provision to other FTA funding recipients within their urbanized area in accordance with locally established planning processes and federal planning requirements.

Eligible Applicants:

Designated Recipients of FTA Section 5307 Urbanized Area Formula Program funds are eligible to apply for authorization to use this provision on behalf of all FTA Section 5307 funding recipients within their Urbanized Area (UZA). For large urbanized areas with more than one designated recipient, FTA asks that a consolidated response be submitted by one of the designated recipients. For areas under 200,000, the State is the designated recipient and as such, is eligible to respond to the grants.gov posting.

A designated recipient that is selected to use this provision may distribute all or some of its funding cap to other FTA funding recipients within the UZA in accordance with the local metropolitan planning process. In cases where there are multiple designated recipients in a single UZA, the distribution will be based on the total amount requested for the UZA. In order to manage these requests, FTA requests that a single designated recipient submit a consolidated request for the UZA.

Instructions:

Interested designated recipients must submit the SF-424 form and an Applicant and Proposal Profile form through the Grants.gov “APPLY” function in order to be eligible for expenses under this provision. Applicants should receive two confirmation emails when their application has been properly submitted and received by FTA. The first will confirm that the application was received, and the second will indicate whether the application was validated or rejected by the system.

Applicants are instructed to initiate the process of registering on Grants.gov immediately to ensure completion of registration prior to the deadline for submission. Please note that the registration process can take a minimum of three to five business days, or as long as four weeks if all steps are not completed in a timely manner.

The instructions below specify how to respond to the fields on the mandatory supplemental form, which can be found on Grants.gov under this announcement.

ALL FIELDS ARE REQUIRED.

Organization Legal Name: The legal name of the designated recipient submitting the request.

TEAM Recipient ID: The applicant or primary funding recipient’s four-digit recipient ID in FTA’s TEAM Grants Management system.

Urbanized Area as listed in the FTA FY 2012 Notice of Apportionment: The name of the applicant’s urbanized area to which FTA apportioned Section 5307 funds in FTA’s FY 2012 Notice of Apportionment (Federal Register: 77 FR 1786, January 11, 2011)

Designated Recipient of FTA Section 5307 funding? Applicants must be a Designated Recipient for an urbanized area that has been apportioned FTA Section 5307 funds in FY 2012. Not all FTA grantees are Designated Recipients for their urbanized area. If you are unsure, please contact your local FTA regional office. A list of regional office contact information is available on the FTA website at http://www.fta.dot.gov.

Maximum Amount of Eligible Costs Requested: Please provide the total maximum amount of fuel and/or electrical propulsion costs that recipients within the urbanized area would like to charge as capital maintenance during the recipient’s current and next fiscal years. Eligible costs include the cost of fuel for vehicle operations and utility costs for the propulsion of electrically driven vehicles incurred after November 18, 2011, which is the date this provision was enacted.

Explanation of Proposed Costs [for information only]: Please provide any additional information required to explain the proposed costs. Please include a breakdown of fuel and electrical utility costs, a description of the type and number of vehicles supported by this provision, and the names and amounts for any sub-recipients or other direct recipients included in this request. This information will be used for program reporting.

Recipient Fiscal Years included in request (current plus next permitted): Applicants may include costs from the current and next fiscal years of the funding recipients.

Ability to obligate grant by 9/30/2012: All grants made using this provision must be obligated no later than September 30, 2012. Please indicate if the proposed amount can be obligated in a grant by this date.

If your Urbanized Area includes multiple designated recipients, please explain whether this is a consolidated response for multiple funding recipients: In order to manage the distribution of this provision among interested urbanized areas, FTA requests that recipients submit a single consolidated response for all FTA Section 5307 funding recipients within each urbanized area. The sub-allocation of the funding cap among FTA Section 5307 funding recipients will be determined locally, in accordance with established planning processes and federal planning requirements.

Submitting an Application in Grants.gov

In the following screenshots, the asterisk and arrow are your visual indicators of where to click based on the instructions above the screenshot.

On the Grants.gov home page, click the Find Grant Opportunities link on the left hand navigation menu

The Find Grants Opportunity screen is displayed. You can search for grant opportunities by clicking on the Basic Search link (arrow) or the Browse by Agency link (asterisk).

If doing a Basic Search enter a keyword(s), a Funding Opportunity number or a CFDA number then click Search. In this situation, we recommend using “FTA-2012” as the Search term

The Search Results page is displayed. All the available opportunities are displayed. Note: You may see more funding opportunities as they become available. Using other search terms may result in opportunity announcements that do not belong to FTA.

To view an opportunity synopsis, click on the name link from the Opportunity Title column shown above.

The “Synopsis” page displays details about the opportunity. To apply for this opportunity applicants are encouraged to first download and complete the Applicant and Proposal Profile form. To download the application package, click the Application link at the top right corner of the Synopsis page to download the Grants.gov mandatory form.

The Selected Grant Applications for Download screen is opened in a new window browser. In the table at the end of the page (shown below), click the download link located in the Instructions and Application column.

The Download Opportunity Instructions and Application screen is displayed. To download the SF424 application click link number 2. Download Application Package.

The Grants.gov Application package downloads an SF-424 which opens as a PDF file.

In the two blue boxes below the Application Filing Name, you must move the SF424 Mandatory Form from the Mandatory Documents to the Mandatory Documents for Submission. Simply highlight the form, then click the arrow under Move Form to Complete button.

FTA Fuel as a Capital Expense Statements of Interest opportunity applicants will be submitting two forms: the SF424 Mandatory form required by Grants.gov and attaching the FTA Applicant and Proposal Profile (a.k.a. supplemental form) that will be attached to the SF424 Mandatory form as shown below.

The attachment button and function is located on page 4 of the SF-424 Madatory Form.

If the supplemental form is not attached or a wrong form is attached your application may be rejected.

Please save all completed documents to a local drive before attempting to upload or submit the application in Grants.gov. If the “Save & Submit” button is not available, first save the completed SF 424 Mandatory form. Once saved, then you may attach the Applicant and Proposal Profile form.

Click the “Check Package for Errors” button to check for required fields that are still blank. The FTA Applicant and Proposal Profile has a similar validation button at the top.

Important tips about Supplemental Forms

· Only attach one supplemental form to the SF424. Submitting more than one supplemental form to an SF424 will only accept the first supplemental form in FTA’s evaluation system (Discretionary Grants System).

· Do not print and attach a scanned version of the supplemental form or your submission will come back as invalid. The Discretionary Grants System (DGS) tool is unable to read the data unless it is saved as a PDF file.

· When attaching files to the SF424 form, file names are allowed a maximum of 50 characters in Grants.gov. Special characters are not allowed.

· All fields on a supplemental form must be filled out, unless instructed otherwise. Leaving fields blank will mark your submission as invalid.

· Use the Validate Form button located at the top right hand corner of the supplemental form to make sure no required fields were left blank.