(a) Application. To obtain DHS funding for an award or amendment of a Preparedness Cooperative Agreement, the Sponsoring Agency must submit an application. Standard form SF-424 “Application for Federal Assistance” generally will be used. However, the application must be in a form that the Assistance Officer specifies.

(b) Award. DHS will award a Preparedness Cooperative Agreement to each Sponsoring Agency to provide Federal funding to develop and maintain System resource capabilities and operational readiness. For the purposes of the Preparedness Cooperative Agreement, the Sponsoring Agency will be considered the “recipient.”

(c) Amendment—

(1) Procedure. Absent special circumstances, DHS will fund and amend Preparedness Cooperative Agreements on an annual basis. Before amendment, the Assistance Officer will issue a call for Cooperative Agreement amendment applications. The Assistance Officer will specify required application forms and supporting documentation to be submitted with the application.

(2) Period of performance. Absent special circumstances, the period of performance for Preparedness Cooperative Agreements will be 1 year from the date of award. The Assistance Officer may allow for an alternate period of performance with the approval of the Assistant Administrator.

(3) Assistance Officer. The Assistance Officer is the only individual authorized to award or modify a Preparedness Cooperative Agreement.

(d) Award amounts. The Assistant Administrator will determine award amounts on an annual basis. A Task Force is eligible for an annual award only if the Program Manager receives and approves the Task Force's current-year Daily Cost Estimate.

(e) DHS priorities. The Assistant Administrator will establish overall priorities for the use of Preparedness Cooperative Agreement funds taking into consideration the results of readiness evaluations and actual Activations, overall priorities of DHS, and other factors, as appropriate.

(f) Cost sharing. The Assistant Administrator may subject Preparedness Cooperative Agreement awards to cost sharing provisions. In the call for Preparedness Cooperative Agreement amendment applications, the Assistance Officer must inform Sponsoring Agencies about any cost sharing obligations.

(g) Sponsoring Agency priorities. The Sponsoring Agency should indicate its spending priorities in the application. The Program Manager will review these priorities and will make recommendations to the Assistance Officer for negotiating the final agreement.

(h) Responsibility to maintain integrity of the equipment cache. The Sponsoring Agency is responsible to maintain the integrity of the equipment cache, including but not limited to, maintenance of the cache, replacement of equipment or supplies expended in training, activations, or local use of the cache, and timely availability of the cache for Task Force Activations.