(a) The final decision to make an award is at the discretion of the Administrator. The Administrator shall make any selections of finalists for grant awards after consideration of the applications, the rankings, comments, and recommendations of the rating panel, and other pertinent information.

(b) Based on consideration of the application materials, ranking panel ratings, comments, and recommendations, and other pertinent information, the Administrator may elect to award less than the full amount of grant requested by an applicant. Applicants will be notified of an offer of a reduced or partial award. If an applicant does not accept the Administrator's offer of a reduced or partial award, the Administrator may reject the application and offer an award to the next highest ranking project.

(c) The projects selected by the Administrator will be funded in rank order to the extent of available funds.

(d) In the event an insufficient number of eligible applications are received in response to a FOA and selected for funding to exhaust the funds available, the Administrator reserves the discretion to reopen the application period and to accept additional applications for consideration under the terms of the FOA. Another FOA regarding the reopening of an application period will be announced on www.Grants.gov.

[70 FR 5351, Feb. 2, 2005, as amended at 83 FR 45033, Sept. 5, 2018]