Treasury will develop an application process for grants available to the Gulf Coast States under this subpart that is consistent with the Act and Federal law and policies on grants. At a minimum, the process will include the following:
(a) Each Gulf Coast State must describe the competitive process that the state will use to select one or more Centers of Excellence. The competitive process must allow nongovernmental entities and consortia in the Gulf Coast Region, including public and private institutions of higher education, to compete. The process must give priority to entities and consortia that demonstrate the ability to establish the broadest cross-section of participants in the grant with interest and expertise in science, technology, and monitoring in the discipline(s) on which the proposal is focused. The process must also guard against conflicts of interest.
(b) Each Gulf Coast State must describe rules and policies for the grants it will issue to subrecipients to ensure compliance with the Act and Federal law and policies for grants. Each Gulf Coast State must demonstrate in its application that its rules and policies, including the competitive selection process, were published and available for public review and comment for a minimum of 45 days, and that they were adopted after consideration of meaningful input from the public, including broad-based participation from individuals, businesses, Indian tribes, and non-profit organizations. This requirement does not apply to state statutes and regulations that may apply to grants made by the state under this subpart.
(c) Each application must state the amount of funding requested and the purposes for which the funds will be used.