Boating Infrastructure Grant Program - Tier 2

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The Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-178) established the Boating Infrastructure Grants Program (BIG) (16 U.S.C. 777g-1) to provide funding to the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Commonwealths, and territories (we refer to these entities throughout this document as States) for the development and maintenance of facilities for transient nontrailerable recreational vessels. Nontrailerable recreational vessels are defined in the law as recreational vessels 26 feet in length or longer operated primarily for pleasure; or leased, rented, or chartered to another for the latter’s pleasure. Transient means passing through or by a place, staying ten days or less. The Act amended the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act (Wallop-Breaux Act; 16 U.S.C. 777). Subsequent reauthorizations of the Act to allow expenditures from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund have allowed for the continuation of BIG. We awarded more than $12 million in Tier 2 grants in FY 2010 to 10 States across the United States for 13 boating infrastructure projects. We anticipate awarding approximately $10 million in BIG Tier 2 funding in FY 2011. The Request for Applications for FY 2011 BIG Tier 1 is in a separate announcement on Grants.gov. You can locate it by doing an advanced search for funding opportunity FWS-BIG-11-T1. The final rule establishing the requirements for participation in BIG (50 CFR 86) was published in the Federal Register on January 18, 2001 (66 FR 5282).Additional information about the Boating Infrastructure Grant program is on the internet at http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/Subpages/GrantPrograms/BIG/BIG.htm.New in the FY 2011 Request for Applications:• Expanded examples of information to include in your application (see page 7)• 20 page narrative limit (see page 7)• Suggested arrangement of forms and documents in your application package (see page 8)• Clarification of the rules regarding dredging, including a cap of 10% of total BIG project costs, including match, per application (see pages 9-10)• New ranking criteria clarifications (see pages 12-14, 18-20).

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