[VPAAEtal] Stimulus Money Remains

[Academic Affairs]

Stimulus Money Remains


There are indications that a substantial portion of American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds remain unexpended. The suggestion that
money is still available has come to light through speeches made by
agency representatives and through conversations with agency insiders.
The GRC staff has studied Recovery.gov, agency websites, and independent
reports to compile the following agency-by-agency updates. 

Consider these caveats when reviewing the data below: the funds
remaining may include some dollars allocated to current competitions for
which there have been no funding commitments; some of these unexpended
amounts may be channeled through the states for distribution, and this
will require further inquiries at the state level; and the accuracy of
any report like this is dependent on the timeliness and validity of
agency reporting.

In any event, the current status of unexpended funds indicates that
opportunities for support remain in the total ARRA allocation. This
report is an attempt to give you an advantage in your grants and
contract development efforts between now and October 1, 2010, the date
by which all federal ARRA obligations must be made.

Corporation for National and Community Service (CNS) has $168 million
remaining, which is approximately 84 percent of its $200 million
allocation. In FY 09, only current grantees of AmeriCorps state and
national programs were awarded funding.   

Additional ARRA funding opportunities, particularly for Learn and Serve
America and CNS special initiatives such as challenge grants and
faith-based grants, are expected to be available in FY 10.  Also in FY
10, CNS may begin allocating $40 million from its National Service Trust
to education awards for AmeriCorps volunteers upon the completion of
their service requirement.  

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has $682 million
remaining, or 68 percent of its $1 billion ARRA allocation. Most of
NASA's recovery money will fund in-house research and facilities
renovations. Funding will be available in FY 10 for institutions to
submit proposals for NASA's Earth Science and Astronomy and Astrophysics
Research Programs.

National Endowment of the Arts has awarded its entire $50 million ARRA
allocation, with 60 percent supporting competitive awards to nonprofit
arts and related organizations and 40 percent provided to state and
regional arts organizations for awarding sub-grants. 

National Institutes of Health has spent 45 percent, or $4.73 billion, of
its $10.4 billion ARRA allocation. Approximately $4.35 billion has
supported 12,788 grants, and $379 million has supported contracts. In FY
09, nearly 60 percent of ARRA funds supported new projects and nearly 40
percent supplemented existing projects. Over the summers of 2009 and
2010, approximately 5,000 students and science educators will gain
hands-on experience in top research laboratories. 

National Science Foundation (NSF) has $2.43 billion remaining, which is
81 percent of its $3 billion ARRA allocation. As of the first of this
year, the agency had made 2,000 ARRA awards.
 
The total ARRA allocation provided $400 million for Major Research
Equipment and Facilities Construction to support three non-competitive
projects. It also supported three new competitions (now closed) totaling
$515 million: Academic Research Infrastructure-Recovery and
Reinvestment; Major Research Instrumentation-Recovery and Reinvestment;
and the Science Master's Program. Another $85 million was reserved to
make additional awards under regular competitions of the Noyce Teacher
Scholarship and Math Science Partnership programs. These competitions
are also now closed. 
 
Most of the remaining $2 billion was earmarked to support meritorious
proposals submitted from October 2008 through September 2009, with a
particular emphasis on CAREER and Integrative Graduate Education and
Research Traineeship awards. In an August 2009 meeting with GRC, the
Office of Science and Technology Policy's Kei Koizumi expressed the view
that NSF would need to hold additional ARRA competitions in order to
identify a sufficient number of meritorious proposals. NSF has not yet
made any announcements to that effect.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has $10.5 billion remaining, which
is 38 percent of its $28 billon ARRA allocation. Most ARRA grants in FY
09 were awarded directly to state governments for initiatives to
eliminate hunger, such as the National School Lunch, Food Stamp, and
Women Infants and Children programs. ARRA grants were also awarded to
institutions last year to expand broadband access to rural areas. 

In FY 10, USDA's remaining funds will continue loan programs for farmers
and small business owners in rural areas through its Rural Development
Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program and 502 Direct Loan
Programs. ARRA funding will also assist in renovating USDA research
facilities. Institutions will be able to apply under the Water and Waste
Disposal program, the Rural Utilities Service Broadband Investment
Program, and other USDA programs that have been supplemented by recovery
funds, such as the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, which began
accepting proposals this month.

U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has $1.3 billion remaining, or 16
percent, of its $7.9 billion allocation remaining. In FY 10, DOC will
continue to provide grants that expand broadband access, construct
research facilities, provide economic development assistance to
struggling states, and help administer the 2010 census.  

The National Institute of Standards and Technology will use its
remaining recovery funds for additional awards for the Technology
Innovation Program, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and Small
Business Innovation Research Program.

The Economic Development Administration has disbursed most of its ARRA
funding for institutions, except for its Economic Adjustment Assistance
program, but is considering continuing other ARRA-created grant programs
with general operating funds.

U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has $3.9 billion remaining, which is 52
percent of its $7.4 billion ARRA allocation. In FY 09, the majority of
grant funding focused on U.S. service members and their families through
programs such as DoD's Homeowners Assistance Program.  DoD recovery
funds were also used as supplemental funding for long-standing grant
programs. 

In FY 10, DoD will accept proposals for energy-related grant programs
such as the Energy Conversation Investment Program and the Near-Term
Energy Efficient Technologies (NTEET) program using remaining recovery
dollars. 

U.S. Department of Education (ED) has $69 billion remaining, which is 69
percent of its $100 billion allocation. All of the money released in FY
09 went directly to the states through the State Fiscal Stabilization
Fund.

In early FY 10, ED held competitions to spend down the remaining ARRA
allocations. The first competitions in FY 10 included Statewide
Longitudinal Data Systems and Teacher Quality Partnerships, which, at a
combined $350 million, accounted for just a fraction of ED's ARRA
allocation. The recently-released Race to the Top Fund accounts for over
four percent of ED's ARRA allocation at $4.3 billion.  

Other competitions expected in FY 10 include the Enhancing Education
through Technology (Ed-Tech) State Program, Investing in Innovation, and
Teacher Incentive Fund. These programs combined will account for almost
two percent of ED's ARRA allocation. Funded at $650 million, Investing
in Innovation has been the only ARRA-supported program so far that
institutions of higher education can apply to directly. 

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has $23.6 billion remaining, which is 60
percent of its $40 billion allocation.  As in FY 09, funding will
continue to focus on transformative alternative fuel development
research that will reduce American dependency on foreign sources.
Funding will also focus on grants for professional development in STEM
fields such as the Office of Science Workforce Development for Teachers
and Scientists program.   

Launched with funding from the ARRA, DOE currently has open competitions
through the Advance Research Projects Agency- Energy (ARPA-E) and expect
to have additional calls for proposals this year.  The department will
also award $427 million through Recovery Act Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Block Grants.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has $58.23 billion
remaining, or 35 percent of its $167 billion ARRA allocation. An
overwhelming majority (75 percent) of the funds, a total of $43.31
billion, was allocated to states for Medicare and Medicaid.  States have
also received funds for the Child Care and Development Block Grant ($426
million out of an available $1.99 billion), foster care and adoption
assistance programs ($358.2 million out of an available $446.9 million),
and child support enforcement and family assistance support ($550.2
million out of an available $815.7 million). Community health centers
received nearly $1.9 billion to expand health care services for the
economically disadvantaged and medically vulnerable.  The Health
Resources and Services Administration's Bureau of Health Professions
spent the majority of its $500 million on previous years' awardees or
applicants, forgoing new competitions with a few exceptions, and the
Administration for Children and Families (ACF) spent $619 million for
Head Start and Early Start.
 
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
(ONC), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Health
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) still have funds to
distribute through both recently announced and upcoming grant
competitions for which colleges and universities will be eligible. AHRQ
and HRSA are likely to announce more opportunities for comparative
effectiveness and healthcare research, training, and service delivery,
while the ONC has just closed several health information technology
related competitions.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has $1.4 billion remaining,
or 50 percent of its $2.8 billion ARRA allocation. As it did in FY 09,
DHS funding in FY 10 will continue to support grants to state and local
governments to strengthen border, port, air, and rail security, as well
as local emergency preparedness.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has $11 billion
remaining, which is approximately 85 percent of its $13 billion
allocation.  The bulk of HUD's ARRA funds will be allocated to states
and pre-determined community entities, including $4 billion for the
Public Housing Capital Fund. The Neighborhood Stabilization Fund ($2
billion) and Community Development Block Grants ($1 billion), for which
colleges and universities can partner with community entities, are two
of HUD's largest ARRA programs and most likely will continue to receive
the majority of HUD's ARRA funds in FY 10. 

U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has $1.2 billion remaining, or 40
percent of its $3 billion ARRA allocation. In FY 10, ARRA grant programs
will focus on job creation, national park renovation and construction,
and loan programs for Indian tribes. DOI will also use recovery funding
to help universities replace earthquake-monitoring equipment through its
Seismic Upgrades Program. ARRA will continue to fund environmental
internships that allow students and faculty to gain hands-on experience
at DOI offices.

U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has $3 billion remaining, which is
approximately 75 percent of its $4 billion allocation. In FY 09, over
half of DOJ's portion of the ARRA was slated for the Office of Justice
Programs for various programs funded directly to state and local
jurisdictions. Although all of DOJ's ARRA programs were competed
throughout FY 09, the agency is still in the process of allocating
funds. No new ARRA-related competitions are expected in FY 10. 

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has $33 billion remaining, which
is 69 percent of its $48.1 billion ARRA allocation. Similar to last
year, FY 10 grants will continue to be awarded to state governments for
infrastructure improvement projects.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has $7 billion remaining,
which is 96 percent of its $7.22 billion ARRA allocation.  In FY 10, the
majority of EPA's recovery funding will provide infrastructure
assistance to local governments and Indian tribes. It is unclear if
institutions will be able to submit proposals for the Recovery Act
Superfund and Recovery Act Brownfield's grant programs or if EPA will
provide funding through general operating funds.  Also, the Brownfields
Job Training Grant Program could request proposals for new awards as
early as this spring.

U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has $60 billion remaining, which is 60
percent of its $100 billion allocation. The majority of the funds have
been for job creation, training, and green/energy initiatives.  In FY
09, DOL held competitions for several ARRA programs, including Health
Care Sector and Other High Growth and Emerging Industries ($220
million), Pathways out of Poverty ($150 million), and Energy Training
Partnership Grants ($100 million).  Although all of DOL's ARRA programs
were competed throughout FY 09, the agency is still in the process of
allocating funds. No new ARRA-related competitions are expected in FY
10. 

U.S. Department of State received almost $300 million in ARRA dollars,
but the funds are reserved for the enhancement of department-wide
facilities.

 

 

Natalie Henderson
Sponsored Programs Coordinator
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Graduate Studies & Research
P O Box 3011
Commerce, TX 75429-3011
Phone: 903/886-5161
Fax: 903/468-8784

 

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