§1539 Financial Assistance

Summary

The Secretary of Commerce must make rules within 12 months after October 29, 1992, and must allow public notice and comment, so that a finished application for a grant, contract, or other financial help under a nondiscretionary program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is approved or denied within 75 days after it is sent to the NOAA program office. Within 14 days of receiving an application, the Secretary must tell the applicant in writing if it is complete and, if not, what more is needed. The Secretary may give money directly, without competition, to a recipient when a law names a State or an interstate fishery commission as the recipient or when those have customarily been the recipients. A “nondiscretionary assistance program” means a program where Congress sets the funding amount and recipient, or where recipients have usually been a State or an interstate fishery commission.