Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—Application for Broadband Grant Programs

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) requests emergency review and approval of the emergency collection to ensure that the agency can meet the statutory deadlines Congress set forth for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Broadband Grant Programs. Given the challenges that the grant application process can pose for disadvantaged communities, NTIA seeks to make this process more equitable for all of its potential applicants for the broadband grant programs enacted in the Infrastructure Act, including those with limited resources and/or technical expertise. In order to do so, NTIA created new forms for use in the application process which will provide structured questions and guidance concerning the kind of discrete and structured data required for successful applications. The new forms will create greater efficiencies in the NTIA grant program, which will likely result in enhanced timing and information accuracy beneficial to program applicants. NTIA believes that a significant number of these prospective applicants will be Tribal governments or other entities associated with disadvantaged communities. NTIA further believes that the new forms will offer these applicants greater opportunities for meaningful participation in the broadband programs than they would otherwise enjoy while lessening overall application review burdens