FY24 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Headquarters (HQ) Threatened and Endangered Species Program | L24AS00139

Opportunity Information: Apply for L24AS00139

The FY24 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Headquarters (HQ) Threatened and Endangered Species Program (Funding Opportunity Number L24AS00139; CFDA 15.246) is a discretionary federal funding opportunity administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. The program supports work in the natural resources arena, with a clear focus on threatened and endangered species-related efforts that align with BLM priorities under FY24 funding associated with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Awards are made as cooperative agreements, which generally means BLM expects to have substantial involvement in the project during performance (for example, coordination on methods, deliverables, or implementation).

Eligibility is limited to public and nonprofit entities and certain education and tribal organizations. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; and nonprofits both with and without 501(c)(3) status. Individuals and for-profit organizations are explicitly ineligible under this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), so proposals must come from one of the eligible organization types listed above.

A key restriction in this NOFO is that it does not support hiring interns or crews under the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993. The notice emphasizes that the Public Lands Corps Act is the only legislative authority that allows BLM to "hire" interns under that framework, and as a result, any Youth Conservation Corps or similar youth/intern crew proposals must be submitted under a different funding opportunity: NOFO 15.243, titled BLM Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands. In practical terms, applicants should avoid structuring their budgets or workplans around PLC-style intern or crew hiring under this particular opportunity and should route youth-crew concepts to the designated youth conservation NOFO instead.

The opportunity also highlights the role of Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs). CESUs are partnerships intended to promote and provide research, studies, assessments, monitoring, technical assistance, and educational services. If the applicant is a CESU partner and the cooperative agreement is awarded under a formally negotiated Master CESU agreement that aligns with CESU purposes, then indirect costs are capped: the indirect cost rate may be no more than 17.5 percent of the indirect cost base recognized in the partner's federally approved Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate Agreement (NICRA). Applicants are instructed to state whether their proposal advances the CESU program purpose and, if it does, to identify which CESU Network should serve as the host. This matters for both administrative handling and for understanding how the indirect cost limitation may apply.

From a funding standpoint, the opportunity lists an award ceiling of $250,000. The posting shows the original closing date as January 19, 2024, and it was created on November 6, 2023. While the summary information provided does not specify the exact number of expected awards, the ceiling indicates the maximum size per award under this NOFO and suggests projects should be scoped to fit within that limit. Overall, the NOFO is aimed at partnering with eligible governmental, educational, tribal, and nonprofit organizations to carry out threatened and endangered species work on or connected to BLM-managed lands, using a cooperative agreement structure and observing the specific restrictions around youth/intern hiring pathways and CESU indirect cost treatment.

• The Bureau of Land Management in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY24 IIJA/IRA Bureau of Land Management Headquarters (HQ) Threatened and Endangered Species Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.246.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-11-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-01-19. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for L24AS00139

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