[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 233 (Monday, December 6, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68082-68086]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-31505]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Institute of Standards and Technology
[Docket No. 991109300-9300-01]
RIN 0693-ZA35


Announcement of Availability of Funds for a Competition--Advanced 
Technology Program (ATP)

AGENCY: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Technology 
Administration, Commerce.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Technology Administration's National Institute of 
Standards and Technology (NIST) announces that it will hold a single 
fiscal year 2000 Advanced Technology Program (ATP) competition. This 
single competition will continue ATP's practice of being open to all 
technology areas, while also capturing the advantage and momentum of 
focused program planning. Through this single competition strategy, ATP 
encourages proposals from the many technical teams that have identified 
synergy between industry needs and ATP funding opportunities, 
accelerating the pursuit of critical elements of research which were 
identified in focused program plans. All fiscal year 2000 proposals 
received will be distributed to technology-specific source evaluation 
boards in areas such as advanced materials, biotechnology, electronics, 
information technology, etc. This notice provides general information 
regarding ATP competitions.

DATES: The proposal due date and other competition-specific 
instructions will be published in the Commerce Business Daily (CBD) at 
the time the competition is announced. Dates, times, and locations of 
Proposers' Conferences held for interested parties considering applying 
for funding will also be announced in the CBD.

ADDRESSES: Information on the ATP may be obtained from the following 
address: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Advanced 
Technology Program, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 4701, Administration 
Building 101, Room A407, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-4701.
    Additionally, information on the ATP is available on the Internet 
through the World Wide Web (WWW) at http://www.atp.nist.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Requests for ATP information, application materials, and/or to have 
your name added to the ATP mailing list for future mailings may also be 
made by:
    (a) Calling the ATP toll-free ``hotline'' number at 1-800-ATP-FUND 
or 1-800-287-3863. You will have the option of hearing recorded 
messages regarding the status of the ATP or speaking to one of our 
customer representatives who will take your name and address. If you 
reach ATP voice mail, please speak distinctly and slowly and spell the 
words that might cause confusion. Leave your phone number as well as 
your name and address;
    (b) Sending a facsimile (fax) to 301-926-9524 or 301-590-3053; or
    (c) Sending electronic mail to [email protected]. Include your name, 
full mailing address, and phone number.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The ATP statute originated in the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness 
Act of 1988 (Pub. L. 100-418, 15 U.S.C. 278n) but was amended by the 
American Technology Preeminence Act of 1991 (Pub. L. 102-245). This law 
has been codified at 15 U.S.C. Sec. 278n. The ATP implementing 
regulations are published at 15 CFR Part 295, as amended. The Catalog 
of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number and program title for the 
ATP are 11.612, Advanced Technology Program (ATP).
    The ATP is a rigorously competitive cost-sharing program designed 
for the Federal government to work in partnership and industry to 
foster the development and board dissemination of challenging, high-
risk technologies that offer the potential for significant, broad-based 
economic benefits for the nation. Such a unique government-industry 
research partnership fosters the acceleration not only of dramatic 
gains in existing industries, but also acceleration of the development 
of emerging or enabling technologies leading to revolutionary new 
products, industrial processes and services for the world's markets and 
work to spawn industries of the 21st century. The ATP provides multi-
year funding to single companies and to industry-led joint ventures. 
The ATP accelerates technologies that, because they are risky, are 
unlikely to be developed in time to compete in rapidly changing world 
markets without such a partnership between industry and the Federal 
government. The ATP challenges industry to take on higher risk (but 
commensurately higher potential payoff to the nation) projects than 
they would otherwise. Proposers must provide credible arguments as to 
the project feasibility.
    The funding instrument used in ATP awards is a ``cooperative 
agreement.'' Through the use of the cooperative agreement, the ATP is 
designed to foster a government-industry partnership to accomplish a 
public purpose of support or stimulation. NIST plays a substantial role 
by providing technical assistance and monitoring the technical work, 
business progress, and expenditure of Federal funds.

Funding Availability

    An estimated $50.7 million in first year funding will be available 
for new awards for a single fiscal year 2000 ATP competition to be 
announced in the CBD. The actual number of proposals funded under this 
competition will depend on the quality of the proposals received and 
the amount of funding requested in the highest ranked proposals. 
Outyear funding beyond the first year is contingent on the approval of 
future Congressional appropriations and satisfactory project 
performance.

Eligibility Requirements, Selection Criteria, and Proposal Review 
Process

    The eligibility requirements, selection criteria, and the proposal 
review process are discussed in detail in the ATP implementing 
regulations published at 15 CFR part 295, as amended, and the ATP 
Proposal Preparation Kit dated November 1999.

Funding Amounts, Award Period and Cost Sharing (Matching) 
Requirements

    (a) Single company recipients can receive up to $2 million in total 
for R&D activities for up to 3 years. ATP funds

[[Page 68083]]

may only be used to pay for direct costs for single company recipients. 
Single company recipients are responsible for funding all their 
overhead/indirect costs. Small and medium size companies applying as 
single company proposers are not required to provide cost-sharing of 
direct costs, however, they may pay a portion of the direct costs in 
addition to all indirect costs if they wish. Large companies applying 
as single company proposers, however, must cost-share at least 60 
percent of the yearly total costs (direct plus indirect costs). A large 
company is defined as any business, including any parent company plus 
related subsidiaries, having annual revenues in excess of $2.896 
billion. (Note that this number will likely change for future 
competitions and, if so, will be noted in future annual announcements 
of availability of funds and ATP Proposal Preparation Kits.)
    (b) Joint ventures (as defined in 15 CFR 295.2(i)) can receive 
funds for R&D activities for up to 5 years with no funding limitation 
other than the announced availability of funds. However, ATP funding 
must be for a minority share of the yearly total project costs. Joint 
ventures must cost-share (matching funds) more than 50 percent of the 
yearly total project costs (direct plus indirect costs). The term 
matching funds (cost-sharing) is defined in 15 CFR Part 295.2(1).
    (c) Funds derived from Federal sources may not be used to meet the 
cost-share requirement. Additionally, subcontractors may not contribute 
towards the cost-share requirement.

Application Forms and Proposal Preparation Kit

    A new November 1999 version of the ATP Proposal Preparation Kit is 
available upon request from the ATP at the address and phone numbers 
noted in this notice. The Kit is also available on the Internet through 
the World Wide Web under the heading Publications on the ATP home page 
http://www.atp.nist.gov. Note that the ATP is mailing the Kit to all 
those individuals whose names are currently on the ATP mailing list. 
Those individuals need not contact the ATP to request a copy. The Kit 
contains proposal cover sheets, other required forms, background 
material, and instructions for preparing ATP pre-proposals and full 
proposals. All proposals must be prepared in accordance with the 
instructions in the Kit.

Submission of Revised Proposals

    A proposer may submit a full proposal that is a revised version of 
a full proposal submitted to a previous ATP competition. NIST will 
examine such proposals to determine whether substantial revisions have 
been made. Where the revisions are determined not to be substantial, 
NIST reserves the right to score and rank, or where appropriate, to 
reject, such proposals based on reviews of the previously submitted 
proposal.

Other Requirements

    (a) If a proposer's proposal is judged to be of high enough quality 
to be invited in for an oral review, ATP reserves the right to submit a 
list of questions to the proposer that must be addressed prior to the 
oral review.
    (b) There are certain types of projects that ATP will not fund 
because they are inconsistent with the ATP mission. These include:
    (1) Straightforward improvements of existing products or product 
development.
    (2) Projects that are predominately basic research.
    (3) Pre-commercial scale demonstration projects where the emphasis 
is on demonstration that some technology works on a large scale or is 
economically sound rather than on R&D.
    (4) Projects involving military weapons R&D or R&D that is of 
interest only to some mission agency rather than to the commercial 
marketplace.
    (5) Projects that ATP believes would likely be completed without 
ATP funds in the same time frame or nearly the same time frame.
    (c) Certain costs that may be allow in Federal financial assistance 
programs are not eligible for funding under ATP awards. Section G of 
the Proposal Preparation Kit lists these costs.
    (d) For joint ventures, no costs shall be incurred under an ATP 
project by the joint venture members until such time as a joint venture 
agreement has been executed by all of the joint venture members and 
approved by NIST. NIST will withhold approval until it determines that 
a sufficient number of members have signed the joint venture agreement. 
Costs will only be allowed after the execution of the joint venture 
agreement and approval by NIST.
    (e) Research under an ATP project involving vertebrate animals must 
be in compliance with the National Research Council's ``Guide for the 
Care and Use of Laboratory Animals'' which can be obtained from 
National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 
20055. Information on this can also be found at http://www.nap.edu. The 
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) associated with the 
proposing organization(s) must approve an Animal Study Proposal (ASP) 
detailing all research involving vertebrate animals before NIST Grants 
Officer review and release of funds. In addition to the ASP, the 
proposer must supply copies of all appropriate assurances or 
institutional certifications (with expiration dates) applicable to the 
types of animals involved. The assurances or institutional 
certifications should include at a minimum the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA) Animal Welfare Act registration certificate, or, if 
you are proposing to use animals not covered under the Animal Welfare 
Act (rodents, birds, and/or fish), the Association for Assessment and 
Accreditation of Laboratory Animals Care International (AAALAC) 
accreditation. Alternatively, a copy of an Animal Welfare Assurance 
issued by the Office of Protection from Research Risk (OPRR), National 
Institutes of Health (NIH) can be provided. If there is no existing 
IACUC to review and approve research tasks involving use of vertebrate 
animals in the first year of the project, the proposer is advised that 
it is unlikely that an award can be issued. This is due to the fact 
that the process to establish institutional certification can take 6 
months or more; therefore, near completion of institutional 
certification when the proposal is submitted is strongly advised. The 
prohibition on the federal conduct and funding of human cloning does 
not apply to animal cloning.
    (f) Research under an ATP project involving human subjects or human 
tissue must be in compliance with Department of Commerce regulations 
entitled ``Protection of Human Subjects,'' 15 CFR Part 27, which 
require that recipients whose research involves human subjects maintain 
appropriate policies and procedures for the protection of human 
subjects. Research involving human subjects may include activities such 
as the use of image and audio recordings of people, taking surveys or 
using survey data from children, using databases containing personal 
information, and other activities, as well as the more typical 
biomedical research activities, including research involving tissue and 
cells/cell lines from human sources.
    Currently, ATP does not approve human subjects research that takes 
place in a foreign country as part of an ATP project. In addition, ATP 
typically does not accept foreign sources of human tissue, cells or 
data, even if the tissue, cells or data may qualify for an exemption 
under the rule. However, ATP will consider foreign sources of

[[Page 68084]]

tissue, cells and data on a limited basis if the source if 
scientifically recognized as unique, an equivalent source is 
unavailable within the US, an alternative approach is not 
scientifically of equivalent merit, and the specific use qualifies for 
an exemption under the rule.
    Additional Presidential policies, statutes, regulations, and 
guidelines have been issued concerning types of research activities 
involving human subjects. NIST may not be directly named in these 
statutes and regulations; however, to assure that research funded by 
NIST involving human subjects is consistent with national policy, NIST 
hereby declares that it will fully adhere to these requirements. 
Therefore, research projects involving the protected classes of human 
subjects must adhere to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 
regulations found at 45 CFR Part 46, Subparts B, C, and D (http://
www.nih.gov:80/grants/oprr/humansubjects/45cfr46.htm). Protected 
classes include pregnant women, human in vitro fertilization, fetuses 
(all in Subpart B), prisoners (Subpart C), and children (Subpart D). If 
data, images or specimens are from or involve a protected class, the 
research must adhere to these requirements. Some examples of research 
involving protected classes include: medical test data from children, 
software usability test results involving prisoners, surveys with 
pregnant women as subjects, tissue and cell donations from fetal 
sources.
    NIST applies 45 CFR 46, Subpart B to all types of gestational 
tissue, regardless of the source. Thus any project involving human 
gestational tissue (including yolk sacs, non-full-term placentae, 
tissue or cell lines derived from a non-viable fetus or fetal tissues/
cells acquired through a third party) regardless of the source must 
meet the requirements in 45 CFR 46, Subpart B. Research projects 
involving the transplantation of fetal tissue into human subjects must 
adhere to Section 111 of the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. 
Section 289g-1 (http://www.nih.gov:80/grants/oprr/humansubjects/
publiclaw103-43.htm). In addition, Section 112 of the NIH 
Revitalization Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. Section 289g-2, contains a 
criminal statute prohibiting all purchases of fetal tissue for valuable 
consideration whether or not NIH or NIH funding is involved. Fetal 
research must adhere to Section 498(b) of the Public Health Service 
Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 289g. Embryo research must adhere to Section 513 
of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, 
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1998, Public Law 105-78, 111 
Stat. 1467 (http://www.nih.gov/grants/notice-files/not98-013.html). 
Research involving xenotransplantation into human subjects must adhere 
to the FDA guidelines published at 61 FR 49919 (September 23, 1996) 
(http://www.fda.gov/cber/gdlns/xeno.txt). All research projects will 
adhere to the Presidential Directive, 33 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 281 
(March 10, 1997) (http://www.nih.gov/grants/policy/
cloning__directive.htm), prohibiting the federal conduct and funding of 
research involving human cloning. This prohibition does not apply to 
the federal conduct and funding of research involving animal cloning. 
In addition, proposers are reminded that ATP only rarely supports 
research as part of Phase I clinical trials; to be funded, this type of 
research must be judged to be consistent with the ATP scientific and 
technological merit selection criterion. Pursuant to the above, any 
tasks in the proposal involving research with human subjects or human 
tissue, that are not exempt under 15 CFR Part 27.10(b), must be 
approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) and the NIST Grants 
Officer before funding will be released.
    Projects with human subjects research in the first year must supply 
either exemption documentation or IRB documentation for non-exempt 
research by the time of the oral review. The exemptions at 15 CFR 
27.101(b) do not apply to research involving prisoners, fetuses, 
pregnant women, or human in vitro fertilization, Subparts B and C. The 
exemption at 15 CFR 27.101(b)(2), for research involving survey or 
interview procedures or observation of public behavior, does not apply 
to children, Subpart D, except for research involving observations of 
public behavior where the investigator(s) do not participate in the 
activities being observed. Projects with human subjects in the outyears 
of the project must supply appropriate deferral documentation. Projects 
with protected classes subject to Subpart B in ANY year of the project 
MUST provide IRB review documentation by the time of the oral review. 
Unless documentation is provided for the limited exemption allowed for 
research under Subpart D, research projects involving protected classes 
of human subjects as defined in 45 CFR Part 46, Subparts B, C, and D 
must be reviewed and approved by an IRB that possesses a current 
assurance which has been approved by OPRR for federal-wide use, and 
appropriate for the research in question. No award involving protected 
classes as defined under 45 CFR Part 46, Subpart B, will be issued 
until the proposer has certified that an appropriate IRB has made the 
determinations required under Subpart B, and all other NIST approvals 
have been completed. This applies to involvement of protected classes 
under Subpart B in ANY year of the project, not just the first year. 
Therefore, IRB approval for any tasks involving protected classes of 
human subjects under Subpart B at any time during the proposed ATP 
award period must accompany the proposal, or be supplied at oral review 
if the proposal is selected as a semifinalist. Further descriptions of 
the required documentation are provided in the ATP Proposal Preparation 
Kit.
    (g) In any invention resulting from work performed under an ATP 
project in which an ATP recipient has acquired title, NIST has the 
right, in accordance with 15 CFR 295.8(a)(2) and any supplemental 
regulations of NIST, to require the recipient, an assignee, or an 
exclusive licensee of a subject invention to grant a nonexclusive, 
partially exclusive, or exclusive license in any field of use to a 
responsible applicant or applicants, upon terms that are reasonable 
under the circumstances. If the recipient, assignee, or exclusive 
licensee refuses such a request, NIST has the right to grant such a 
license itself if NIST determines that:
    (1) Such action is necessary because the recipient or assignee has 
not taken, or is not expected to take within a reasonable time, 
effective steps to achieve practical application of the subject 
invention in such field of use;
    (2) Such action is necessary to alleviate health or safety needs 
which are not reasonably satisfied by the recipient, assignee, or 
licensees;
    (3) Such action is necessary to meet requirements for public use 
specified by Federal regulations and such requirements are not 
reasonably satisfied by the recipient, assignee, or licensees; or
    (4) Such action is necessary because of the requirement that the 
recipient grant licenses to potential licensees that would be likely to 
manufacture substantially in the United States or that, under the 
circumstances, domestic manufacture is not commercially feasible, is 
not adhered to, or because a licensee of the exclusive right to use or 
sell any subject invention in the United States is in breach of the 
aforementioned requirement.
    The preceding information describes NIST's legal rights with 
regards to patents. However, potential proposers should not interpret 
these rights as indicating that NIST intends to manage an awardee's 
intellectual property.

[[Page 68085]]

Quite the contrary. First of all, these rights only apply to patents 
resulting from the ATP project itself, and not from work done before or 
after the ATP project, or other R&D performed by the company in the 
same time frame that is not part of the ATP-funded tasks. More 
importantly, the provisions above would ONLY be invoked under very 
unique circumstances. For example, if an ATP project developed a cure 
for cancer, but for some strange reason the company chose not to 
commercialize the technology, the ATP might, only after verifying that 
the company had no intention of using the technology, invoke provision 
2 and try to find another company willing to take a license and bring 
the new development to market. In the over 300 projects funded to date, 
NIST has never had to exercise the rights noted above.
    (h) Proposers shall provide sufficient funds in the project multi-
year budget for a project audit, including each joint venture 
participant. Subcontractors/subawardees, including universities, who 
receive total funding under an ATP project totaling more than $300,000 
each are also subject to the audit requirement. A subcontractor/
subawardee is defined as an organization which receives a portion of 
the financial assistance from the recipient/awardee and assists the ATP 
recipient/awardee in meeting the project goals but does not include 
procurement of goods and services. It is the responsibility of the 
recipient to ensure that audits are performed in a timely fashion. Most 
routine audits can be performed by the recipient's external CPA. 
However, the Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General (DoC/
OIG) and General Accounting Office (GAO) reserve the right to carry out 
audits as deemed necessary and appropriate. ATP recipients must be 
willing to submit to audits (e.g., audits of cost-accounting systems, 
direct-cost expenditures, indirect cost rates, or other periodic 
reviews) by the DoC/OIG or cognizant Federal agency Inspectors General 
or GAO. Periodic project audits shall be performed as follows:
    (1) For awards less than 24 months, an audit is required at the end 
of the project.
    (2) For 2-, 3-, or 4-year awards, an audit is required after the 
first year and at the end of the project.
    (3) For 5-year awards, an audit is required after the first year, 
third year, and at the end of the project.
    Budgeting for an audit shall be as follows:
    (1) Proposers should allocate funds in their proposal budgets under 
the ``Other'' direct cost category for the project audit. For joint 
ventures, this must be included in each participant's budget, as each 
participant is responsible for the performance of their own project 
audit.
    (2) If an organization's indirect cost pool includes audit costs, 
this is acceptable. In these cases, an explanation must be provided in 
the budget narrative and no audit costs reflected under ``Other'' 
costs.
    (3) If a cognizant Federal agency auditor is resident within the 
company, the cognizant Federal agency auditor may perform the audit. In 
these cases, an explanation must be provided in the budget narrative 
and no audit costs reflected under ``Other'' costs or ``Indirect 
Costs.''

Audits of all recipients shall be conducted in accordance with 
Government Auditing Standards (GAS), issued by the Comptroller General 
of the United States (the Yellow Book). If an ATP recipient is required 
to have an audit performed in accordance with OMB Circular A-133, 
Audits of States, Local Government, and Non-Profit Organizations, the 
annual Circular A-133 audit is deemed to meet the ATP audit 
requirement.
    If an ATP recipient does not have an annual Circular A-133 audit 
performed, the recipient should follow the following project audit 
requirements:
    (1) Audits for single company recipients shall be conducted using 
the NIST Program-Specific Audit Guidelines for Advanced Technology 
Program (ATP) Cooperative Agreements with Single Companies.
    (2) Audits for joint venture recipients shall be conducted using 
the NIST Program-Specific Audit Guidelines for Advanced Technology 
Program (ATP) Cooperative Agreements with Joint Ventures.
    (i) Indirect costs charged to ATP cooperative agreements or used as 
cost-sharing must be calculated in accordance with an approved indirect 
cost proposal. If a recipient has established an indirect cost rate 
with its cognizant Federal agency (the Federal agency providing the 
greatest dollars), the recipient must submit a copy of the negotiated 
agreement to the DoC/OIG for verification. If an indirect cost rate(s) 
has not been negotiated prior to receiving the award, then an indirect 
cost rate proposal must be submitted to the recipient's cognizant 
Federal agency within 90 days from the date of the award. Provisional 
rates provided by the joint venture participant in the indirect cost 
proposal may be used until approval is obtained or indirect cost rates 
are negotiated.
    (j) All ATP recipients must agree to adhere to the U.S. Export 
Administration laws and regulations and shall not export or re-export, 
directly or indirectly, any technical data created with Government 
funding under an award to any country for which the United States 
Government or any agency thereof, at the time of such export or re-
export requires an export license or other Governmental approval 
without first obtaining such licenses or approval and the written 
clearance of the NIST Grants Officer. The Bureau of Export 
Administration (BXA) shall conduct an annual review for any relevant 
information about a proposer and/or Recipient. NIST reserves the right 
to not issue any award or suspend or terminate an existing award in the 
event that significant adverse information about a proposer or 
Recipient is disclosed by BXA to the NIST Grants Officer.
    (k) Federal Policies and Procedures. Recipients and subrecipients 
are subject to all Federal laws and Federal and Department of Commerce 
policies, regulations, procedures applicable to Federal financial 
assistance awards as identified in the cooperative agreement award.
    (l) Past Performance. Unsatisfactory performance under prior 
Federal awards may result in a proposal not being considered for 
funding.
    (m) Pre-award Activities. Applicants (or their institutions) who 
incur any costs prior to an award being made do so solely at their own 
risk of not being reimbursed by the Government. Notwithstanding any 
verbal assurance that may have been provided, there is not obligation 
on the part of NIST to cover pre-award costs.
    (n) No Obligation for Future Funding. If a proposal is selected for 
funding, NIST has no obligation to provide any additional future 
funding in connection with that award. Renewal of an award to increase 
funding or extend the period of performance is at the total discretion 
of NIST.
    (o) Delinquent Federal Debts. No award of Federal funds shall be 
made to a proposer or recipient who has an outstanding delinquent 
Federal debt until either the delinquent account is paid in full, a 
negotiated repayment schedule is established and at least one payment 
is received, or other arrangements satisfactory to NIST are made.
    (p) Name Check Review. All for-profit and non-profit proposers are 
subject to a name check review process. Name checks are intended to 
reveal if any key individuals associated with the proposer have been 
convicted of or are

[[Page 68086]]

presently facing criminal charges such as fraud, theft, perjury, or 
other matters which significantly reflect on the proposer's management, 
honesty, or financial integrity.
    (q) Primary Applicant Certification. All primary proposers 
(including all joint venture participants) must submit a completed form 
CD-511, ``Certifications Regarding Debarment, Suspension, and Other 
Responsibility Matters; Drug-Free Workplace Requirements and 
Lobbying,'' and the following explanation is hereby provided:
    (1) Nonprocurement Debarment and Suspension. Prospective 
participants, as defined at 15 CFR part 26, section 105 are subject to 
15 CFR part 26, ``Nonprocurement Debarment and Suspension'' and the 
related section of the certification form prescribed above applies;
    (2) Drug-Free Workplace. Grantees (as defined at 15 CFR part 605) 
are subject to 15 CFR 26, subpart F, ``Governmentwide Requirements for 
Drug-Free Workplace (Grants)'' and the related section of the 
certification form prescribed above applies;
    (3) Anti-Lobbying. Persons (as defined at 15 CFR part 28, section 
105) are subject to the lobbying provisions of 31 USC 1352, 
``Limitations on use of appropriated funds to influence certain Federal 
contracting and financial transactions,'' and the lobbying section of 
the certification from prescribed above applies to applications/bids 
for grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts for more than 
$100,000, and loans and loan guarantees for more than $150,000, or the 
single family maximum mortgage limit for affected programs, whichever 
is greater; and
    (4) Anti-Lobbying Disclosures. Any proposer that has paid or will 
pay for lobbying using any funds must submit an SF-LLL, ``Disclosure of 
Lobbying Activities,'' as required under 15 CFR part 28, Appendix B.
    (r) Lower Tier Certification. Recipients shall require proposers/
bidders of subgrants, contracts, subcontracts, or other lower tier 
covered transactions at any tier under the award to submit, if 
applicable, a completed Form CD-512, ``Certifications Regarding 
Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion--Lower 
Tier Covered Transactions and Lobbying'' and Form SF-LLL, ``Disclosure 
of Lobbying Activities.'' Although the CD-512 is intended for the use 
of primary recipients and should not be transmitted to NIST, the SF-LLL 
submitted by any tier recipient or subrecipient should be forwarded in 
accordance with the instructions contained in the award document.
    (s) False Statements. A false statement on any application for 
funding under ATP may be grounds for denial or termination of funds and 
grounds for possible punishment by a fine or imprisonment as provided 
in 18 U.S.C. 1001.
    (t) Intergovernmental Review. The ATP does not involve the 
mandatory payment of any matching funds from state or local government 
and does not affect directly any state or local government. 
Accordingly, the Department of Commerce has determined that Executive 
Order 12372, ``Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs'' is not 
applicable to this program.
    (u) American-Made Equipment and Products. Proposers are hereby 
notified that they are encouraged, to the greatest extent practicable, 
to purchase American-made equipment and products with the funding 
provided under this program in accordance with Congressional intent.
    (v) Paperwork Reduction Act. This notice contains collection of 
information requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), 
which have been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB 
Control Nos. 0693-0009, 0348-0046, and 0925-0418). Notwithstanding any 
other provision of the law, no person is required to respond to, nor 
shall any person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with a 
collection of information, subject to the requirements of the PRA, 
unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB 
Control Number.
    (w) Executive Order Statement. This funding notice was determined 
to be ``not significant'' for purposes of Executive Order 12866.

    Dated: November 30, 1999.
Karen Brown,
Deputy Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology.
[FR Doc. 99-31505 Filed 12-1-99; 3:30 pm]
BILLING CODE 3510-13-M