F23AS00378 - FY 2023 - Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act - BIG Tier 2 | F23AS00378

Opportunity Information: Apply for F23AS00378

The funding opportunity F23AS00378 is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under CFDA (Assistance Listing) 15.622. It falls under the Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act of 1998, which created the Boating Infrastructure Grants (BIG) Program (16 U.S.C. 777g-1) using money from the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund. The program exists because recreational boating is widespread in the United States (about 11.8 million registered motorboats), and a significant subset of those boats (roughly 584,000) are 26 feet or longer and need reliable, safe places to stop while traveling. This particular notice is for BIG Tier 2 National grants, aimed at supporting larger-scale boating infrastructure investments.

At its core, the BIG program funds the construction, renovation, and maintenance of boating infrastructure that serves transient recreational vessels that are at least 26 feet long and used primarily for pleasure (including boats that are operated, leased, rented, or chartered for recreation). "Boating infrastructure" is interpreted broadly and can include the kinds of structures, equipment, accessories, and on-site services that make a facility workable and attractive for eligible visiting boaters. The term "transient" is specifically defined as vessels that are passing through or by a location and staying no more than 15 days, so the program is focused on short-term visiting boaters rather than long-term slips and permanent moorage.

Projects supported with BIG funds must provide public access, which is a key requirement, but the facilities themselves do not have to be publicly owned. In other words, a marina or harbor can be publicly or privately owned as long as the completed project benefits the public by accommodating eligible transient recreational vessels and meeting the access expectations tied to federal funding. The program is tied back to amendments and reauthorizations of the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 777), which is why the trust fund mechanism and the continuing authorization for this grant stream are emphasized in the notice.

Eligibility is narrow and is limited to state-level governmental applicants: the governor-designated state agencies in the 50 states, plus the designated agencies for the District of Columbia (mayor-designated), the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Individual marinas, local governments, nonprofits, and private entities generally cannot apply directly to this opportunity on their own; instead, they would typically need to work through their designated state agency if they want a project considered as part of a state application.

From the opportunity record provided, the grant instrument type is a grant, the activity category is Natural Resources, and the award ceiling is $1,500,000. The original closing date listed is 2022-09-22, and the notice record shows a creation date of 2022-06-15. The title references FY 2023, while the narrative text describes it as the NOFO for FY 2022 BIG Tier 2 National grants, which usually signals either a rollover/administrative labeling issue in the listing or that the posting includes language reused from the prior year notice. Applicants typically confirm the applicable fiscal year details and current deadlines directly with the agency contact or the relevant regional office.

For applicants who are unsure which entity in their jurisdiction is authorized to apply, the notice directs them to contact either the national contact listed in the NOFO or their Regional WSFR (Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration) Office. The listing includes regionally assigned contacts covering all states and territories (for example, separate contacts for Alaska; California and Nevada; and multi-state groupings across the Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast), which is intended to help eligible agencies confirm eligibility, interpret requirements like transient use and public access, and align proposed projects with program expectations before submitting an application.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "F23AS00378 - FY 2023 - Sportfishing and Boating Safety Act - BIG Tier 2" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.622.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-06-15.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-09-22. (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 $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for F23AS00378

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