Applications that have been fully processed and are determined to be complete, eligible for funding, and are not removed from consideration due to high risk will be evaluated based on the merit evaluation criteria and priority criteria (see § 4280.140). A grant award is not automatically guaranteed, and an applicant may not receive any funding. The points awarded for merit evaluation and priority criteria will be added for each application. Applications will then be ranked solely based on the points awarded. The Agency will select applications for funding based on the following procedures.

(a) Applications requesting $20,000 or less. Applications requesting $20,000 or less and submitted by the deadline identified in § 4280.133(a)(1) will be funded in rank order until the available reserve has been expended or a minimum score of 40 points is reached. No application is guaranteed funding.

(b) All other applications. For applications not competing for the reserved funds for applications requesting $20,000 or less, the Agency will first select the highest-scoring application from each State (where Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Western Pacific are each considered a State) in rank order and available funds permitting, provided that no application scores lower than 40 points. If more than $100 million is available, the Agency will first select the top two highest-scoring applications from each State (where Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Western Pacific are each considered a State) in rank order and available funds permitting, provided that no application scores lower than 40 points. Then applications will be funded in rank order until available funds have been expended or a minimum score of 40 points is reached. No application is guaranteed funding.