K Advisory Services and Counseling - Programs which provide Federal specialists to consult, advise, or counsel communities or individuals to include conferences, workshops, or personal contacts. This may involve the use of published information, but only in a secondary capacity.

L Dissemination of Technical Information - Programs that provide for the publication and distribution of information or data of a specialized or technical nature frequently through clearinghouses or libraries. This does not include conventional public information services designed for general public consumption.

M Training - Programs that provide instructional activities conducted directly by a Federal agency for individuals not employed by the Federal government.

N Investigation of Complaints - Federal administrative agency activities that are initiated in response to requests, either formal or informal, to examine or investigate claims of violations of Federal statutes, policies, or procedure. The origination of such claims must come from outside the Federal government.

O Federal Employment - Programs that reflect the Governmentwide responsibilities of the Office of Personnel Management in the recruitment and hiring of Federal civilian agency personnel.

Contents of the Catalog

The Catalog contains Federal domestic assistance programs available to: State and local governments (including the District of Columbia and federally-recognized Indian tribal governments); Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals.

Individual agency policies and Federal management policy directives pertaining to a program.

Programs in the Catalog provide a wide range of benefits and services, which have been grouped into 20 basic functional categories, and 176 subcategories that identify specific areas of interest. Listed below are the 20 basic categories in which all programs have been grouped by primary purpose.

The Catalog does not include:

Solicited contracts administered under procurement laws and regulations for the purchase of goods and services for the Federal government;

Foreign activities except as such programs have direct economic benefit in the domestic economy. (A program that provides both domestic and foreign assistance will be included with the description of the program oriented toward the domestic aspect.);

Personnel recruitment programs of individual Federal departments which offer employment opportunities as part of normal recruiting operations, (the overall government-wide programs of the Office of Personnel Management are included);

Benefits or assistance available only to current employees of the Federal government either
civilian or military;

New programs proposed in the Budget for which appropriations have not been enacted; or
Programs that are no longer active due to expired authorization or appropriation.

Organization of the Catalog

The Catalog is divided into three basic sections -- the indices, the program descriptions, and the appendices.

INDICES--To locate specific programs of interest, determine eligibility, and to obtain information on the dates applications for assistance should be submitted to the funding agency, users may consult the Agency Program Index, the Functional Index, or the Subject Index; the Applicant Eligibility Index, and the Index listing deadlines for program applications.

The Agency Index Summary provides a description of the functions and activities of Federal agencies responsible for administering programs in the Catalog. Program numbers are also listed with the administering agency.

The Agency Program Index lists all programs in the Catalog in numerical order by the five-digit program identification number, the program title, the Federal agency responsible for administering the program, and whether the program offers financial assistance, nonfinancial assistance, or a combination of both.

The Functional Index Summary lists the basic functional categories and the subcategories that further identify specific areas of interest. Following the Summary is the Functional Index listing each program number and title under the appropriate basic category and subcategory.

The Subject Index provides a detailed listing of programs by various topics, popular name, general functional terms, categories of services, and selected beneficiaries, and is followed by the applicable program numbers.

The Applicant Eligibility Index is a listing in program number sequence, along with program titles, indicating the applicants eligible to apply. The index lists programs that may be applied for by:

Any of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any agency or instrumentality of a State exclusive of State institutions of higher education and hospitals;

Local governments which include a county, parish, municipality, city, town, township, village, State-designated Indian tribal government, local public authority, school district, special district, intrastate district, council of governments, sponsor group representative organizations, and other regional or interstate government entity, or any agency or instrumentality of a local government;

U.S. Territories (and possessions) of the United States which include the Commonwealths of
Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands, Guam, Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands, and American Samoa;

Federally-recognized Indian Tribal governments which include the governing body or a governmental agency of any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community (including any Native village as defined in Section 3 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 85 Stat. 688) certified by the Secretary of the Interior as eligible for the special programs and services provided through the Bureau of Indian Affairs;

Nonprofit organizations and institutions which include quasi-public, public and private institutions of higher education and hospitals, Native American Indian Organizations, and other quasi-public and private nonprofit organizations such as, but not limited to, community action agencies (CAAS), Head Start agencies, research institutes, educational associations, and health centers. Excluded under this definition are government-owned contractor operated facilities or research centers providing support for mission-oriented, large scale programs that are government-owned or controlled, or are designed as federally-funded research and development centers; and

Private individuals such as Native Americans, homeowners, students, farmers, artists, scientists, consumers, small business, refugees, aliens, veterans, senior citizens, low-income persons, health and education professionals, builders, contractors, developers, handicapped persons, the physically afflicted.

The Deadlines Index (for program applications) is a listing of program numbers and titles and the deadline date(s) by which funding agencies must receive applications. This information is also contained in the Deadlines Section of the program descriptions.

Users should also consult the following listings:

The Deleted Programs list identifies programs that have been deleted since the previous edition of the Catalog due to: expiration of budget authority; rescission of budget authority for the current fiscal year; program consolidation which has rendered the former program number(s) obsolete; the replacement of a categorical grant program by a block grant program; the replacement of two or more categorical programs by a block grant program; the abolishment of an agency; or the criteria for including a program in the Catalog no longer valid being (e.g., a program which no longer operates under Federal funding).

The Added Programs list identifies programs that have been added since the previous edition of the Catalog due to: the appropriation of new budget authority; the consolidation of two or more programs creating a new program; the splitting of elements from a former program creating two or more new programs; the transformation of a single categorical grant program into a block program; or the consolidation of two or more categorical grant programs into a block program.

The Crosswalk of Changes to Program Numbers and Titles which lists programs that have undergone a title change, or a program number change due to restructuring of programs, or reorganization of a Federal agency.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS The center section of the printed Catalog and the listings available on this web site contain descriptions of Federal programs listed by program number in the same numerical sequence as in the Agency Program Index. Detailed information concerning programs is contained under the description headings of each Catalog program. The following is an explanation of each program description heading followed by examples of the type of information found under each heading.

NOTE: The program used in the example below does not exist. It is provided for the purpose of illustration only.

PROGRAM NUMBER, TITLE, AND POPULAR NAME Each program in the Catalog is preceded by a five-digit program identification number. The first two digits identify the Federal department or agency that administers the program, and the last three numbers are assigned in numerical sequence. Thus, program number 10.500 is administered by the Department of Agriculture, 11.500 by the Department of Commerce, 12.500 by the Department of Defense, 93.500 by the Department of Health and Human Services, and so on. (In the numerical sequence of program numbers, some numbers do not appear due to program deletions or consolidations. To accommodate users' systems and records, the numbers are not reassigned to other programs but are reserved for the reinstated programs.) The program title is the descriptive name given to a program. The popular name, which is less descriptive than the program title, is the name by which programs are commonly known or most often used by applicants and agencies.

Example: 93.259 Mental Health--Children's Services

FEDERAL AGENCY The Federal agency is the Federal department, agency, commission, council or instrumentality of the government, and the primary organizational sub-unit (the administering office) that has direct operational responsibility for managing a program.

Example: SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION, PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES