FY 2018 Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations | LBBP 2018 1

Opportunity Information: Apply for LBBP 2018 1

The FY 2018 Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations grant opportunity is a Department of the Interior cooperative agreement offering tied to the federal government s Land Buy-Back Program, which was created to carry out the land consolidation requirements of the Cobell Settlement Agreement. Under Cobell, Congress authorized 1.9 billion dollars to address the long-standing problem of fractionated ownership of trust or restricted lands in Indian country, where a single parcel can end up with hundreds or even thousands of individual owners over generations. The core idea of the program is voluntary: individual landowners who want to participate can sell their fractional interests, and those interests are then transferred immediately to the federally recognized tribe that has jurisdiction over the land. By moving highly fractionated interests back into tribal ownership, the program aims to reduce administrative burdens, make land more usable for housing, economic development, agriculture, conservation, and cultural purposes, and shift practical control and decision-making back toward tribal governments, which is framed in the notice as strengthening tribal sovereignty.

This particular opportunity is focused on how the Buy-Back Program carries out its work on the ground. The program maintains an implementation schedule identifying specific locations where it plans to conduct land consolidation activities over the coming years. At the time of this posting, the program references 20 scheduled locations, with the possibility that additional locations may be added later. The government is signaling that it wants to partner directly with the tribes governing those locations because tribes often have the best local knowledge, relationships, and institutional capacity to make outreach and land consolidation efforts effective. As a result, the program expects that, whenever feasible and practical, it will use single-source cooperative agreements with eligible tribes. These cooperative agreements are intended to support tribal participation in activities that typically include planning and coordination, community outreach to individual landowners, mapping and data work, land research, mineral evaluations, appraisals support, and acquisition-related tasks connected to the buy-back process.

Eligibility is limited to federally recognized Native American tribal governments that have jurisdiction over locations where there are purchasable fractional land interests under the Buy-Back Program. In other words, a tribe generally needs to be on, or connected to, the program s implementation schedule (including any later-added locations) and have the relevant jurisdiction over the lands targeted for consolidation to be considered eligible for an award. The notice also emphasizes that tribes do not have to enter into a cooperative agreement in order to participate in the Buy-Back Program. Participation in buy-back activities can occur without an award, and in some cases the relationship may be handled through a memorandum of agreement instead of a funded cooperative agreement if that approach is judged sufficient.

The opportunity is also shaped by cost controls that come directly from the Cobell Settlement. Cobell limits the total amount of money that can be spent on implementation costs for the overall program, meaning the administrative side of making buy-back happen (for example outreach, land research, and appraisals) has to stay within an established cap across the life of the program. Because of that constraint, the notice sets a clear limit on indirect cost support through these cooperative agreements: indirect costs may be funded at no more than 15 percent of modified total direct costs. That cap is meant to help the program stay within Cobell s overall implementation-cost limitation.

A key practical point is that the Buy-Back Program is described as a 10-year program, and this posting represents only one slice of that longer timeline. The expiration date shown on the announcement reflects this particular funding opportunity window, while additional opportunities may be posted throughout the program s duration. At the same time, the notice is explicit that cooperative agreement awards are not meant to create or sustain long-term, multi-year programs at each reservation. Most awards are expected to fund work for no longer than about nine months, with an emphasis on using the funding to complement and leverage existing tribal land offices and tribal programs rather than building new permanent structures funded by the cooperative agreement.

From an applicant standpoint, the announcement encourages tribes to coordinate early with Buy-Back Program staff before submitting an application. The intent is that tribes will use program guidance and work directly with staff to shape a cooperative agreement application that fits the program s needs at that location, aligns with the scheduled implementation activities, and stays within the cost and timing constraints described above. Administrative details included in the source data identify the opportunity as a cooperative agreement (rather than a standard grant), under CFDA 15.152, offered by the Department of the Interior, with an original closing date of September 30, 2018, and eligibility restricted to federally recognized tribal governments. More information and program updates are directed to the program website at http://www.doi.gov/buybackprogram.

• The Department of the Interior in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2018 Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.152.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-10-01.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-09-30. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).

Apply for LBBP 2018 1

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