Kilili’s effort leads to upgrade in federal grants website - CFDA to be more “territory friendly”

People in the Northern Mariana Islands looking for federal grant opportunities will have a much easier time as a result of recent efforts by U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan. Kilili has received a commitment from the General Services Administration to upgrade the website containing the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance so that it returns more accurate information about which grants are available for the NMI.

“When my office has tried to search CFDA.gov for grant opportunities for the Northern Marianas, we got inconsistent and incomplete information,” Kilili said.

“The CFDA is the official government-wide compendium of Federal programs, projects, services and activities that provide assistance or benefits to the American public. If it’s not reliable—well, that’s just unacceptable.”

To fix the problem, Sablan contacted the General Services Administration, which administers the CFDA website, pointing out the problems.

“For example, when my office used the ‘Advanced Search’ feature and clicked the ‘U.S. Territories’ option under ‘Beneficiary Eligibility,’ we pulled up 196 results.  But, if we clicked on the ‘U.S. Territories and possessions’ option under ‘Applicant Eligibility,’ we pulled up 14 results.  If we chose both the ‘U.S. Territories’ option for both search headings, CFDA pulled up 6 results.”

In response to Congressman Sablan the General Services Administration agreed to fix the problems, working with over 60 federal agencies to improve data accuracy and ensure that people in the Northern Mariana Islands and other U.S. territories receive accurate information when searching CFDA.gov.

GSA acknowledged that they were not aware of the problem, until Congressman Sablan brought the issue to their attention. A copy of the agency’s letter is available here.
“Every year, millions of Federal dollars are available to grant applicants from the Northern Marianas,” said Kilili. “So, I appreciate GSA’s efforts to upgrade the CFDA website so it can better serve our people.”

Sablan said his office will make an announcement when all of the revisions of the CFDA website are complete and fully operational.