Discretionary Grant Awards By Financial Assistance Type
FY 2006 Discretionary Dollars: $39, 244,554,797
FY 2006 Discretionary Awards: 72,437
FY 2006 Discretionary Recipients: 11,785
Discretionary grant awards comprise only 17% of the total FY 2006 grant funds, but they account for 94% of the total number of grant awards made in FY 2006. Discretionary grants are those that permit the Federal Government, according to specific authorizing legislation, to exercise judgment, or “discretion,” in selecting the applicant/recipient organization, through a competitive grant process. HHS awards discretionary grants to a variety of types of organizations, including State, local, and tribal governments; academic institutions; hospitals; nonprofit organizations (including faith-based and community-based organizations) for-profit organizations, and foreign and international organizations.
The types of activities commonly supported by discretionary grants include demonstration, research, training, service, and construction projects or programs. Discretionary grants are sometimes referred to as “project grants.”
In this report, grants awarded as cooperative agreements are included in the charts summarizing discretionary grant awards. A cooperative agreement is an award instrument of financial assistance where “substantial involvement” is anticipated between the HHS awarding agency and the recipient during performance of the project or activity. This means that the recipient can expect Federal programmatic collaboration or participation in managing the grant project. Cooperative agreements account for 10% of the total FY 2006 discretionary grant funds, and 5% of the total number of FY 2006 discretionary grant totals.
| Financial Assistance Type | Number of Awards | Dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Cooperative Agreement | 6,130 | $7,340,574,466 |
| Grant | 66,307 | $31,903,980,331 |
| Total | 72,437 | $39,244,554,797 |
