Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program | OEA 20 F 0003

Opportunity Information: Apply for OEA 20 F 0003

The Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program (DCIP), listed as funding opportunity OEA 20 F 0003 under CFDA 12.600, is a competitive discretionary grant program run by the Department of Defense through the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation (formerly the Office of Economic Adjustment). Its purpose is to help fix or upgrade off-installation community infrastructure that directly supports a nearby military installation, when those infrastructure gaps are limiting the installation's effectiveness or creating quality-of-life and resilience problems for military members and their families. The legal authority comes from 10 U.S.C. 2391(d), which allows the Secretary of Defense to issue grants, use cooperative agreements, or supplement other federal program funds for infrastructure projects owned by a state or local government, or by a not-for-profit, member-owned utility, as long as DoD determines the assistance will improve military value, resilience, or military family quality of life at the installation being supported.

For this specific round of funding, Congress provided $50 million in FY 2020 appropriations (Public Law 116-93) for OEA to obligate before September 30, 2020, and the Secretary of Defense approved OEA to implement DCIP on May 6, 2020 using the eligibility rules and application process described in the notice. Awards were anticipated to be relatively large, with an award ceiling of up to $25,000,000 per award, reflecting the reality that infrastructure projects can be expensive and often require meaningful capital investment to make a measurable difference.

Eligibility is focused on the entities that actually own and manage the relevant community infrastructure. Direct applicants must be state or local governments or not-for-profit, member-owned utility services, and the funded infrastructure must be outside of the installation but supportive of it. Other organizations that are not eligible to receive funds directly can still participate by partnering with an eligible entity, which lets communities bring in additional technical capacity (for example, planning organizations, school districts, transit agencies, or other public-purpose partners) while keeping the grant relationship with an eligible owner/operator.

A key feature of DCIP is that proposed projects must have an explicit link to the needs of a specific installation, not just a general community benefit. Each proposal must include an endorsement from the local installation commander for the installation that would benefit from the project. That endorsement requirement is important because it signals DoD that the installation itself agrees the project addresses a real deficiency and that the result will improve mission support, resilience, or the day-to-day conditions that affect military families. After submission, projects are competitively ranked against the program's published review criteria (referenced in the notice as Section E, paragraph 1), meaning funding decisions are made based on relative merit across the applicant pool rather than on a first-come, first-served basis.

The program also draws a bright line around "supplementing" versus "supplanting" other funding. Federal DCIP dollars can be used to fill gaps and strengthen a financing package, but they cannot replace other public funds that are already available for the same project. The notice specifically calls out that DCIP funds may not substitute for other sources such as the Defense Access Roads Program or U.S. Department of Transportation grants. In practical terms, applicants need to show that DCIP funding is additive and necessary to complete the project, not simply a way to backfill a budget that could be covered by other identified public funding streams.

School construction is addressed with a specific limitation. While some school-related infrastructure might otherwise seem eligible when it supports military families, the notice prohibits proposals for public schools located on military installations if those schools are on the Secretary of Defense's 2018 Public Schools on Military Installations (PSMI) Prioritized List. That restriction narrows what can be proposed in the education space and pushes applicants to focus on eligible infrastructure needs that are outside the installation and not within that excluded category.

Geographically, the opportunity applies broadly wherever DoD installations exist within U.S. jurisdiction. The notice defines "military installation" to include bases, camps, posts, stations, yards, centers, homeports, and other activities under DoD jurisdiction, including leased facilities, located in the states as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. territories and possessions listed in the notice (Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam). At the same time, it excludes facilities used primarily for civil works and related water infrastructure purposes such as rivers and harbors projects or flood control projects, clarifying that the target is defense installations rather than civil engineering facilities.

Administratively, this final opportunity notice replaced earlier forecast listings (OEA-20-F-0001 and OEA-20-F-0002), and it carried a defined submission window with an original closing date of June 26, 2020. Overall, DCIP is best understood as a DoD-community partnership tool for funding major, locally owned infrastructure improvements when those improvements can be clearly tied to stronger mission support, better resilience, and improved quality of life for military families connected to a specific installation.

• The Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.600.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2020-05-26.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-06-26. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $25,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for OEA 20 F 0003

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