(a) A Federal agency that issues Federal financial assistance (see § 25.400) must include the requirements of paragraph (b) of this section in each notice of funding opportunity, regulation, or other issuance containing instructions for applicants that is issued on or after the effective date of this guidance. A notice of funding opportunity is any paper or electronic issuance that a Federal agency uses to announce a funding opportunity, whether it is called a “program announcement,” “notice of funding availability,” “broad agency announcement,” “research announcement,” “solicitation,” or any other term.

(b) The notice of funding opportunity, regulation, or other issuance must require each applicant that does not have an exemption under § 25.110 to:

(1) Be registered in SAM.gov before submitting an application;

(2) Maintain a current and active registration in SAM.gov at all times during which it has an active Federal award as a recipient or an application under consideration by a Federal agency. The applicant or recipient must review and update its information in SAM.gov annually from the date of initial registration or subsequent updates to ensure it is current, accurate, and complete. If applicable, this includes identifying the applicant's or recipient's immediate and highest-level owner and subsidiaries, as well as providing information on all predecessors that have received a Federal award or contract within the last three years; and

(3) Include its UEI in each application it submits to the Federal agency.

(c) For the purposes of this policy, the applicant must meet the Federal agency's eligibility criteria and have the legal authority to apply for and receive the Federal award. For example, if a consortium applies for a Federal award to be made to the consortium as the recipient, the consortium must have a UEI. If a consortium is eligible to receive funding under a Federal agency program, but the agency's policy is to make the Federal award to a lead entity for the consortium, the UEI of the lead applicant must be used.

(a) Unless an entity is exempt under § 25.110, a Federal agency may not issue a Federal award or amend an existing Federal award to provide additional Federal funds if the entity is not in compliance with the requirements of this part. This does not apply to amendments to terminate or close out a Federal award.

(b) At the time a Federal agency is ready to make a Federal award, if the intended recipient has not complied with the requirements to obtain a UEI and maintain an active registration in SAM.gov with current information, the Federal agency may make a Federal award to another applicant.

To implement the policies in §§ 25.200 and 25.205, a Federal agency may add a UEI field to information collections previously approved by OMB, with no further approval required.

Each Federal agency that awards Federal financial assistance (see § 25.400) must ensure that its information systems are able to both accept and transmit the UEI as the universal identifier for Federal financial assistance applicants and recipients.

(a) A Federal agency must include the award term in Appendix A in all Federal financial assistance agreements (see § 25.400) to accomplish the purpose of § 25.100.

(b) A Federal agency may use different letters and numbers than those in Appendix A to designate the paragraphs of the award term.