01.27.10: It's My Money Too

I was researching a grant, offered via a recent announcement by the US Dept. of Education for work that we do. The announcement cites funding available like this --

Estimated Available Funds: $2,682,787.
Estimated Range of Awards: $700,000-$1,982,787.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $1,341,393.
Estimated Number of Awards: 2.

Seemed logical. So I did some digging.

Here's what I found for same grant for funding --

Estimated Available Funds for 84.304A: The Administration’s budget request does not include funds for this program. However, we are inviting applications to allow enough time to complete the grant process before the end of the current fiscal year, if Congress appropriates funds for this program.

Now I am confused. So I sent a clarifying email to the grant rep on this, specifically asking whether there is allocated funding or not. Here's my response --

Thank you for your interest in the Cooperative Civic Education and Economic Education Exchange Program Grant Competition for fiscal year 2010, CFDA 84.304A. A Notice Inviting Applications was published in the Federal Register on January 20, 2010 on page 3212. Please go to the following link to get an update about the program opportunities: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister/announce/index.html. Again thanks for your interest."

The link I received was for an entirely different grant program.

Nice customer service. Glad to be a taxpayer.